Tag: UPS

Chances are you have an old UPS laying around which is no longer in use because the batteries inside are broken. Well, now you have a fantastic device to keep your TV or Router on during loadshedding by giving it new life using a Lithium battery.

This is a fantastic use case to give to your in-laws, to keep their internet on, a simple, easy, plug-n-play solution.

I replaced all our UPSes with lithium batteries & as a result, I can now power my Synology NAS during loadshedding.

This was an incredible discovery for me because I was always worried about the damage being done to my harddrives by Eskom by not having a backup solution for my Backup Drive Station. Some might not realise this, but a UPS is basically an inverter and charger, much like the ones everyone is currently buying all over the place.

A Mecer / Trolly Inverter will be able to handle a much larger battery like the 100Ah ones and their efficiency will be much better, but the UPSes you have at home or at the office can still be an incredible device if you pair it with a lithium battery, definitely an all-in-one device for your WiFi and Laptop to work from home during loadshedding.

This same principle can keep your internet on for at least 5 hours. I have a Mikrotik Router, Fiber ONT & a Wi-Fi 6 Router all powered by an old UPS I got off gumtree for a bargain, just by replacing its dated lead-acid battery with one of our Lithium batteries.

When the battery was put in the UPS it had a voltage reading of 13.45 volts, after running the Synology NAS at full power with 2 x 4TB harddrives for more than 2 hours, the voltage reading on the batteries was 12.64 volts, which means this set up should power our NAS for more than 3 hours.

If you cannot afford an Inverter Trolly or one of the DC to DC Inverters on Takealot, I highly recommend this cost-effective measure to power your internet. Especially useful if you have a UPS that takes two batteries.

If you do not have an old UPS laying around, ask your company for their old stock or look on Facebook Marketplace, people throw these units away because they think when the battery is dead it is no longer useful ( which in the days of lead-acid that was true, UPSes was not great at best ), which is not the case with the invention of these small factor drop-in replacement batteries designed to be used in hardware that used to run lead-acid.

Put new life into your old equipment, and make them more relevant today with loadshedding than ever before.

We do stock the 7Ah battery mentioned above if you are interested in doing the same conversion on your UPS. If you do not want to fiddle ( although this is straightforward), you can look at buying the all-in-one inverter which will power your TV during loadshedding.

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