How long should a battery last on standby?

[JohnD]

How long should a batt last on standby?

I ask because I have had a few power losses resulting in the Glaxy failing over to its battery, and after 4 to 6 hours it phones the control room to complain, they ring me or a keyholder to see what's wrong

Last time it was at 6a.m.

 

[breezer]

depends how old

it used to be 8 hours max, its now 24.

you will get a call for low battery because the battery is still working but is likely to fail in a couple of hours.

 

[Atilla]

depends how old

it used to be 8 hours max, its now 24.

you will get a call for low battery because the battery is still working but is likely to fail in a couple of hours.

can you never get anything right ?


8 hours MINIMUM but now its variable depending on the grade and the signalling of the system from 12hrs to 24hrs


JohnD - can you not get the company to reset the trigger level for low battery signalling?

 

[JohnD]

how old the system, do you mean?

installed 1995

battery has been swapped at regular maintenance, in 2000 and 2005

I can't see the model no but it has 10 sensors and 2 keypads. the highest ?sensor? no shown in the logbook is 1018

 

[breezer]

atilla is right i typed the wrong word, i did think min but typed max instead.

You can not ask the alarm company to change the point at which a low batt signal is sent becuse its done by the communicator, and as it is either a red care or modem it does not have any changable peramiters in this respect, if it did it would be pointless any way, since it would send a low batt just before it goes flat.

as i also said you do have a few hours left before it still goes flat.

The alarm people who call (ARC) should say its a low batt signal, what the keyholder does about it is their choice.

you could have an additional power supply added to run just the detectors, ther by extending the duration of battery life, as there would be one battery for the panel and one for the detectors. only problem with this, is the panel battery will last longer than the detector battery, and the detector battery will not nomally be monitored by the communicator.

most panels also have a maximum battery size that they can safley charge, so putting in a bigger battery is not as good an idea as it may seem (unless of course it is too small)

as its a galaxy 18 it should have a 12v 7Ah battery

 

[JohnD]

yes, 7AH is what the maintenance log says.

 

[Spark123]

So even if the panel can only be connected to an up to 7ah battery, would it be possible to remove the internal battery and connect it to a battery charger with a larger battery via a diode to so the panel does not try to charge the larger battery?

 

[breezer]

i would say no because the panel will not be able to "see" the battery thereby it would show battery missing.

as i said the way round it would be to add an aditional powersupply to run tthe detectors which in turn would remove some of the panel loading

 

[JohnD]

or maybe I can find a cheap (?) UPS so the alarm does not know power has gone off

 

[Handykindabloke]

You should be able to work out what the current consumption is and therefore what the standby battery needs are.

A multimeter will tell you the total current being used by the system by 'plugging' it in on a suitable DC current setting on the battery lead then pulling the mains power fuse. (Remember to put the mains fuse back BEFORE you disconnect the multimeter!)

Once you know the current being used you can work out if the battery is sufficient. Data sheets are available on the discharge of batteries so you should be able to compare demand to supply.

If you don't have a spec for the panel the battery charging circuit should be fused so you can tell what the panel will charge at by checking what the fuse rating is.

You could consider a second battery in parallel to the first to increase the standby time.

An old battery will not provide the same power as a newer one. 4 -6 hours on your system is not right so my first check would be the battery itself but also the demand from the system.

However if your system is under maintenance then the company should be making sure that its working correctly and any interference by you might cause problems with them.

Regards

Dave