Customizing UPSs

[Jonathan Hutchins]

Dunae, 

I've been under the impression that the more conventional liquid-based 
automotive or marine batteries were more prone to discharging noxious fumes - 
vaporized acid and hydrogen being of chief concern.  In discussions of using 
them for solar power they warn to make sure that the batteries are both 
enclosed and safely ventilated.

The term Gas Recombinant cells certainly implies that they wouldn't pose as 
much of a problem.  What about the "gell cells" that are originally supplied 
with stock UPSs?  

If the stock cells are as bad as conventional "wet" cells, then wet cells 
wouldn't be any worse and all you'd need to worry about is keeping the "box" 
upright. 
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Further notes on battery types:

Motorcycle batteries are subject to more radical changes in orientation, and 
usually vent through a tube that can be routed away from things that acid 
might harm.

Miatas and some other cares now use a battery that has a sponge-like 
fiberglass fill that gives some of the advantages of a gell cell while not 
having the problem of the gell shrinking away from the plates.

In aviation, it's more common to see "wet" Nickel-Cadmium batteries as well as 
conventional lead-acid batteries.  NiCads deliver higher current for a longer 
time than equivalent weight lead-acids. (There has been a lot of advance in 
conventional battery design, but aviation tends to stick with old tech 
because it's tried and true.)

There's a lot of information on the web and in the public library on 
alternative power systems, particularly oriented toward solar and wind, that 
use batteries for storage and load leveling.  I'm sure some research would 
pay off.
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Duane, you could take some of the posts you've made over the last few years 
and make a "UPS Upgrade HOWTO" - as I recall you have somthing like that 
already on your web site.