[HamWAN PSDR] VOTE: Power backup expansion project

[Bart Kus]

Responses in-line.

On 2/5/2021 2:07 PM, Dale Skyllingstad wrote:
> I agree, this is a great idea.  Bart and I discussed it a little the 
> other day.  I think our priorities should be the non-commercial/ham 
> sites that have less reliable generators and therefore a greater 
> likelihood of extended downtime.  Sites like Bawfaw that have public 
> safety repeaters have great generator track records and should be at 
> the bottom of our list, in my opinion.
Agreed!
>   We may even be able to get away with smaller capacity units at these 
> sites.
>
I think we should still strive for 24 hours as a minimum in case a well 
maintained generator fails.  Possibly extend beyond 24 hours for 
known-flaky sites.
> Since we're using an on-line/double conversion UPS, dirty generator 
> power shouldn't cause a failure.
These units I bought are line-interactive, not double-conversion. 
Double-conversion usually carries a price and availability premium.
>   Earlier this year, my gear at Baldi failed to come back on generator 
> when my [standard] UPS didn't like the slow 50-something hertz the 
> Wiztronics generator was producing.  An on-line unit shouldn't care, 
> within reason.
Yes, specifically for the Baldi Wiztronics shack(s) where we've had a 
switch get wiped due to generator failover, we should consider a 
double-conversion unit(s).
>
> With the deployment of multiple UPS battery banks now, we should think 
> about implementing a battery replacement schedule and budget.
>
Absolutely.  For each of the UPSes in this email, the battery 
replacement cost is $262 (after shipping + taxes), and rated battery 
lifetime is 3-5 years.  I have saved the battery replacement date in the 
firmware.  I'd also like to see automation of calibration tests (runtime 
estimation), to alert us if the pack has degraded or if the load has 
increased.

--Bart

> Dale
> AH6ET
>
> On 2/5/2021 12:41 PM, Bart Kus wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> During the recent wind storm event in January, HamWAN lost utility 
>> power to some sites.  This triggered network outages that affected 
>> users and repeaters that relied on those sites. It was far from our 
>> finest hour.  "When all else fails", HamWAN should not be the first 
>> in line.  I'd like for 2021 to be a year we focus on reliability.  
>> Having a reliable power system at every site seems like a good place 
>> to start that journey.  In each of the power failures in January, a 
>> generator system failed to activate.  In these cases, we need at 
>> least 24 hours to mount a response in fixing generators.  This means 
>> our battery backup systems should be sized for at least 24 hours of 
>> runtime.  I have acquired a couple UPSes that can achieve this.  They 
>> are composed of the main UPS:
>>
>> https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/APC-Smart-UPS-XL-Modular-3000VA-120V-Rackmount-Tower/P-SUM3000RMXL2U
>>
>> And one external (and chainable!) battery expansion module:
>>
>> https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/APC-Smart-UPS-XL-Modular-48V-Extended-Run-Battery-Pack/P-SUM48RMXLBP2U
>>
>> They also feature an AP9631 network interface module in each UPS, so 
>> we can monitor and control the power system.  As you can see, each 
>> UPS costs about $3600 new, so the two I acquired would be $7,200 
>> new.  However, I managed to find used units and purchased brand new 
>> batteries for them. *The total cost for these two systems is 
>> $963.71.*  One of them is deployed at Rattlesnake ("Snoqualmie 
>> shack") already:
>>
>> https://photos.app.goo.gl/HTomAzJUnrjuJ3bw8
>>
>> If we ever want to expand the battery capacity of these, we can 
>> simply plug in more battery modules.
>>
>> I'm hoping to deploy the 2nd system in the other building on 
>> Rattlesnake ("DNR shack"), but that hasn't happened yet.
>>
>> --Bart
>>
>>
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>
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