[HamWAN PSDR] VOTE: Power backup expansion project

[Dale Skyllingstad]

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.  We may even be able to get away with 
smaller capacity units at these sites.

Since we're using an on-line/double conversion UPS, dirty generator 
power shouldn't cause a failure.  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.

With the deployment of multiple UPS battery banks now, we should think 
about implementing a battery replacement schedule and budget.

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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