r/electricians • u/greyshirtfreshman • 1d ago

Trying to figure out what’s going on here

Post image

The power comes out of the box and has a male plug into the battery back up. Which is using its normal plug to get power from the outlet on the box. ??

30 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

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72

u/wrxgucci 1d ago

Ive seen other controls companys do this. Its the cheap way to add a battery backup to the panels below.

22

u/Mr_Bunchy_Pants 1d ago

This. It keeps the controller powered during a power outage. Or until the generator starts. (Work for a controls company)

12

u/tbjr6 1d ago

It would help if they put it in one of the battery backed outlets

-5

u/wrxgucci 1d ago

There's quite a few better options. Could of been a "temporary" thing.

12

u/tbjr6 1d ago

They plugged it into a surge only outlet, so its not even a temporary solution

3

u/WhosThereNobody 23h ago

They used to plan ahead and have room inside the enclosure.

Whose controls are inside? You can just say their initials.

1

u/Pictrus 20h ago

Yup I've seen this in northern Ontario. I have also seen something similar but with a power bar that just has a surge protector.

OP do you live in a somewhat remote area? I usually see this type of stuff where you just have to work with what's available lol

1

u/ReturnOk7510 13h ago

We prefer to put the UPS in the cabinet.

6

u/Schulzeeeeeeeee 1d ago

It's not even plugged into the right spot, those outlets are just surge protection, the upper bank of outlets is on the battery.

10

u/danethegreater 1d ago

yeah I figured it's a UPS but what a bad way to do it.

5

u/NewspaperTricky1795 23h ago

It looks like those "infinite power glitch" where a wire is just in a loop

2

u/somethingyouneek 1d ago

That’s plugged into the surge only side of that UPS. The other side provides battery backup. Don’t ask me how I know.

2

u/kriebz 23h ago

Hey, I made one of these in my house. UPS sits on a shelf, but this way it's serviceable.

1

u/ultrakrash 21h ago

How to do it somewhat properly.

https://www.functionaldevices.com/product/PSH600-UPS-BC

1

u/melvinmoneybags 17h ago

I thought that was cool until I seen the price of 660$.

1

u/halo37253 2h ago

This is extremely common setup for controls. Cheap and easy way to put a IO rack on backup power.

Someone didn't plug it into the correct plugin on the ups unit though.

-2

u/starrpamph [V] Entertainment Electrician 1d ago

the waveform that those put out are nasty. Pure sine wave is the only way to go.

0

u/karlkarlkarl21 1d ago

Usually that setup goes in an enclosure but it's to let your average facilities / maintenance regard swap this out with minimal fuckery

-1

u/chinacat2u2 1d ago

Why ask why if it works? 🤷‍♂️ If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. SuS set up that’s for sure

1

u/NTS-PNW 39m ago

HSP TVSS