My Cyberpower UPS's weigh 70 lbs each, of which the bulk of the weight are
the batteries.
In some sense, then, VRLA's are considered safe within the confines of the
home.
Is there any opinion as to what the upside limit for VRLAs in the home would
be?
The Philadelphia climate can be quite cold in the winter. Several weeks of
below-freezing temperatures are not uncommon. What are typical solutions?
I've been using VRLA gel cells indoors for a few months now. They are rebadged
Exide Orbitals, their label (from Exide) is ORB34CD-36. Initially, I set the
charge point at 14.1V, and ran them that way, but after contacting Exide and
the retailer, I've upped that to 14.4 (like standard batteries) and it seems to
be going well; no battery swelling, nothing indicating anything extraordinary
happening. I've have been told to keep the charge down to 2A per battery, so
that may contribute to their apparent good performance.
I have just recently purchased a pair of Leoch batteries, SLA12-120, which
are sealed gel cells (but I don't believe they are VRLA), marketted here under
the name "Magnacharge". The retailer told me they stopped selling the Trojan
gel cells, because of the 14.1V limitation on them, and the the high return rate
but that the Leoch gel cells were working well for them (14.4V). I'll probably
buy a couple more before the summer's end. The price per Ah is quite a bit
better than the rebadged Orbitals, as well.
The temperatures here can dip to -40 in wintertime, so storage inside the
apartment is necessary, which makes gassing a bad bad thing.
HTH.
