http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply

Hello,

Do you know any UPS for electricity that is easy to open to change the batteries ? They seem all boring and complicated, making it easy to buy a new one than changing batteries.

And do they all need special batteries or some use batteries that we can by anywhere ? (car batteries, etc... ?)

If you have one, how much do you pay your batteries and where do you buy ?

Thank you for your help.

If you mean a UPS like used with a computer then most are very easy to fit a new battery. If you are unsure about doing it yourself then take the UPS to your nearest computer mall and a quick walk around will locate places selling batteries (the same places that sell a UPS). Average cost of a replacement battery for most consumer UPS is 500-700 baht. Many places that sell replacement batteries will install the new battery for you at no cost if you ask, as it's a two minute job for anyone who has done it before.

Edited January 5, 201412 yr by kkerry

Concur with kkerry. And changing batteries (I got 2 UPS and 2 replacement batteries at Pantip) is just a matter of pulling off 2 leads, removing old, inserting new, and clipping leads back on. And turning a screw or 2 to open the case.

APC is the only brand I trust sold here.

Batteries very easy to swap, last 2-3 years.

Imported so harder to find - larger shops only and pricier, but IMO worth the premium.

Overseas, many of them have a bog-standard 12 volt 7amp-hour burglar alarm battery or multiples of same. 400-500 baht probably. I have handled several.overseas & expect some of th locals will be the same. Look inside. Probably less complicated than you think

The whole point of buying a UPS is to protect expensive electronics from the vagaries of a poor mains power supply (everywhere in Thailand).

Computers running from battery anyway (notebook/laptops/tablets) are fine with just good surge suppressors, but these are also rare, hard to find here and of course much more expensive than the usual junk available everywhere.

A normal desktop computer worth 20,000 THB may not be worth spending the extra money on a **good** quality UPS, but a multi-TB server or anything working in a mission-critical business context certainly is. In that case skimping on the quality of the UPS for minor cost/convenience issues is penny wise pound foolish - again, APC is the only way to go.

Note that a good case and power supply are also essential, and alone will cost that much before even looking at a motherboard, but the latter has a shorter lifespan, easy to re-use the former when upgrading so amortize that expense over a longer period 6-8 years as opposed to 3-4 for the mainboard and HDDs.

And of course you need to also make sure you have **properly** grounded mains circuits in the first place, not commonly found in Thailand even in high-rise office space, almost never in residential property.

A UPS is for me a way to keep a source of energy and save my work, not a way to protect any kind of cheap 30000 or 50000 thb computer.

So just work on a battery-powered notebook/laptop rather than a desktop/tower style.

Whatever your purpose I still advise buying a good quality unit. I've never seen a decent one where the batteries are hard to change, and since it's something you only need to do every 2-4 years not sure I understand your problem.