Backup Power Options for Laptop When Power Outage?

Why don't you just get another UPS? Or alternately replace the battery in your current UPS.

Note a UPS must be kept plugged in all the time to keep its battery charged. Most UPSs use sealed lead-acid batteries. These batteries like the ones in a car may be damaged if they are allowed to be fully discharged. These batteries even if used properly need to be replaced every 3 or 4 years

I am not spending more money on a UPS. I already have a UPS with a no good battery so I would rather buy a replacement for that battery instead.


When you say it needs to be plugged in all the time to keep its battery charged, you mean in the wall outlet right? So if you were to say unplug it out of the wall outlet for a month or so, then it could damage the UPS? Years ago when i got the powerbank, I did this and then plugged the UPS back into the wall out and then powered it on and charged it to 100%. I then powered it off and basically left it plugged to the wall outlet but rarely would it ever be turned on. Other electronics were connected to a surge protector. Then years later, the UPS seem fine but I rarely use it. Then the last time I tested it, moment i plugged in my laptop into it... while I unplugged the UPS from wall outlet to test how long it last.... UPS immediately powered off.


So is it possible that one time years ago when I got the UPS because I had it unplugged for over a month, this caused this? However, it still worked fine though after that whennever I wanted to test it for a bit. I had it for just few years. So it has to be replaced no matter what? So this is more of a battery replacement every few years due to time compared to how I didn't properly take care out of it at the beginning?

So the simplest thing is get a new battery replacement for this old UPS.


Then just get a new Dell PW7018LC powerbank right so use with the new xps 15 9520?


However, is there concern about it drawing only 65W since the charger is 130W? It will still work right? But I read someone mention the xps 9520 need minimum 90W? So would it work?


But what about these 2 powerbanks that have more mah and draws more watts?


Anker 737 - 24000mah and 140W. So this has more mah than the dell and draws more Watt. So it is more powerful and better? But I read comment that if it draws that much Watt, then it would last only for 37 minutes? Would that be accurate? Would it be possible to use this but have it draw less Watt so you can charge the laptop longer?






Sunjack - 25600mah and 100W. So this one has the most mah and draws 100W. But would this be better since it draws at least 90W?





The concern here is the PW7018LC draws only 65W. But any concern with the 9520?? You can still use laptop while charging right?

I have to emphasize that most UPSs use sealed lead acid batteries. They need to be kept charged all the time or they will be damaged. The same thing will happen if the battery in your car is not kept charged. It will be damaged and will fail also. Over the years I have had to replace a few car batteries because of this.

All batteries in UPSs will eventually fail after 3 or 4 years. They will fail sooner if they are not kept charged. If you get a new UPS battery then just do yourself a favor and keep the UPS always plugged in to keep the battery charged.

For a laptop you don't need UPS etc -- you aren't running a "Server Farm".

Simplest solution is a decent 12V/220V (or for USA 12V/110V) inverter which should supply energy plenty enough for a laptop to run for several hours -- for Europe a 3000W one is more than sufficient -- probably in the USA with lower mains voltage you'd need a 6000W one -- (Ohms law Power in Watts = Voltage in volts * current in Amperes) - although these days in schools those basic things aren't probably taught any more.

Todays technology uses lithium type batteries rather than 12V old lead acid car batteries - so these also charge a lot quicker too -- aren't as heavy and don't have nasty sulphuric acid (H2S04) inside,

I've just sent a 3000W one to a colleague in the UK who thinks there might be power outages this winter - and he wants to keep his gas boiler running -- fortunately not a problem here though.

For USA folks --this one --delivers 110V output looks good : 345 USD :



For Europe you need 220V output.

Cheers
jimbo

Once again, the OP expects us to put ourselves out to help him but won't get off his butt for five minutes to help himself.


I have told him who to ask, I have told him what method to use to get in contact with them. They should answer all his questions about the PW7018LC.


Backup Power Options for Laptop When Power Outage? - ElevenForum [this one, started 14th October 2022]
Dell XPS 15 9520 Powerbank - ElevenForum [started 12th October 2022]
Dell XPS 9520 Powerbank Options - BCForum [started 11th October 2022]
PW7015L Power Companion With Dell XPS 9510/9520 - TenForums [started 31st August 2022]
And he kept repeating the same questions in similarly interminable threads such as Battery Backup For Laptop When Power Outage? - TenForums [4th October 2018 - 1st October 2019]





Denis

newmann said:

I am not spending more money on a UPS. I already have a UPS with a no good battery so I would rather buy a replacement for that battery instead.

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This will be your best solution. Simply open up the UPS that you have and see what batteries it has inside then either contact the manufacturer or check the Internet to find replacements. UPS batteries are generally a deep discharge SLAB (Sealed Lead Acid Battery) type. The fact they are sealed makes them suitable for use inside your home (or office, or wherever).

Every battery will discharge in time if it isn't connected to a power source. How long that takes depends on the battery and the current drain due to the electronics in the UPS.

Whatever you do DO NOT use a car battery in a confined space (like your home) as they give off fumes whilst discharging and charging. Those fumes can - and eventually will - kill you!

Has anyone here used a similar UPS when they needed power on their laptop and only connected it to their laptop and see how long they got out of it? Again I am aware these are meant to give you enough time to save your work and then turn off laptop safely.


But certainly there are people that continue to do whatever they were doing on their laptop right until it finally ran out of power? Now a UPS like the one I have... it could last 2 hours right?

jimbo45 said:

For a laptop you don't need UPS etc -- you aren't running a "Server Farm".

Simplest solution is a decent 12V/220V (or for USA 12V/110V) inverter which should supply energy plenty enough for a laptop to run for several hours -- for Europe a 3000W one is more than sufficient -- probably in the USA with lower mains voltage you'd need a 6000W one -- (Ohms law Power in Watts = Voltage in volts * current in Amperes) - although these days in schools those basic things aren't probably taught any more.

Todays technology uses lithium type batteries rather than 12V old lead acid car batteries - so these also charge a lot quicker too -- aren't as heavy and don't have nasty sulphuric acid (H2S04) inside,

I've just sent a 3000W one to a colleague in the UK who thinks there might be power outages this winter - and he wants to keep his gas boiler running -- fortunately not a problem here though.

For USA folks --this one --delivers 110V output looks good : 345 USD :

View attachment 42525

For Europe you need 220V output.

Cheers
jimbo

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Looks but a bit pricey

newmann said:

Has anyone here used a similar UPS when they needed power on their laptop and only connected it to their laptop and see how long they got out of it? Again I am aware these are meant to give you enough time to save your work and then turn off laptop safely.


But certainly there are people that continue to do whatever they were doing on their laptop right until it finally ran out of power? Now a UPS like the one I have... it could last 2 hours right?

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Several years ago I had a desktop hooked up to a 800VA UPS. After the power failed it ran for 30 minutes before the UPS battery was drained.

Of course your situation would be different because you have a laptop which probably uses less power and a bigger capacity UPS. The only way for you to find out for sure would be to run a test. To do the test you would disconnect the UPS from the wall and plug the laptop into it. Then you would find out how long the UPS would keep your laptop running until both batteries were drained. Optionally, you could disconnect the laptop battery and just use the power from the UPS so laptop battery would not be a factor.

If you do this test it is recommended that you not totally discharge the UPS battery. May UPSs come with software that controls when to automatically shut down the computer before the battery is completely discharged.

Also, after doing the test you need to recharge the UPS battery as soon as possible. Note the UPS battery takes 8 or more hours to charge so keep that in mind.

newmann said:

Has anyone here used a similar UPS when they needed power on their laptop and only connected it to their laptop and see how long they got out of it? Again I am aware these are meant to give you enough time to save your work and then turn off laptop safely.


But certainly there are people that continue to do whatever they were doing on their laptop right until it finally ran out of power? Now a UPS like the one I have... it could last 2 hours right?

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Yes, I have a similar UPS. I have an APC Back-Ups Pro 1500VA UPS for my desktop computer. If my desktop is on, and 1 monitor is on, it's probably about 20 minutes tops.

When I get home tonight I can look at the digital readout and it can estimate for me. Everything depends upon the load that you have on the computer as well. For example, if I was in the middle of playing a video game with 2 monitors going, it's going to be less than 10 minutes because of the load from my video card.

You are not going to get 2 hours out of a 1500VA/~900W UPS unless you are running a really light load (for example, my Apple Mac Mini with the M1 only takes bout 7 watts of power at idle, it would run this for a long time. But if I plug in 1 monitor, that load goes from 7 watts now to about 35w, and my runtime is going to be 5x less.

Okay well back then I believe I might have tested my old xps 15 9550 with it. And by that, I mean only my laptop and no external monitors. I did remember using at least 20 minutes and there was still a decent amount of battery left. On the cyberpower UPS 1500VA I have, it also display how many bars and estimated minutes lett etc. I don't remember exactly but I believe I could have gotten at least an hour minimum from out of it. I believe I did this when not doing something intensive though. But I think it might even been possible to get 2 hours. So you are saying this is almost impossible?


Yea desktop uses much more battery than laptop. If you connect a monitor to it as well, obviously it would use even more power. I heard if you use a laptop that uses very little power like those ultrathin laptop with strong battery, those would even last longer?


Yea my question was with just the laptop... no external monitors. Because if there is power outage, I am not going to waste any battery on any monitors. So you are saying if your graphics card is on during this, battery is going to deplete much faster? So you should turn off the nvidia 3050 and go to only the intel xe graphics if you can do so?


How do you know how much watt you are drawing? You say your mac mini with the m1 does about 7w at idle. So how many when not idle? Well idle would not be that useful since you aren't doing anything on it.


So my xps 15 9520 since it has i7-12700h and nvidia 3050 will draw a ton of power no matter what? But I would make it in battery mode though if there is power outage. That helps but not that much? I appreciate those number estimates given here because those sound about right.

Checked on my laptop tonight, it's a Dell Precision 5550. On bootup, it's pulling between 75w and 120w. When windows was up and the login screen was on, it was around 90w. After it settled down a few minutes later and was idle and the CPU clocked down it was around 30 watt of power.

At 30w of power, a 1500VA UPS could last about 3 hours. When I was running closer to 120w of power, it's about 1hr and 20 minutes.

At home, I do not run my laptop on my UPS. I guess I don't understand the point. In the event that the power goes out, the laptop would start running on it's battery and not shut off. My laptop gets around 4-6 hours of battery life, so in the event of a power outage, my laptop is going to go quite a long time. Unsure if an extra 2 hours from my UPS is worth the cost of a UPS.

My UPS for my desktop is there to give me time to save what I am doing and shut down my computer. It runs my switch, my 2 monitors, my desktop and my little mini PC's. If nothing else, it gives me a little piece of mind that if the power fluctuates, my end devices won't see it.

Okay that is pretty interesting then. So with 65w of power, that same cup would last maybe 1.5 hours. Were you on battery mode at any point?


Yes that is what I mean if the power goes out. Such that if it does, how much battery would the UPS give you. So a powerbank always gives you more battery than a UPS then correct?

Hi folks

If you are really worried -- just get a diesel "genny" and have done with it.

Might be difficult if in an apartment but if you have space these things can power a home for days !!!! depending on the KVA of the "genny" and size of fuel tank.

Use "Red or Agricultural" biodiesel if you are worried about "Environment" - at least in some places there's no tax on this type of fuel.

I don't see the point of a UPS in domestic situations unless you are running important business 24/7 from home or a "home office" -- however most small businesses can IMO stand small outages -- especially if their customers are likely to be without power as well.

I think one needs to get a sense of proportion between paranoia and realism here. And as far as "Extinction Rebellion" or the like are concerned --if it's a choice between freezing at -20 deg C or running a diesel "genny" -- I know what I'm going to choose. !!!!!

While there's plenty of cheap green power here --outages do happen too due to weather, line repairs etc. You don't want to be stuck here in mid winter with no heating !!!!!.

BTW most windows systems , linux servers and decent databases such as Mariadb / MySQL have sensible logging systems and can recover from a hard power off so you won't lose anything while switching to the aux generator. You really don't need a UPS for domestic use.

Cheers
jimbo

I recall setting up UPS in several companies, and they all wanted everything to run all the time until the power came back on. They all eventually realised that having the laptops powered up without the routers, switches and firewalls was pointless because without comms they are dead in the water anyway. They also found that their aspirations for power were extremely expensive, and that usually helped them see reality quite quickly.

Rather than spending all this time trying to work out how you can keep a laptop running, why not spend your time working out how to implement a disaster plan and also look at your business continuity plan whilst you are at it. Doing that will provide you with lasting benefit whereas a UPS, which is not designed for what you want to do, will not - they are designed to last long enough for you to enact your business continuity plan by closing the systems down gracefully, giving you the ability top consider implementing a disaster recovery plan.

We are on a rural electrical coop. Perhaps once or twice a year there is an outage of an hour to sometimes several hours. Some years there is never an outage at all. My cable modem and router are on a UPS to keep them up for several hours. My laptop can run 4 to 6 hours on battery. That's plenty of time to close any short-term trades I might have open and to power down.

I also have my Interactive Brokers mobile app on my smartphone. I can always use it to manage trades if necessary. I've never had a problem with cell tower service and if I did, I could always drive to an area that did have service.

In a nutshell, I feel no paranoid need to guarantee all-day battery backup power for my laptop. I just power down and go play my piano.

TraderGary said:

We are on a rural electrical coop. Perhaps once or twice a year there is an outage of an hour to sometimes several hours. Some years there is never an outage at all. My cable modem and router are on a UPS to keep them up for several hours. My laptop can run 4 to 6 hours on battery. That's plenty of time to close any short-term trades I might have open and to power down.

I also have my Interactive Brokers mobile app on my smartphone. I can always use it to manage trades if necessary. I've never had a problem with cell tower service and if I did, I could always drive to an area that did have service.

In a nutshell, I feel no paranoid need to guarantee all-day battery backup power for my laptop. I just power down and go play my piano.

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Love the piano -- have rescued an old Baby Grand -- cost around 2,000 EUR to get it fixed and tuned but love playing it -- the only "Fuel" it needs is plenty of Beer for the player or that lovely "Amber Nectar" from Scotland (Isle of Skye particularly with that magnificent peaty taste -- Lagluvalin single Malt !!!).

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Lagluvalin

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Lagavulin

wimorrison said:

Lagavulin

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Ah well -- after a glass or two -- I don't notice the spelling !!!!

Cheers
jimbo