Power Outage options? - UPS?

[abcha0s]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

I have the Noma 400 as well and that's great for power outage.

UPS are just cr@p as they run for no more than 15 or 20 minutes. They are not meant to keep the power going long term so they are worthless for our use. They are only meant to keep a computer running a very short while for very short power outage so that the provided software shut down the computer.

I would respectfully disagree with this statement. While it may be generally true of consumer grade UPSs, it is an over simplification of the higher end UPSs that are available.

The run time is a factor of load. If you put one pump on a Data Center UPS, it will run for weeks before draining the batteries.

I run my entire system (with the exception of the lights) on a PowerWare 1500VA UPS. If a power failure occurs, the controller shuts off everything except the sump return, powerheads, heater and skimmer.

I have tested this for 4 hours and still had roughly 50% charge.

One thing to watch for, and I think it was already mentioned, but make sure the UPS produces a true sine wave. I would guess that pumps don't like square waves?

In the end, the UPS is such a simple solution. Although, perhaps not the cheapest.

[amoreira]

One can get a 1 - 3 kW generator from Costco for $300 to $500. One can't run it indoors though. It'll last as long as you have gasoline.