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The Daring Dufas[_8_] The Daring Dufas[_8_] is offline
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Default Adding UPS to light circuit

On 2/12/2014 6:31 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 12 Feb 2014 10:32:43 -0500, "Sherlock.Homes"
wrote:

"JIMMIE" wrote in message
...

My house lighting is all LED total wattage with all on is less than
100 watts. What I want to do is to be able to connect my light
circuits to the UPS during emergencies like this ice storm that
is coming up. Not worried about heat or the fridge, I have gas
heater backup and not enough in the fridge to worry about. Are
there approved ways of connecting in the UPS that does not involve
adding a transfer switch.
__________________________________________________ ________________________



Nope - no approved ways I know of. Lots of jury-rigged possibilities
though. The only way to evade the NEC on this is to use low
voltage power. Install 12VDC LED lights throughout the house on a
dedicated circuit that's always powered by a large (costly) deep
discharge battery on a constant charging circuit. If you use a car
battery you'll severely shorten its life if you deeply discharge it
more than a few times.

If these are 110VAC fixtures then there's very little hope of doing
what you want to do and having it approved by an inspector. But
it is an interesting idea and probably will be the way things are
done 50 years from now.

SH

Not true. There are UPS units designed for exactly this application
that are hardwired into the house circuitry.

It strikes me as kind of odd to use a UPS unit to convert 12-24vdc into
120vac to power low current LED lights when the power loss converting DC
to AC with the UPS unit is so wasteful. I would consider a 12vdc
lighting. All the new emergency exit lights I see are LED units so the
OP could get LED table lamps that plug into wall outlets which would
come on automatically when the power went out. Very simple plug and play
which would be a lot less complicated than any rewiring. ^_^

TDD