We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

Anyone who has an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for a computer at home knows its one significant drawback, which costs its owner a pretty penny. This is, of course, the fragility of its batteries. Usually, if you're lucky, they live for 3 years and then lose their capacity and functionality. This eliminates the possibility of using the UPS directly for its intended purpose.
We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

Almost all UPS systems use sealed, maintenance-free lead-acid batteries. The very word “maintenance-free” makes it clear that it is impossible to restore such a battery, and if it is possible, it will certainly not be for long. And then the idea came up to replace the battery with supercapacitors (ionistors). They have an enormous service life, are absolutely tolerant of high loads, the number of charge-discharge cycles is more than 10,000. Therefore, if you are lucky, the uninterruptible power supply will become eternal!

Will need


6 supercapacitors with balance protection board. You can buy ready-made at AliExpress.
We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

The balance protection board is a mandatory element. Operation without it ionistors in a series circuit is impossible, since everything is fraught with failure of any element during recharging.
The capacity of 1 element in the circuit is 500 Farads and the voltage is 2.7 V. That is, 6 pieces will make up a battery that can be charged to a maximum of 16.2 V.

Replacing the battery in an uninterruptible power supply with supercapacitors


In theory, as always, everything is smooth, but in practice everything is not as we would like.
We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

In this example, a UPS was used that had a maximum load power of 300 W. It removed the non-working battery and installed a board with supercapacitors instead of the battery.
First start. And then the first failure: the UPS, of course, turned on, but charging ionistors refused. Why? The fact is that the UPS circuit had protection that did not allow charging if the initial battery voltage was less than 10 V.
Second attempt. Then I took a third-party adapter with an output voltage of 10 V and simply charged the capacitors before turning it on.
We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

I turned on the UPS and everything finally worked. Ionistors continued charging to the threshold voltage of the acid battery.
We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

As a result, it was decided to remove the low voltage protection by modifying the UPS circuit.
But these are not all the pitfalls. Next, the operating time was checked when the network power was turned off. And the results are quite specific. The UPS stopped working when the voltage on the ionistors dropped below 10 V
We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

As a result, the total operating time, depending on the load power, could range from 5 to 30 seconds. Although the load that this UPS previously fed was not very powerful, its operating time was 18 seconds. In principle, this time was quite enough for my tasks.

Installation in the case


It was impossible to install this line in place of the standard battery.The solution was to make a cut in the side of the body and bring the elements out.
We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

As a result, the appearance was not particularly terrible, given that the UPS is located in a secluded place.
We put supercapacitors in the UPS instead of the battery

As it turned out, the idea worked quite well. Of course, the capacitor capacity must be significantly increased in order to achieve a significant increase in operating time in the event of a shutdown.
Although there is a downside to this coin: as the total capacity increases, the total initial charging time will also increase... which will negatively affect ease of use.

Watch the video


For a complete modernization of the UPS with adjustments to the protection circuits, see the author’s video.
come back
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Comments (24)
  1. Ivan
    #1 Ivan Guests 23 May 2019 19:08
    9
    At this cost ionistors batteries can be changed 4 times in 3 years, that’s 12 years... well, I don’t know...
  2. Guest Gosha
    #2 Guest Gosha Guests 23 May 2019 19:18
    4
    As far as I remember, the UPS for the computer produces 220 volts. What 16 volt UPS is the author writing about? Why is such a UPS needed? Someone was wandering a gray mare.
    1. Guest
      #3 Guest Guests 24 May 2019 09:22
      24
      Before writing your nonsense, take the trouble to study the work of the IPB. There is a 14 volt battery inside, the author has assembled an alternative 16 volt battery. And 220 volts is output through an inverter. Learn the materiel, gray mare.
      1. Guest Gosha
        #4 Guest Gosha Guests 25 May 2019 20:57
        2
        I have never disassembled a UPS. The first one served for 4 years, no less. Now I have been using the second one for more than 5 years. Why should I take it apart? He served his time and went to waste.
        1. passerby
          #5 passerby Guests 27 October 2022 21:58
          0
          Or you could replace the batteries in the old UPS, and it would continue to work perfectly. The cost of batteries is several times less than the cost of a new UPS.
    2. Pasha
      #6 Pasha Guests 3 June 2019 13:58
      6
      So find out first, and then write.
  3. AC
    #7 AC Guests 23 May 2019 19:20
    2
    What do you think about the charging/discharging cycle? How many times per day does the UPS turn on for charging?
  4. Guest
    #8 Guest Guests 24 May 2019 07:40
    7
    Handjob of pure water.
  5. Vasisualiy
    #9 Vasisualiy Guests 24 May 2019 10:26
    3
    how complicated and dreary everything is...
  6. Guest Gennady
    #10 Guest Gennady Guests 24 May 2019 13:42
    9
    So far completely uncompetitive! Absolutely! On the same Ali, you can buy five LiIon 2600 mAh for 600 rubles, a protection board for them for 120 rubles and get not 20 seconds, but at least 15 minutes (900 seconds) of UPS operation. Almost certainly ionistors with a board more expensive, have larger dimensions, and 45 times less energy reserve. Mostly ionistors used where it is necessary to deliver a very large current in a short time..
    1. Sad gopher
      #11 Sad gopher Guests 25 May 2019 17:53
      1
      Who needs 15 minutes? 20 seconds is enough to save the state and turn off the computer if the network is lost. And you don’t need a UPS for anything else
      1. Guest Evgeniy
        #12 Guest Evgeniy Guests June 5, 2019 04:31
        4
        You can get distracted and not have time to turn off the computer in 15 seconds, it’s easier without a UPS at all
      2. Orphan
        #13 Orphan Guests 10 August 2019 18:27
        1
        In 15 seconds I won’t even have time to bark, much less save and exit. Minimum 300 sec. And let the squeaker scream throughout the entire screensaver.
    2. Guest Mikhail
      #14 Guest Mikhail Guests 30 May 2019 12:28
      1
      They wrote absolutely correctly, I’ve had this done for over a year now, everything works great. And the battery dimensions were smaller.
  7. popvovka
    #15 popvovka Guests May 25, 2019 11:08
    1
    Judging by the size, it costs 7 Ah, at a cost of 1400 rubles, the most expensive. This one works for 4-5 years. 3 years, apparently a cheap sigment battery.
  8. Ivan
    #16 Ivan Guests 25 May 2019 14:59
    9
    The master is simply experimenting, so he doesn’t look at the price. Installing a battery, of course, makes more sense. But experimenting is always so interesting! I liked the article.
  9. Tolya
    #17 Tolya Guests 25 May 2019 22:10
    5
    There is no point in using a UPS for a few seconds...
  10. Guest Dmitry
    #18 Guest Dmitry Guests 27 May 2019 08:31
    2
    There is no need for a balance board here at all, since ionistor there are no requirements for exceeding the voltage on it (at least apply 100 volts to the jar, the excess will simply be lost when turned off). This is not a capacitor that can leak.
    1. was passing by
      #19 was passing by Guests 10 June 2019 10:38
      2
      Well done, show it in practice, and we’ll watch from the outside how ionistor will dissipate excess voltage)
      If you don't know the question, don't talk!
      Overvoltage is also contraindicated for ionistors, as are conventional capacitors.