…until I ran the numbers.
This is actually pretty damn cool. However, the Inverex DirectUPS 1000VA Modified Sine Wave Inverter with Charger he used costs $199 (marked down from $399!) on Amazon right now. And while I understand that he was getting 4-5 hours out of his homebrew UPS, and that was important for him because of rolling blackouts where he lives in South Africa, for 1000VA that’s a lot of bucks…and I haven’t even bought the batteries yet!
For the $200 I’d pay for the 1000VA inverter alone, I can buy two 1000VA UPSes at Costco. And they’ll last me between 3-5 years before the batteries no longer take a charge. Given that the worst electrical outage we’ve had here since ’08 has been about an hour, it just isn’t economical for me to roll my own.
A "surly curmudgeon[], suspicious and lacking in altruism." (Robert A. Heinlein)