Aquarium Backup Power - Fuse Placement Help

[Isaac Alves]

Here's my Reef Backup Power Layout. I have the power requirements noted.

Question: Where should I put fuses?

Notes:

• I am using heavy utility 12awg 3 pole wire to and from switch relay
• I am using 2awg copper stranded between inverter and battery
• I am using 6awg copper stranded between charger and battery

And guidance on what size of fuse would be very helpful.

 

[Isaac Alves]

follow up...

Another aspect that I'm trying to make happen is for my APEX controller to sense the switch to Battery power and shut off lights, heaters and two of the larger wave makers. The return pump, two small wave makers and skimmer will continue running. So the power draw should be even less than the 262 watts noted as the base power draw, but I figured I'd plan around the max usage if there was an emergency situation that required it.

 

[Isaac Alves]

Another question...Do I need a 2000 watt inverter? Would a 1000 watt or less be more efficient in my scenario?

 

[Isaac Alves]

Follow up:

Being southern California, I don't have heating issues. The real issues we have are blackouts/brownouts because of fire prevention tactics by city or power demand due to hot weather and drought conditions. So the system is being built for specifically catching these sudden blackouts.

 

[boatguy]

your fuse needs to be as close as possible to the source of power. I'd say within 6" of the positive battery terminal. You are also going to need a disconnect switch for that inverter on the DC positive side. Read the instructions for the inverter about a bonding wire. Exercise caution with inverter power with sensitive equipment. Not all inverters produce good AC power. all that being said... a lot of our reef pumps are now DC powered and could be run right off a battery or bank of batteries.

 

[Isaac Alves]

your fuse needs to be as close as possible to the source of power. I'd say within 6" of the positive battery terminal. You are also going to need a disconnect switch for that inverter on the DC positive side. Exercise caution with inverter power with sensitive equipment. Not all inverters produce good AC power.

The inverter I have is a

GoWISE Power 2000W Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter 12V DC to 120V AC.

model: PS1003

 

[Isaac Alves]

Hopefully I'm doing my calculations correctly, I can get my reef system to its bare essentials to pull ~115 watts. The GoWise pure sine wave PS1003 has a marketed efficiency of 90%.

Please anyone let me know if this equation is wrong: 115w / 12V / .9 = 10.6amps

Using this Battery Life calculator I would get ~9 Hrs 26 Min runtime?

 

[Isaac Alves]

Here's my drawing updated with fuse placement and optimized Bare Bones components of my Reef. Also, not sure if I should fuse the positive wire going to the LOAD from the transfer switch.

 

[Isaac Alves]

Update: I’m removing the fuse at the AC input since it’s already protected at the main breaker.

 

[Isaac Alves]

Is there a way to signal to the APEX that the power is on battery and not utility? I wonder if I could use Neptune’s APEX IO module to trigger a virtual outlet.