Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

So it occurred to me today that, as I leave my VBII connected (charging) all the time, anyway, that I might be able to plug my computer into it and use it as an uninterrupted power supply.

So, when charging, is it also acceptable to be drawing current as well? I know on the VBM we can use them while charging, but did not know if that is okay on the VBII.

My computer is on probably 6-12 hours a day, with a minimum off time (e.g. VBII would be on full no load charge) of 8 hrs per night. Would a cycle like this degrade the life of the battery?

Thanks in advance.

The effectiveness is going to be dependent on thepower draw of the computer. Running the VII while charging is ok, as long as you do not over work the inverter. However, it is easy to drain the battery faster thaqn it is charged. The battery would be charged, then the inverter uses the charge from the battery, rather than passing the energy through, and switching over when necessary.

Okay, thanks. Do you know the power draw that is equivalent to the charge rate of the inverter? In other words, I could stay below that level and always in the safe range? I can then check the draw of my computer to be sure.

Off the top of my head, no. But I can look into it. I doubt you will be able to do that with a desktop, maybe a laptop with a full battery. The problem with a laptop is it is hard to tell how much power it is drawing at any given time. Run the processors hard, with the screen bright, and optical disk drive running, then it will draw more power than at idle. Also, if it has to charge the battery, it will draw substantially more power.

Thanks! This is a LOW priority sorta thing--just a speculative use idea, not an urgent issue in any way.

I would be using it for a small imac. I wouldn't use it for a laptop (as I don't have one). The basic idea is, that since I have the VBII plugged in all the time anyway, if it was inline with my imac power line, then on the rare occasion when power dropped out it would keep my imac alive long enough to do an orderly shutdown, no longer than that.

So the concern is not about using my imac for hours on just the VBII, but only if I would damage the VBII by leaving in that inline configuration all the time.

It sounds like that, as long as the power draw is, say, 15-25% below the charging capability of the inverter, it should be fine.