Roland,Yep! Truck batteries and UPS, sounds like one of my camping trips!Regular charge/discharge cycles will prolong the life of the batteries. Gellcells are designed for 300-500 cycles in their lifetime. Temperature also affects them. At 25C, you could get 5 years of life, at 40C, 2 years. So, if you can keep them at 25C (average), they will last better. A 50% discharge once a month should keep them happy.Jon Point*************************([email protected])*************************

Peter,See my reply above to Roland. If your UPS gets hot in use, this can shorten the life of the batteries. This is why in many small UPS, the batteries only last 2 years. Again, a good point for using minimal batteries inside the UPS - at least the big (expensive) one lasts well :-). Some batteries DO have better response to short-term discharges (i.e. made specifically for UPS or engine starting) but few are used in small UPS due to the extra cost. One such type is the Hawker SBS (www.hepi.com) - a real nice battery (small, light, dry-ish, 40ah and two can start a helicopter - 3 times!) but watch the price!Jon Point*************************([email protected])*************************