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What You Need To Know When Choosing A Backup Power System
Power Packs incorporate a power inverter (rated in watts or w), a 12v battery (rated in ampere-hours or aH), and a battery charger (rated in amperes or A). When selecting a unit, the most important factors you will need to consider will be as follows:

1. What is your wattage requirement? (To determine this, add up the total number of watts for all of the appliances you plan on using with your power pack)
2. What is your run-time requirement?

Wattage Requirements
Before you do anything, you will need to determine what your wattage requirement is, for the electrical application you wish to operate. To find this out, reference your user manual, the name plate rating or the contact the manufacturer of your electrical appliance. Often times one of these sources will provide you with the wattage rating as required. Other times, they will not. If a wattage rating is not found, then the wattage rating can be found getting the amperage rating. If the amperage rating is found then you can multiply the amperage rating by the voltage rating and that will give you’re your wattage rating. For example, if you are able to find the amperage rating in your user guide as 3.7 amps and your voltage rating in the user guide is 115v, then your wattage rating will be 425.5 watts. 425.5 watts minimum size power pack you will require to operate your electrical appliance. Anything less than this will not operate

Battery Requirements
The greater the ampere-hour or aH rating of the battery, the longer the run-time you should expect for your Power Pack. Once you’ve determined what your wattage requirements is, you will want to select a Power Pack that meets or exceeds your wattage requirement and one with the largest aH rating to maximize the run-time of your electrical appliance.

The aH rating of the battery will determine the overall run-time you will expect from the Power Pack. Selecting a higher wattage rated Power Pack alone will not impact your run-time.

Battery Operated Portable Power Systems Described

Battery operated power packs are portable, battery operated power systems that provide standard household electricity for use with all of your favorite electrical appliances and electronic devices. Unlike a generator, power packs store household electricity in an internal battery bank and provide instantaneous, on demand power, when you need it, where you need it, anywhere you need it.

Battery operated power packs incorporate a power inverter, a battery charger and a 12-volt DC battery into a self contained chassis. Some even include one of the following or a combination of the following: emergency light, flashlight, jumper cables, AM/FM radio, or air compressor. Includes everything you will need to instantly provide power right out of the box. All you have to do to begin using the system is to unpack the unit from the box, plug your electrical appliance into the power pack and turn the power pack on. It’s that simple. The best part is that battery back-up systems are clean and quiet and produce no emissions. Further, they produce no noise, require no fuel and are safe to operate indoors.

Current systems available to the general public provide power wattage ratings from 100-1500 watts* of power – enough power to run most electronic and electrical appliances you typically connect to any standard wall outlet. *wattage ratings depend on the model and power rating of power system selected.

How A Power Pack Works

Simply plug your electrical appliance into the backup power system and plug the backup power system into a standard 120vAC wall outlet. Once an appliance is connected to the backup power system, the backup power system will continue to using utility power until a power event or power failure is detected. Once a power failure is detected, the backup power system will instantaneously and automatically begin supplying standard household electricity to the connected appliances. Once utility power is restored, the Battery Backup System will automatically switch the appliance(s) back to utility power and immediately begin to recharge it’s internal batteries in anticipation of the next power failure.

A battery backup power system includes an integrated battery, which stores electricity at 12-volts DC. Energy stored at 12-volt DC is unable to be used by standard household appliances that require 110-120vAC to operate. Thus, the stored energy must be converted into 110-120v AC electricity. The power inverter converts stored 12vDC energy into usable 120-volt AC electricity. The AC battery charger reverses the process by converting 120v AC energy to stored 12v DC energy.

The batteries used for these applications require do not require that the batteries be fully charged or fully discharged in between uses, thus, you can use your power pack or interrupt the charging cycle at any stage during the charging cycle

Emergency Backup Power for Critical Electrical Appliances…

Backup Power Systems can be used for a wide array of electrical application. One of the most popular uses of these systems is for use as an emergency power source for critical residential application. The most popular usage of these devices are use with Sump Pumps, Home Refrigerators, Medical Refrigerators, Home Heating Systems, Alarm System, Telephone Systems and Small Offices.

Below are images of some of the most popular models on the market. These units are used for applications as small as operating a home alarm system to operating a submersible sump pump. While these are a few of the most common applications, your application may vary and is not limited to these uses.

We Can Help You….

For assistance in selecting the correct power pack, please feel free to contact our customer support line at 866-373-9665 or email us at crm@altapower.com