UPS battery backup with Apex

[shakeandbake]

Good morning.

We added a UPS backup system. Pretty simple setup and things ran as expected. But I have a couple brief questions that I was hoping someone with experience might have some insight on.

First, we have have a ground probe in one of the gfci outlets. In the other, we plugged in the UPS. (Considering a second GFCI for some equipment but thats for another day.) Anyway, the Apex aux 12V power was plugged into one of the 'surge only' outlets on the UPS and the powerbar is plugged into one of the UPS 'surge & battery' outlets. When we cut the power the surge only outlet goes out, the Apex identifies the power outage, the battery kicks on and powers the powerbar. Any issues with this set up? Given the choice I'd prefer to have the ground probe direct at the gfci outlet rather than into a strip plug or UPS. Thanks.

Second, I added the code "If Power Apex OFF 000 Then OFF" to various outlets, skimmer, heater, display lights, sump lights, etc. The initial plan was to only leave the 1link running powering/controlling the 2 Wavs. Testing this set up the UPS indicates an output of ~25 amps and estimates 220 minutes of run time. That should buy us some time. Do people typically run other systems on their battery back up? or just powerheads? (I have a battery powered airstone for the QT and/or sump but I don't have one plugged into the Apex.)

I have considered also running the return pump at 1% to prevent a syphon. Any pros/cons to that? It would certainly reduce run time. But outages over 2 hours are rare. I tried to add the code "If Power Apex OFF 000 Then 1" to the COR advanced tab. Similar code runs the COR at 1% during feed mode. However attempting to use this syntax on the Power Apex line flags an error. Any thoughts there?

 

[SuncrestReef]

1. The only drawback to your question of the ground probe and 12v aux adapter, is that if the UPS itself fails, you could lose power to both the Apex and to the EnergyBar. I've worked with UPS batteries for over 30 years and have seen this happen several times. You're much better protected to have the 12v aux adapter plugged into a wall outlet or power strip, and the EnergyBar into the UPS. You can program the Apex to alert you when the EnergyBar loses power but the 12v aux adapter still has power, indicating a UPS malfunction:

[EmailAlm]
Set OFF
If Power EB_Modue_Name Off 000 Then ON

(this image is from my tutorial on Apex Power Monitoring)

2. I recommend only running powerheads and/or air stones during a power outage to preserve the battery life. Heaters, lights, skimmers, UV, reactor pumps, etc. will all drain the battery quickly.

3. For your COR question, the Apex doesn't permit the use of percentages with the If Power command:

Source: https://forum.neptunesystems.com/showthread.php?20677-Using-percentages-in-programming

However, you can easily get around this limitation by using a virtual output to detect the power failure:

[Power_Outage] - virtual output
Set OFF
If Power Apex Off 000 Then ON

Then on your COR programming, just add this line:

If Output Power_Outage = ON Then 1

I would only recommend running the COR on battery if your sump cannot handle the water volume from a siphon event. Even at low speeds, the COR will drain your battery faster than a powerhead.

 

[shakeandbake]

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I had read through your programming tutorials and your UPS diagram has been extremely helpful.

1. Initially, I was concerned that having the ground probe plugged into the UPS could create an issue since the probe's manual indicated that it should be plugged into a grounded wall outlet. After some further research it appears that while that is recommended, it is not a necessity. So, I will plug the aux into the GFCI outlet and move the ground probe to a UPS 'surge only' outlet. Then I will add an alert for the EnergyBar as you advised.

2 & 3. The sump is able to handle the water volume. My initial thinking here was that since the majority of outages are short in duration this would keep some flow through the sump. But once again your advice is excellent. I will plan for the worst, (a longer power failure) and hope for the best, (a short one). Skipping the return pump @ 1% will extend the UPS battery life.

Finally, your suggestion to use a virtual outlet to address the COR limitation may be a solution on another front. Initially, I had simply used the "If Power Apex Off" statement to turn off outlets. Since that conditional statement was not added to the WAV programming they would remain on and run off the battery. I suspect that they continue their normal schedule/modes? I was thinking now that I might set up a virtual outlet as described and use that to then set the WAVs to say 30% in the event of a power failure. This could potentially further extend the UPS battery life.

An excellent excuse to dive into virtual outputs and "Part 5" of your programming tutorials...

 

[SuncrestReef]

Finally, your suggestion to use a virtual outlet to address the COR limitation may be a solution on another front. Initially, I had simply used the "If Power Apex Off" statement to turn off outlets. Since that conditional statement was not added to the WAV programming they would remain on and run off the battery. I suspect that they continue their normal schedule/modes? I was thinking now that I might set up a virtual outlet as described and use that to then set the WAVs to say 30% in the event of a power failure. This could potentially further extend the UPS battery life.

An excellent excuse to dive into virtual outputs and "Part 5" of your programming tutorials...

Yes, you can create a WAV profile that activates during a power outage using a virtual output:

[Power_Outage] - virtual output
Set OFF
If Power Apex Off 000 Then ON

Then on your WAV programming, add this to the Advanced tab to override the normal schedule

If Output Power_Outage = ON Then Power_Fail

 

[shakeandbake]

Awesome. We rearranged the wiring as described on the UPS, ground probe, and Apex aux adapter this morning and then added an alert should the UPS fail causing the EnergyBar to lose power. We tested both scenarios and it works like a charm. Next, I will configure a constant X% WAV profile and then utilize a virtual outlet to activate it.

Thank you again for the detailed responses and for taking the time to share your insight.

For the record... when we saw the alert indicating that you had replied and we got excited like a celebrity texted us.