So I’m in Lyons CO (do a google search or look at cnn.com to see why that is relevant right now). We are dry and have power right now …but the sump pump is gong non stop in the crawl space and I’ve heard a rumor from a couple sources that power may not last…but I have a pretty charge up marine camper battery in the garage. I have a bunch of regular electronics inverter / power supplies but no 9v to 110 inverter that you just plug things into.
Anybody think they can help me Apollo 13 some sort of system together that I can hook up if the power goes out. If it is oing to be hard or there is potential for dangerous side effects / electrocution. Then never mind, let’s just let the downstairs flood.
Sorry for spelling and grammar errors. I’m really tired.
First of all, most inverters expect 12v. If your battery is 9v, you are already in trouble.
Secondly, if you don’t have such an inverter (or a computer UPS), there’s really no way to make one in a short time, with chewing gum and bailing wire…
And Duh. of course it is a 12v battery. Did I mention that I’m tired? Also I have a thing is a male 110 plug on one side and a cigarette lighter socket on the other. Shouldn’t I be able to do something with that? It seems sort of the opposite connectors that I want but correct input and output in reverse. Maybe that screws it all up. Where is a EE when you need one. Oh wait probably right here on this board.
Oh, and I think I do have a computer UPS (that doesn’t work) in the same crawl space as the sump pump. but that doesn’t work maybe because the battery is kaput. Do they use 12V batteries as a rule?
Yeah, that’s going the wrong way - from 110v to 12v.
Unfortunately, such a device isn’t reversible - you can’t get 110v out by putting 12v in…
(Not that it’s any help, but you actually can do this with a transformer, but that’s an AC-AC conversion, and you want DC-AC).
ETA: Yes, almost all UPS use 12v batteries.
No, you can’t run that in reverse. It sounds like a power supply that takes 110V AC in and produces 12V DC (probably consisting of a transformer, rectifier, and capacitor(s), or a switching power supply). Plain transformers work in either direction (AC in / AC out), but you can’t feed DC into that and get AC out.
Still have power and we have moved the stuff we really care about upstairs or at least in the case of a giant steamer trunk up on a couch. The sump pump has gone from running nearly constantly to taking an 8 second breather between emptying so that seems a good sign.
I’m going to go see if I have the old UPS. This battery has run the pump on a pop up camper for many days with no problem. That is obviously different than every 10 seconds but it also serves other functions. I think I’m going to give it a sot.
Has to be less work than replacing all the drywall in my downstairs and should be easy if I have the UPS.
Don’t want to be a downer but that pump is going to run that battery down very, very quickly and you’re gong to need a fairly beefy inverter. If keeping water out is mission critical a gas powered generator would be a much better solution.