It's been a while since I wrote a blog entry, I've wanted to write about multiple topics since the last entry but I've never had the time and motivation. It's been quite rough in the last months.
I was away from home for almost three weeks until just the end of last week, I've never left my country for this much time before. It was definitely good to take a break from the rough life at home and in this city. I did my best to prevent any issues occurring with my servers during all this time, I've added a lot more cooling to devices and components that only had passive cooling before, and to be fair, it worked, there wasn't even a minute of downtime while I wasn't here. But when I got back home, I noticed that the UPS is acting up, which I mentioned in my profile posts earlier. The battery charge level now constantly shows a level of around 70% and the UPS is constantly trying to charge the batteries at full power. When I cut power to the UPS, it goes into emergency low-voltage warning mode within 5 seconds.
The summer here has been quite rough. Climate change is only getting worse and worse, the planet is heading towards its end. This year I was forced to get a terrible "portable" air conditioner unit, since some of the devices, both critical and noncritical, have started acting up. I myself also couldn't handle staying in this room anymore. During the summer, these key things have happened:
Now that I'm back home, the temperatures have calmed down a lot, and the idiotic air conditioner is not needed anymore, but there are still sudden and huge thunderstorms. Parts of Poland and Europe are already getting flooded to death. Who knows if it's not coming for me too?
I'm not sure how and why my UPS started acting up, especially when it was in perfect condition before I left, still being able to hold up without power supply very well. I can only presume that it was due to the high temperatures and humidity. 20°C is apparently the ideal temperature for such sealed lead-acid batteries, but how am I even supposed to achieve that?
This is the UPS I've been using. It's a Polish construction, a 48V system with 4 12V-7.2Ah batteries and has a power of 1600VA. It's quite a good device, has been very reliable and great. It has now been running for almost exactly 600 days without a break. But probably the biggest problem with it, is that there's no way to access and replace the batteries without completely powering off and disassembling the device. I was aware and worried about this problem even before the batteries started failing just now. The truth is that I actually chose an APC model which had that feature, back when I was buying the UPS roughly a bit under two years ago. The seller then told me that the unit I've ordered has gotten damaged in their warehouse, so I had to look for something completely different. In the end I am happy that I ended up with what I have now, since I really like this polish construction, and also due to the expansion capability that I will get to in a bit. But the lack of access to the batteries is probably the biggest disadvantage.
Now it constantly shows a charge level of around 70%, and the loud fan is constantly running which suggests it's constantly trying to charge the batteries. When I unplug it, the battery bar goes to the lowest level and turns red within 5 seconds, and the constant noise alarm sounds. I am scared of leaving it unplugged for even another 20 seconds at that point, since according to the manual, this warning means that there are two minutes of working time left, which also can't be guaranteed if the batteries weren't fully charged when the power was lost. I am scared of leaving my home for even a few hours at this point, but I have no choice.
I've been using this cheap chinese UPS before, I bought it in an emergency and I wasn't using it for very long. It's a pretty terrible device and doesn't work very well, but it can provide at least a little bit of backup power and its single 12V9Ah battery seems to still be in good condition. Just today I've added that toggle switch in the top right, it serves the same purpose as the stock power button on the left, but the problem is that the power button broke months ago and doesn't stay in the 'on' position anymore. Pretty good for an "uninterruptible power supply", huh????
But I'm not sure if it's even worth trying to use this UPS again as a temporary replacement now, it's so terrible that it might not help with avoiding power cuts and downtime at all. Unless I somehow figure out its stupid chinese USB interface to at least have the servers shut down as soon as there's a power cut.
I've mentioned how earlier in the summer I got motivated to expand my battery storage even further. Well, my UPS supports battery expansion modules, and I just so happened to find the exact model I needed at an e-recycling company I sometimes get to visit.
This box can host another twelve 12V-7.2Ah batteries, and they can also be chained into many more modules to extend runtime even further, via that 9-pin molex connector.
I've tested that this device seems to fully work, after I replaced the power cord which was cut at the erecycler. It came with no batteries at all, but has all the cables needed for connecting the twelve batteries inside. It's been sitting for some time now, waiting for those twelve batteries which I don't exactly know where to get from. But now it's a priority to get sixteen batteries, since I also have to replace the four batteries in the base UPS unit!
I don't know what to do. I see these options:
Another problem is switching off the servers to unplug the UPS for maintenance before plugging them back into either the other UPS, or directly into the unprotected grid. Ideally I need this kind of cable to switch power sources instantly:
But I don't think it exists. I could try making one myself, but that could be a bit dangerous.
Losing almost 600 days of counted uptime that I can be proud of is one somewhat unimportant thing, but causing downtime during the switching process is an important thing. The 3000VA version of my UPS actually has an advantage, since it doesn't have any internal batteries at all, and only relies on those external battery modules, exactly like the one I have. I think these can be hot-swapped without any issue.
Well, I don't know what to do, and I'm scared of leaving my home, but I have to do so yet again. Thanks for reading and any thoughts/comments.
I'm scared of even turning my desktop computer back on, I've only been using my laptop since I got back home.
Update as of 2024-09-18:
I have now rebooted the servers and other hardware under the tiny, terrible chinese UPS for now.
The big UPS has a partial failure kind of like I expected: two of the batteries have exactly 13V, while the other two have 10.8V and 8.7V. There are no signs of any leakage. Nevertheless, I will be replacing all four batteries. For now I've ordered 4 new batteries for around 38 Euro. May not be a quality brand, but still feels safer than risking with used batteries. They might just last a lot longer than expected like in @KleinesSinchen's experience. For the remaining twelve batteries for the expansion module, I might go with the cheap used batteries.
Not only is it impossible to replace the batteries in this UPS without disconnecting the unit, but it also seems extremely hard and requires further disassembly to remove all of the rails on at least one wall and allow the batteries to slide out. It's quite an unfortunate design. In theory I could probably just remove the batteries from the main unit and only use the external battery module, like the 3000VA version of this UPS, but I guess I'd rather not risk that.
I also forgot how heavy the unit is since I have obviously not lifted it off the ground for almost 600 days. My weak body really suffers from it. This UPS has an absolutely gigantic transformer. The battery module is also heavy enough already, I can't imagine how hard it will be to move once it will be filled with twelve batteries...
Update as of 2024-09-23:
The big UPS is now back up and running, and powering all the important devices. Let's hope those fairly cheap batteries will last a long time.
Still need to get 12 more batteries for the battery expansion module.
I was away from home for almost three weeks until just the end of last week, I've never left my country for this much time before. It was definitely good to take a break from the rough life at home and in this city. I did my best to prevent any issues occurring with my servers during all this time, I've added a lot more cooling to devices and components that only had passive cooling before, and to be fair, it worked, there wasn't even a minute of downtime while I wasn't here. But when I got back home, I noticed that the UPS is acting up, which I mentioned in my profile posts earlier. The battery charge level now constantly shows a level of around 70% and the UPS is constantly trying to charge the batteries at full power. When I cut power to the UPS, it goes into emergency low-voltage warning mode within 5 seconds.
The summer here has been quite rough. Climate change is only getting worse and worse, the planet is heading towards its end. This year I was forced to get a terrible "portable" air conditioner unit, since some of the devices, both critical and noncritical, have started acting up. I myself also couldn't handle staying in this room anymore. During the summer, these key things have happened:
- A power outage lasting over an hour. The UPS has been heroically holding up for over 30 minutes, until I, to prevent the UPS from completely discharging, ran some extension cords from my neighbours who somehow were on a different power section and didn't get the power cut. This has motivated me to expand the available energy storage which I will talk about later in this blog entry.
- A huge thunderstorm causing many power dropouts. The traditional light bulbs were blinking almost like in an old tram when it's driving through a section with no power.
- A tree has fallen right outside my window due to strong winds. I wasn't home at the time, just so happened that I was stuck in a tram in a different part of the city for an hour since another tree has fallen onto the tram power lines.
- Another huge thunderstorm in the entire city, flooding the most popular highway. All the tens of thousands of car and truck drivers crying about the huge route being blocked, when it's partially their fault, ruining the climate this much.
- A fire in one of the nearby apartment buildings. When this much happens in such close proximity, I really do become scared of me being next...
Now that I'm back home, the temperatures have calmed down a lot, and the idiotic air conditioner is not needed anymore, but there are still sudden and huge thunderstorms. Parts of Poland and Europe are already getting flooded to death. Who knows if it's not coming for me too?
I'm not sure how and why my UPS started acting up, especially when it was in perfect condition before I left, still being able to hold up without power supply very well. I can only presume that it was due to the high temperatures and humidity. 20°C is apparently the ideal temperature for such sealed lead-acid batteries, but how am I even supposed to achieve that?
This is the UPS I've been using. It's a Polish construction, a 48V system with 4 12V-7.2Ah batteries and has a power of 1600VA. It's quite a good device, has been very reliable and great. It has now been running for almost exactly 600 days without a break. But probably the biggest problem with it, is that there's no way to access and replace the batteries without completely powering off and disassembling the device. I was aware and worried about this problem even before the batteries started failing just now. The truth is that I actually chose an APC model which had that feature, back when I was buying the UPS roughly a bit under two years ago. The seller then told me that the unit I've ordered has gotten damaged in their warehouse, so I had to look for something completely different. In the end I am happy that I ended up with what I have now, since I really like this polish construction, and also due to the expansion capability that I will get to in a bit. But the lack of access to the batteries is probably the biggest disadvantage.
Now it constantly shows a charge level of around 70%, and the loud fan is constantly running which suggests it's constantly trying to charge the batteries. When I unplug it, the battery bar goes to the lowest level and turns red within 5 seconds, and the constant noise alarm sounds. I am scared of leaving it unplugged for even another 20 seconds at that point, since according to the manual, this warning means that there are two minutes of working time left, which also can't be guaranteed if the batteries weren't fully charged when the power was lost. I am scared of leaving my home for even a few hours at this point, but I have no choice.
I've been using this cheap chinese UPS before, I bought it in an emergency and I wasn't using it for very long. It's a pretty terrible device and doesn't work very well, but it can provide at least a little bit of backup power and its single 12V9Ah battery seems to still be in good condition. Just today I've added that toggle switch in the top right, it serves the same purpose as the stock power button on the left, but the problem is that the power button broke months ago and doesn't stay in the 'on' position anymore. Pretty good for an "uninterruptible power supply", huh????
But I'm not sure if it's even worth trying to use this UPS again as a temporary replacement now, it's so terrible that it might not help with avoiding power cuts and downtime at all. Unless I somehow figure out its stupid chinese USB interface to at least have the servers shut down as soon as there's a power cut.
I've mentioned how earlier in the summer I got motivated to expand my battery storage even further. Well, my UPS supports battery expansion modules, and I just so happened to find the exact model I needed at an e-recycling company I sometimes get to visit.
This box can host another twelve 12V-7.2Ah batteries, and they can also be chained into many more modules to extend runtime even further, via that 9-pin molex connector.
I've tested that this device seems to fully work, after I replaced the power cord which was cut at the erecycler. It came with no batteries at all, but has all the cables needed for connecting the twelve batteries inside. It's been sitting for some time now, waiting for those twelve batteries which I don't exactly know where to get from. But now it's a priority to get sixteen batteries, since I also have to replace the four batteries in the base UPS unit!
I don't know what to do. I see these options:
- Buy new batteries priced at roughly 10 Euro each. Probably low quality. I don't want to spend this much on sketchy unsure batteries.
- Buy new batteries from quality brands which will be at least 20 Euro each. I don't want to burn this much of my savings on this! And who knows if they won't just fail relatively quickly, since the conditions in the room are very far from ideal!?
- Buy quality batteries that have been used for years in ideal conditions at a company that stopped using them only due to age, and not any issues with them. Roughly 6 Euro each. But who knows if these will really be OK? 100 Euro is still a lot of money!
- Buy completely unknown batteries from the e-recycling center, only quickly testing with a multimeter, paying per kilogram. Roughly 4-5 Euro per battery. Even more risky!
Another problem is switching off the servers to unplug the UPS for maintenance before plugging them back into either the other UPS, or directly into the unprotected grid. Ideally I need this kind of cable to switch power sources instantly:
But I don't think it exists. I could try making one myself, but that could be a bit dangerous.
Losing almost 600 days of counted uptime that I can be proud of is one somewhat unimportant thing, but causing downtime during the switching process is an important thing. The 3000VA version of my UPS actually has an advantage, since it doesn't have any internal batteries at all, and only relies on those external battery modules, exactly like the one I have. I think these can be hot-swapped without any issue.
Well, I don't know what to do, and I'm scared of leaving my home, but I have to do so yet again. Thanks for reading and any thoughts/comments.
I'm scared of even turning my desktop computer back on, I've only been using my laptop since I got back home.
Update as of 2024-09-18:
I have now rebooted the servers and other hardware under the tiny, terrible chinese UPS for now.
The big UPS has a partial failure kind of like I expected: two of the batteries have exactly 13V, while the other two have 10.8V and 8.7V. There are no signs of any leakage. Nevertheless, I will be replacing all four batteries. For now I've ordered 4 new batteries for around 38 Euro. May not be a quality brand, but still feels safer than risking with used batteries. They might just last a lot longer than expected like in @KleinesSinchen's experience. For the remaining twelve batteries for the expansion module, I might go with the cheap used batteries.
Not only is it impossible to replace the batteries in this UPS without disconnecting the unit, but it also seems extremely hard and requires further disassembly to remove all of the rails on at least one wall and allow the batteries to slide out. It's quite an unfortunate design. In theory I could probably just remove the batteries from the main unit and only use the external battery module, like the 3000VA version of this UPS, but I guess I'd rather not risk that.
I also forgot how heavy the unit is since I have obviously not lifted it off the ground for almost 600 days. My weak body really suffers from it. This UPS has an absolutely gigantic transformer. The battery module is also heavy enough already, I can't imagine how hard it will be to move once it will be filled with twelve batteries...
Update as of 2024-09-23:
The big UPS is now back up and running, and powering all the important devices. Let's hope those fairly cheap batteries will last a long time.
Still need to get 12 more batteries for the battery expansion module.
