Power outage

[ChrisfromBrick]

Thanks, I agree. The one time I needed it in 16 years, it would have been worth the expense.

plus you will add value to your home if it stays well maintained and you have to sell

 

[triggerBill]

plus you will add value to your home if it stays well maintained and you have to sell

Not to mention if the power fails for days it has many uses and is priceless. I'm thinking natural gas for the whole house.

 

[triggerBill]

Thanks for the condolences everyone. We have all lost many over the years, but i agree with whomever described this as a gut punch.

I just wanted to bring up the importance of some form of backup power again.

Now that the crying is over, lol, the fun part of shopping for new inhabitants begins.

And to make sure this doesn't happen again.

 

[VintageReefer]

@triggerBill

Breaks my heart to see this. I’m sorry for your loss

In future consider this for outages

400$

It’s a lithium battery backup, ups, and sine wave inverter

You connect it to your wall outlet. You connect devices to it. Essential devices only.

In a power outage it cuts over to battery power in .01 seconds which is seamless to your gear. When power returns it switches back to AC power and recharges for next use. All automatically.

I have the slightly smaller 600 model on my 75g tank. My return is connected to it. In power outage my return provides circulation, and the water current going through my overflow and sump baffles provides oxygenation. Water flow through the sump provides filtration, and allows the sump water to be included in the main tanks water which aids with dilution if something goes wrong.

I can get 30+ hours off battery power where my tank has circulation, oxygen, and filtration. Completely automatically. Reduced circulation - but circulation none the less and enough to prevent losses

Key here is survival. You don’t want to plug in excessive amounts of gear. Just bare minimum for survival in order to maximize battery life in an outage.

https://a.co/d/0ccX8CiT

 

[VintageReefer]

Normal operating view

Simulated power outage - unit unplugged from ac power

Manually Reduced dc pump a few notches lower to reduce power consumption, gain 10 hours on battery mode

 

[BZOFIQ]

12 hours. I got home from work at 11 pm. I have a generator but it was too late.

You get an UPS and have APEX notify you whenever power is out. Too late now but perhaps for the future.

 

[VintageReefer]

Ups are meant to run for a few minutes to save your work and shut down the pc safely. They aren’t designed to keep your gear running for 12-24 hours. We repurpose them but the battery tech in them isn’t designed for our needs. Yes long enough for apex to notify you but then what? Pull out the gas generator? Yes this would work.

I have a gas generator for extended outages but since switching to these lithium backups, I haven’t had to use the generator. Most outages are under 24 hours. My logic is use it till the battery dies and if power isn’t back, then I’ll pull out the generator and run power into the house and my tanks

 

[Ian Baxter]

I have a planned power outage on Tuesday for up to 8 hours. I purchased this on Amazon and there's a massive discount. I only paid $180 out the door. I plan to run at least my gyre for surface agitation.

 

[triggerBill]

Thanks @VintageReefer , I like the looks of that and your logic. Also, the price seems to be in line.

I have a DC pump for the "heart" of the operation too. I'm definitely going to research this.

 

[VintageReefer]

Everyone’s situation is different as their gear consumes different amounts of power. For the OP his fish are large so I am assuming a large system with a larger return pump.

These units are rated in watt hours (wh)
The one you posted for $180 (on sale) is 256 watt hours and the one I posted is roughly 2x the price at 400$ but has 4x the capacity with 1075 watt hours

 

[VintageReefer]

This is a hobby of mine I have many of these units of different brands and sizes. I’ve been buying and collecting over the last few years.

This is the best for the money. The 600 is off the market temporarily (because of me) and the 1000 is still available and an even greater value due to the increase in capacity.

The cellpowa 600 and 1000 are also some of the only ones that offer automatic cutover in event of power loss and very few if any also have built in ups surge protection. Most of the units simply “turn off” when plugged in and go in recharge mode. The cellpowa has pass thru capability and can be plugged in and power the inverter simultaneous

What is your return pump model and what percent do you run it at

 

[Ian Baxter]

Everyone’s situation is different as their gear consumes different amounts of power. For the OP his fish are large so I am assuming a large system with a larger return pump.

These units are rated in watt hours (wh)
The one you posted for $180 (on sale) is 256 watt hours and the one I posted is roughly 2x the price at 400$ but has 4x the capacity with 1075 watt hours

Yeah, my tank is only a 65g.

 

[triggerBill]

This is a hobby of mine I have many of these units of different brands and sizes. I’ve been buying and collecting over the last few years.

This is the best for the money. The 600 is off the market temporarily (because of me) and the 1000 is still available and an even greater value due to the increase in capacity.

The cellpowa 600 and 1000 are also some of the only ones that offer automatic cutover in event of power loss and very few if any also have built in ups surge protection. Most of the units simply “turn off” when plugged in and go in recharge mode. The cellpowa has pass thru capability and can be plugged in and power the inverter simultaneous

What is your return pump model and what percent do you run it at

 

[triggerBill]

Not everyone died.

 

[triggerBill]

I keep the mess in the laundry room. Lol. Draining through the wall.

 

[VintageReefer]

Not everyone died.

Nice Choice in return pump. I’m using the same one on a new build. The speed is adjustable via a dial. Approx what percent would you say you run at ?

 

[VintageReefer]

Yeah, my tank is only a 65g.

So everyone knows I will post the runtime formula for these battery generators

They all have some efficiency loss from converting ac to dc or dc to ac. It’s approx 10-15%. I use 15% in my formula for “worst case runtime” but in actuality the number of hours might be higher

(Watt Hours x .85 ) / watt load

Example - battery backup rated for 600 watt hours

(600 x .85) / 19 watts = about 27 hours of runtime.

From my screenshot above in the earlier post, my unit was telling me 30 hours of runtime with 19 watt load so the formula is close.

 

[triggerBill]

Nice Choice in return pump. I’m using the same one on a new build. The speed is adjustable via a dial. Approx what percent would you say you run at ?

Thanks. My overflow will handle it at 100% but I tend to be at 75% most of the time. It seems a bit much at 100 for my hammer. My pump is about 20' from the far return with about 5' rise.

 

[triggerBill]

Thanks. My overflow will handle it at 100% but I tend to be at 75% most of the time. It seems a bit much at 100 for my hammer. My pump is about 20' from the far return with about 5' rise.

But it will keep circulation at 25%

 

[JGT]

So this will run some powerheads and a smallish return pump or dc lower wattage one unattended. Nice.
Not enough juice to run heaters unfortunately. Esp in winter.