I added a second deep cycle (well, Advance Auto Parts marine) battery to my backup power supply. This power supply will run some lights, the computer, my radio equipment and a fan and CPAP.
I have them hooked to a quality marine battery charger that runs of the 120V grid ... I want to replace this charger with solar. I considered a windmill but I'm surrounded by big oaks. I'm not able to get the unit up high enough to assure a daily charge.
I would like to see other peoples ideas for emergency back up power. Right now I have the two batteries wired to office run my ham gear and an inverter to power the desktop computer and printers or to conserve power use the laptop. I also run a DC line to the bedroom and another inverter to to run a light, fan and CPAP. I wired most of this when I rebuilt that part of the house. I wish I had understood wire size requirements of DC circuits before I put in the drywall. I used 12 ga and the voltage drop when I keyed up the radio was unacceptable. So I had to move the batteries from the garage to a battery box I built on the outside wall of my office and run 8ga wire from the from the battery box. The 12ga was ok to the bedroom.
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