Panasonic has said demand for backup batteries is rising quickly, and it is largely driven by the expansion of AI infrastructure that requires stable, continuous power. It has already allocated around 80% of its planned output to existing customers, leaving only a limited share for new buyers attempting to scale systems.
You have got to be goddamned kidding me. Literally this weekend I said to myself “time to get a UPS”.
I mean it depends on what you’re used for a UPS is. The smaller ones can still be had on Amazon for under $100 and if you hurry you could still get that pricing. But by the sounds that those ones are going to be jumping way up in price for no reason because literally those are useless to anybody in the Enterprise level. Unless they’re being used at a desktop level which they do tend to purchase pallets worth of but this is more along the lines of Enterprise server level UPS’s.
Chech out what Bluetti offers. They’re LFP portable batteries but with a UPS features. You’ll want the elite versions though, all the others are noisy with the fan, which the elite series fixed. The tech is pretty new with these showing up in the home portable battery market, but they will last longer in both battery longevity and power during outage than the old SLA type ones. And if youre travelling / going somewhere and dont need the UPS active you can take it with you and be useful!
They don’t support sending messages over a serial / USB / network connection to say “battery is almost dead, shut down cleanly while you can” right? As far as I can tell, that’s the one key feature that a UPS has that a portable battery doesn’t.
I took a look the other day and was amazed at how little UPSes have improved in the last few decades vs. everything else battery-related.
At this point, I’d expect a consumer-grade UPS to have something like a Raspberry PI attached, and run a web server. I’d expect it to not just have a serial port for signaling, but to be able to run custom BASH scripts to send messages out to any attached device warning it about being on battery and keeping it up to date on the battery status.
Ya they don’t have that ability yet. If it was on something you’d want to shut down cleanly you’d want to be there to do it yourself or be able to remotely do it. The advantage of these new LFP ones though is it can last for hours instead of minutes, so there isnt a huge rush, and if your outages are short, it might not be an issue.
Edit: i had my internet, a couple security cameras and a small low power computer running some things last the whole ~1h45m outage last time I was away and power went out.
I actually have an ac180 for camping and using tools away from power. I kinda figured it was a bit of a waste as just a ups, and worried about killing the battery quickly.
Maybe get another dedicated one for the office where I need it…
Ya, I don’t think you really need that much as a UPS but if you ran the AC180 in UPS mode, it would turn the fan on every 15-20 minutes as the circuity in the battery is still powered by the battery, even though the power is fed to your gear from the wall power. That results in it slowly going to 99% and then charging, which is noisy on the non-elite models in a quiet room. These LFP models are good for like 3000 cycles though, so using it as UPS it’ll still last a decade or longer with 80% capacity left over.
There’s the Elite 30 which can be a nice little battery backup / be portable and isn’t too much more expensive then the comprable SLA types that don’t last long.
Thanks so much for the advice. I’ll look into it.
Have you ever tried running a small coffee maker off of one of those? I’ve been trying to decide what power supply I’m replacing my battery system in my pop-up trailer with and I didn’t want to go with anything that was too large or takes up too much space. But this looks like for price it’s near perfect for my use case. The only thing I’m ever curious about is will it run my coffee maker in the morning. And what kind of charging are you using for it? Do you run solar off of it?
Hey just FYI, if you do decide to get something, the AC180 is last years model and is upgraded by the Elite 100v2 even though they still sell the AC180.
There’s a comparison on the elite 100 page about half way down, but if space is one of your concerns, it’s smaller, and 12lbs lighter for only 130wh less. It also chargers faster from solar than the AC180, but a little slower from wall power.
With 1800 watt output power (3600 surge) it can run anything a normal 120v outlet can run before tripping a circuit breaker, which will include any coffee machine, however if the coffee machine uses the whole 15amps while the heater is on, it’ll only run for around 45 minutes.
I have the 100 and really like it
https://www.bluettipower.ca/products/elite-100-v2-portable-power-station
Edit: oh and I wall charge mine. I have 200w of solar as backup for emergencies but I haven’t used it to power it beyond testing.
Solar is important for my use. I Boondock so I’m away from power for up to a week at a time. I would love to stop bringing my generator.
One day I’ll own something that can tow, and be able to do things like this.
How much solar capacity do you usually take with you?
The last 2 years only 100w, but I can increase it up this year.