Uninterruped Power Supplies.... good, bad, ugly?

[SS_Sean]

As an alternative to a generator, do some of you use a UPS? What's good out there, what's bad, what would you stay away from?

I had a power outage that fortunately just lasted a few moments, and while rare here, it came to the forefront of my thinking. I have a 170g tank to protect now, and soon we'll be stocking it.

Thanks.

[alf1096]

Tanks can go without lights for days. I would only worry about a powerhead and heater. Vortech has a battery back up if you were not aware

[SS_Sean]

Yes, for us personally, I wasn't concerned about lights. Just skimmer, pump, and powerheads.... we have a 170g softy tank.

[Reef Frog]

My power is vulnerable during every ice and wind storm it seems. Very 3rd world sometimes. I use a 300w power inverter hooked directly to my car or tractor battery, with an extension cord winding under the garage door to my living room where I run a 150w heater & MP40. During Sandy I kept everything alive 4 or 5 days this way. This year after a big snowstorm I operated it for 2 days & it saved my bacon yet again. What a hassle though! If this happened while out of town however, I'm dead meat & almost 4 years of work & untold money is down the drain.

I was recently 1000 miles away from home as our latest storm moved through the area. I was quite paranoid & was doubtful my backup person could respond properly or in time to save things if the power went out again. Luckily nothing happened this time. Never again. I need to solve this problem. Here's my plan:

I have a 2 wheeled warehouse "truck" or push scooter gathering dust. I want to mount perhaps 4, maybe more deep cycle marine batteries on it, all wired in parallel with a power inverter with a trickle charger. I'll keep it 100% charged & plugged in in the garage. When I leave town, I will wheel it near my tank & plug in the heater, or chiller & pump depending on the season, along with a circulation pump. The inverter cord will be plugged in separately so the battery bank will be 100% when it is needed, and will switch on immediately when the power goes out. It will also come in handy even if I'm present during a power outage, as I'll be able to leave the house for as long as necessary & won't be wasting gas running a tractor or auto continuously.

I still need to research & identify the best components. I need to calculate and estimate how long a 2, 4 & 6 battery bank will last with 150w-200w of heat to maintain about 74F or a 1/10th HP chiller & pump set to switch on at 82F. I intend to build something that is likely to last 5-8 days under a power out scenario in very cold or very hot conditions.

It would be great if anyone could comment on a good integrated inverter/trickle charge unit, what deep cycle batteries are best, and any tips on how to calculate how long this emergency backup would last with an MP40 & 200w of heater running 24/7.

[Reef Frog]

Ooops got a "Try Again" message & double posted.

I'm thinking I can put the above system together for much less than a good quality generator without maintenance hassles. And operation is automated with no safety issues.

[dkeller_nc]

As a general answer - Uninterruptible Power Supplies in the traditional sense of the definition (all-in-one units sold by, among other brands, APC) really aren't suitable for your purpose. They do provide line voltage sensing and automatic back-up, but they are typically intended for short-interval computer power.

What we're usually interested in is much longer-term low-wattage power, and that's best supplied by deep-cycle marine batteries and an inverter.

If you want automatic operation, you can get automatic line-switching inverter/chargers from a place like The Inverter Store or a marine supplier like West Marine.

For calculating battery life, you can get a close approximation by figuring the wattage of your attached equipment, multiplying by 1.2 to add in the power used by the inverter, and dividing this by 12. That will give you the power draw in amperes from your battery(s). Divide this figure into the amp-hour rating of your battery to get the number of hours of operation.

[danil]

Here is my approach to this issue.
1. Information is a key! You have to be notified about power outage in your house. I solved this by utilizing Apex controller hooked up to UPS along with other network things (like cable modem and my router). BTW new upcoming software upgrade for Apex ('fusion' I think) should take care of it without even needs for all these hardware. It's just going to send you a message from their server - nice!
As a double check I install IP camera too. If it works and I can see lights on my tank - everything is fine.
2. Next line of defense is my battery pack. I utilize one for MP40 you can buy. I have two of them and this give me enough time to finish my work, get home and initiate phase three.
3. Phase three is power generator.. which I still planning to get .
I've never had to go to phase three yet. All power outages in my area where short. Longest one was like 8 hours and tank was totally fine with MP40 running on batteries. For slight temp drop I just heat up on gas some water put it in coke bottles and drop them in the tank. Works very well.
To be clear I run only MP40 when power is down. No circulation pump, heaters, lights, skimmer are running.

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by dkeller_nc

As a general answer - Uninterruptible Power Supplies in the traditional sense of the definition (all-in-one units sold by, among other brands, APC) really aren't suitable for your purpose. They do provide line voltage sensing and automatic back-up, but they are typically intended for short-interval computer power.

What we're usually interested in is much longer-term low-wattage power, and that's best supplied by deep-cycle marine batteries and an inverter.

If you want automatic operation, you can get automatic line-switching inverter/chargers from a place like The Inverter Store or a marine supplier like West Marine.

For calculating battery life, you can get a close approximation by figuring the wattage of your attached equipment, multiplying by 1.2 to add in the power used by the inverter, and dividing this by 12. That will give you the power draw in amperes from your battery(s). Divide this figure into the amp-hour rating of your battery to get the number of hours of operation.

This. Remember that power failures are not one size fits all. One hour power failures are inconsequential, three day power failures are very consequential. Since where I live is serviced by Commonwealth Edison, we get varying sizes of power outages and since we have multiple tanks, an outdoor pond, 3 refrigerators and a freezer, we get a bit paranoid. Especially since our water won't run and our toilets won't flush. So, with all that, we invested in a whole house generator. But you can do less than whole house and just decide what circuits you wish to protect.

[houstonhobby]

I have a whole house generator but it takes two minutes of power outage for it to come online. So I still have problems with stuff like my Azoo temp controller, which resets to 26 degrees C every time the power comes back on. Don't need the lights or pumps during those two minutes but wish I could keep some stuff alive.

[All__talk]

Originally Posted by Reef Frog

It would be great if anyone could comment on a good integrated inverter/trickle charge unit, what deep cycle batteries are best, and any tips on how to calculate how long this emergency backup would last with an MP40 & 200w of heater running 24/7.

Like dkeller says the math is pretty straight forward. Looking at your example of a MP40 (30w) and a 200w heater, so total bower budget of 230w.

A typical car sized deep cycle battery should be good for about 75 amp hours (Ah), so...
75Ah x 12 volts (v) = 900Watt-hours (Wh)

I would guess conversion efficiency through an inverter is around 80%, so…
900Wh x .80 = 720Wh available on the output side.

720Wh/230w = 3.13 hours of run time per battery.

You said 5 to 8 days, let’s start with 5, 5 x 24 = 120 hours. 120h/3.13h per batt. = 38.3 batteries.

Conclusion: Get a generator.


I am working on a setup much like what danil has described. I have an 1800w server UPS that I plan to connect to a battery group that will give me about 12 hours of backup so I can get home and fire up the generator. I’m away from home all week so remote access to my APEX and cameras is critical, the controller and network gear will be connected to the UPS and I will use a sense relay through the breakout box to indicate a power failure and change the programing as well as alert me to the situation.

Gary