backup power supplies

[christyf5]

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but inside its so delightful. Unless of course the power goes out and I'm not there :shock: . Anyone have one of these things? With the wind of late I'm feeling rather anxious about the power going out and my tank getting nuked. Has anyone seen those ones for computers at costco? I was thinking of maybe getting one of those but would it run a powerhead, heater and return pump??

Any info appreciated

Christy :)

[StirCrazy]

ya they would for about 5 min.. they are not designed to run even a computer for longer than it would take you to save your work and shut down. your best bet for bang for you buck would be to go to costco and buy a 600 watt power inverter for 78.00.. then you hook it to your car and let it run and you can power a heater a power head and maby a light or two.. I am looking at getting two of them myself..


Steve

[zulu_principle]

I have a 300 watt inverter and think its worth the dough, I also have a small generator.

But, with the money that you spend and the cost of renting a small generator, I have never checked for renting inverters, the generator doesn't make sense.

[christyf5]

Well if I'm in the house when the power goes out I have a battery operated air pump and can throw some wood in the woodstove to keep everyone happy. I'm looking into getting something for when I'm not there (which is just pretty much this time of year when I'm visiting my folks for a few days).

Thanks for the info tho.
Christy :)

[zulu_principle]

If you have an alarm in your house you can get them to alert you with a power outage so that you can send someone over to power things up.

Thats what I do with my fish room.

[reefburnaby]

Christy,

IMHO depending on the types of corals you have, your tank can stay alive for short power outages (say less than 4 hours). I have a 500VA UPS and it is hooked up to one of my main pumps. This particular pump pumps water through my refugium, CC skimmer, calcium reactor and provides minor circultation in my tank. So, this is a really important pump that needs to keep running, but it only draws about 15VA (its a maxijet 900 driving a close loop system). So, 500VA / 15VA....that's about 33 hours. So, that pump will run for 33 hours on a single UPS charge. The heating problem is not a really a big concern since we have a gas fireplace in the same room.

IMHO the UPS is used for extended power outages (i.e. longer than 4 hours), an inverter with a car is probably not a good option. Maybe a small Honda generator would be more appropriate.

- Victor.

[StirCrazy]

Christy,

an inverter with a car is probably not a good option. Maybe a small Honda generator would be more appropriate.

- Victor.

what would make you say that Victor? a car can idel for more than 24 hours on a tank of gas and if you have a large enuf inverter you will be more than fine. we used to leave our vans running up north 24/7 and we would fill up with gas every couple days or more depending on the driving we also did.. for some one who doesent want to drop over 1000.00 on a generator a inverter makes perfect sence.. for a quiet generator that would power a full circut and run more than a couple hours on a tank would be over 2000 bucks.. not practical for most of us..

here is a cheeper generator that would be nice

http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=393931&FOLDER%3C%3EbrowsePath=176397&FOLDER%3C%3EbrowsePath=179399&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=179399&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=166971&bmUID=1040845750173

and here is one that I would love to have :wink:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=1042701&FOLDER%3C%3EbrowsePath=176397&FOLDER%3C%3EbrowsePath=179399&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=179399&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=166971&bmUID=1040845748606

there is a middle of the road one that will power a 6500 amps and has a 8 hour run time @ 50% load.. this one is 2500.00 and would be a very nice choice for running your whole tank plus the lights and a electric heater in the house.

Steve

[fishboy]

Last power outage here I went and bought a 700 watt inverter from canadian tire and 100 foot extension cord to get from the driveway to my tank. Total cost was about $130 and when hooked to my car it can run my return pump and heater. Of course the power came on 10 minutes after I hooked it up and I haven't needed it since :roll:. It is nice to know it's in the basement if I ever needed again though :wink:.

[One_Divided]

I bought a 600w inverter for my Dad for X-mas.. He was talking about getting one but never did.. So in the end of my scheme, I get a present for him and use of the inverter at the same time heheh.. :twisted:

[ron101]

There was an article in one of the last few FAMA magazines written by a fellow who had been planning to market a switched battery backup system. For whatever reason he decided not to persue it but he did say a power inverter, a deep cycle car battery, and a 120VAC battery charger is a good approximation. Just doesn't have the automatic switching feature.

[reefburnaby]

Steve,

Blindly running a large inverter on a car for long durations is not a smart thing to do. In the worst case scenario, the battery and the alternator will get roasted. Basically, the alternator will get roasted if it runs a duty cycle that it wasn't designed for. If the inverter is drawing more power than the alternator can provide, the alternator is going to run 100% duty cycle. Car batteries aren't design for deep cycle draw...hence they can also get roasted.

Inverters are nice...until they blow up. IMHO, they are pretty finicky things, so try not to run them near their rating. Somewhere around 50% of the their rating should help things. If you have worked with VFDs, then these inverters are the cheap version of a VFD.

- Victor.

[StirCrazy]

hmm so if you run you generator the inverter on that is going to blow up also? :lol:

yes you should never run a higher draw than your altanator can handle.. and if the car is running you will never have to worry about drawing down your car batery. Also Car/truck altanators are designed to run 100%, thats why we have voltage regulators to prevent them from frying your batteries.. but you did raise a valad point.. if you try run over your altanators rating you can suck down your battery as it will act as a reserve.. also you could overheat your voltage regulator and cause some problems but most likely.. you will blow a fuse long befor then. We used to run a welder off the truck battery.. now you want to see something that will suck a battery down LOL

*disclamer* sometimes stuff fails when it shoulden't, the world is a imperfect place.. so of course if you can aford to get a genarator and such, "the biger the better" applies here.. but if you can't use some comen sence.. don't obver size your draw for your power supply weather it be a car or a generator.

Read the sticker on the inverters you buy.. when it says 600 watts is that continuios or peek (don't worry Adam the one you got was continuios something like 1300 peek) so if it says 600 continious stay under that to be safe.

Steve

[ldzielak]

I'm using a MGE EX20 UPS (http://www.mgeups.com/products/pdt120/1ph/ex/html/range.htm), good for 2000VA and max 1400 watts. All I have connected are 2 Hagen 301 power heads on it, that when the tank level drops, they start aireating the water. They will run for a long time. I have not experienced any long outages yet, so I could relocate/hook up a heater if needed. I could run my whole system, but don't see the advantage.

My bigger problem was the entire dining room and my office were one the same breaker. 2 tanks, and 2 computers and all the lights. So I just finished putting in a 20A dedicated circuit for my 120g and I sleep much better. I have been thinking about this for a long time, but on Monday, it triped and no one was arround for nearly 24hrs. So my tank temp fell to 70 from 78-80 normaly. No loss of life this time!! But made me get my ass in gear at put in the circuit.

Lee

[BCReefer]

Check out this site.

www.ballard.com

Of course the cost is high today but in the future we should all have one.

I will try and bring the AirGen to our next meeting.

Cheers,
Patrick