What are some suggetions for battery back up for power outages?

Saltyanimals

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I also have Tesla Solar + Powerwall, but still considering a local battery option. Reason for me is that tank is in my home office along with a significant amount of other office equipment. i.e. PC, laser printers, etc. I've had several occasions where the breaker would pop when everything starts at the same time. Tesla wouldn't save me to a local circuit pop hence I'm still going down the car battery + trickle + wiring to Vortech. Does anyone have a simply link or instructions how to build? I'm imagining a small/medium battery encased in a box with all the wiring tucked away into the fish cabinet.
 

MJ in Boise

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Optima+inverter. APC UPS backups are great too, but I'm not gonna show off my mess of a cord collection lol.

20200814_072934.jpg
 

h2so4hurts

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I have 4 APC SmartUPS 1500's, one for each vortech (2 mp40, 2 mp60). I get about 6 hours out of them on reef crest. For outages that last more than that I have a generator and installed a transfer switch with one outlet dedicated to the fish tank to run the pumps.

Definitely get a pure sine wave ups if you have a generator, most are modified sine and your ups will clean that up before it distributes the power to your electronics.
 

chipmunkofdoom2

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@Rp8 messaged me the other day and asked for a description and a few pictures of how my system works. I'll start out by posting a flowchart that describes how the system works. They setup is really messy and hard to follow.

The system works with an inverter, a deep cycle battery, a battery maintainer, and a transfer switch. The battery is hooked up to the inverter. The battery maintainer is hooked up to the battery and plugged in at all times. This keeps the battery topped up and ready to go. The transfer switch is plugged into both the wall and the inverter. A power strip is plugged into the transfer switch. This is where you plug in the aquarium equipment that you want to run redundantly.

This diagram shows how the system works under normal operation. Gray arrows indicate that no electricity is flowing. Colored arrows indicate electrical flow.

1597413962946.png


When the power is on, the transfer switch senses that grid power is available and sends grid power to the power strip. The aquarium equipment runs on the grid. While the power is on, the battery maintainer is also running, keeping the battery topped up and ready to go. The inverter is also on and hooked up, but the transfer switch does not draw any power from it.

Here's how the system works on power failure:

1597414318654.png


Once the transfer switch loses power, it fails over to the inverter. Current begins to flow from the battery to the inverter through the transfer switch. The aquarium equipment continues to run uninterrupted.

When the power comes back on, the system reverts to the first diagram. The transfer switch senses grid power and stops drawing from the inverter. The battery maintainer comes on and recharges the battery for the next time.

Here are a few pictures of my setup:

IMG_20200814_094409.jpg


This is the transfer switch:

IMG_20200814_094446.jpg


This really is the magic of the system. On the right, you can see two inputs, one is from the inverter and the other is from the wall. On top are the outputs. The transfer switch is really just a DPDT relay. When the relay is energized, it draws current from the wall. When the relay is not energized, it draws current from the inverter.

Let me know if there are any questions.
 

Saltyanimals

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@Rp8 messaged me the other day and asked for a description and a few pictures of how my system works. I'll start out by posting a flowchart that describes how the system works. They setup is really messy and hard to follow.

The system works with an inverter, a deep cycle battery, a battery maintainer, and a transfer switch. The battery is hooked up to the inverter. The battery maintainer is hooked up to the battery and plugged in at all times. This keeps the battery topped up and ready to go. The transfer switch is plugged into both the wall and the inverter. A power strip is plugged into the transfer switch. This is where you plug in the aquarium equipment that you want to run redundantly.

This diagram shows how the system works under normal operation. Gray arrows indicate that no electricity is flowing. Colored arrows indicate electrical flow.

1597413962946.png


When the power is on, the transfer switch senses that grid power is available and sends grid power to the power strip. The aquarium equipment runs on the grid. While the power is on, the battery maintainer is also running, keeping the battery topped up and ready to go. The inverter is also on and hooked up, but the transfer switch does not draw any power from it.

Here's how the system works on power failure:

1597414318654.png


Once the transfer switch loses power, it fails over to the inverter. Current begins to flow from the battery to the inverter through the transfer switch. The aquarium equipment continues to run uninterrupted.

When the power comes back on, the system reverts to the first diagram. The transfer switch senses grid power and stops drawing from the inverter. The battery maintainer comes on and recharges the battery for the next time.

Here are a few pictures of my setup:

IMG_20200814_094409.jpg


This is the transfer switch:

IMG_20200814_094446.jpg


This really is the magic of the system. On the right, you can see two inputs, one is from the inverter and the other is from the wall. On top are the outputs. The transfer switch is really just a DPDT relay. When the relay is energized, it draws current from the wall. When the relay is not energized, it draws current from the inverter.

Let me know if there are any questions.

Really like the concept of the auto-transfer switching. I get the AC vs DC thing mixed up all the time, but there are aux power tunnel connector (backup ports) on Vortechs. How would this setup connect to those ports? I think I read somewhere going direct to these Aux ports is more efficient than going to traditional plugs due to AC/DC inverter lost.
 

chipmunkofdoom2

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Really like the concept of the auto-transfer switching. I get the AC vs DC thing mixed up all the time, but there are aux power tunnel connector (backup ports) on Vortechs. How would this setup connect to those ports? I think I read somewhere going direct to these Aux ports is more efficient than going to traditional plugs due to AC/DC inverter lost.

This type of system can't connect to the backup ports on Vortechs, although it easily could. If you have Vortechs, you really only need the battery and the maintainer/charger. Put the battery near the tank and attach the charger/maintainer. Then, you would need battery clamps and a DC power connector that fits the Vortech's backup jack (not sure what that is). Wire up the DC jack to the clamps, clamp them to the battery, and plug them in to the Vortech. The Vortech controller accepts 12VDC directly from the battery and the Vortech controller automatically switches over to the battery on power failure.

Note that this will most likely void your Vortech warranty, so caveat emptor.
 
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Rp8

Rp8

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@Rp8 messaged me the other day and asked for a description and a few pictures of how my system works. I'll start out by posting a flowchart that describes how the system works. They setup is really messy and hard to follow.

The system works with an inverter, a deep cycle battery, a battery maintainer, and a transfer switch. The battery is hooked up to the inverter. The battery maintainer is hooked up to the battery and plugged in at all times. This keeps the battery topped up and ready to go. The transfer switch is plugged into both the wall and the inverter. A power strip is plugged into the transfer switch. This is where you plug in the aquarium equipment that you want to run redundantly.

This diagram shows how the system works under normal operation. Gray arrows indicate that no electricity is flowing. Colored arrows indicate electrical flow.

1597413962946.png


When the power is on, the transfer switch senses that grid power is available and sends grid power to the power strip. The aquarium equipment runs on the grid. While the power is on, the battery maintainer is also running, keeping the battery topped up and ready to go. The inverter is also on and hooked up, but the transfer switch does not draw any power from it.

Here's how the system works on power failure:

1597414318654.png


Once the transfer switch loses power, it fails over to the inverter. Current begins to flow from the battery to the inverter through the transfer switch. The aquarium equipment continues to run uninterrupted.

When the power comes back on, the system reverts to the first diagram. The transfer switch senses grid power and stops drawing from the inverter. The battery maintainer comes on and recharges the battery for the next time.

Here are a few pictures of my setup:

IMG_20200814_094409.jpg


This is the transfer switch:

IMG_20200814_094446.jpg


This really is the magic of the system. On the right, you can see two inputs, one is from the inverter and the other is from the wall. On top are the outputs. The transfer switch is really just a DPDT relay. When the relay is energized, it draws current from the wall. When the relay is not energized, it draws current from the inverter.

Let me know if there are any questions.
Thanks so much for the pics. Simple, dependable, & effective!
 

mfollen

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Thanks @chipmunkofdoom2 this is super helpful.

the hardest part for us not familiar with wiring is setting up the automatic transfer switch. I’ve done a bunch of google searches but am having a hard time finding how to do this. Any insight on how to do this would be a big enabler to get this system in place I suspect for many reefers.
 

infinite0180

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I have 4 APC SmartUPS 1500's, one for each vortech (2 mp40, 2 mp60). I get about 6 hours out of them on reef crest. For outages that last more than that I have a generator and installed a transfer switch with one outlet dedicated to the fish tank to run the pumps.

Definitely get a pure sine wave ups if you have a generator, most are modified sine and your ups will clean that up before it distributes the power to your electronics.

Im about to buy an inverter type portable generator. It states its safe for sensitive electronics. Thats not what your referring to, right? Your referring to the modified sign wave generators only, right?
 

lefkonj

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Any computer style battery UPS would be fantastic, just make sure there is enough power on the battery and overall circuit to power your required equipment. These can last from 10 minutes to over an hour depending on demand and size. I would avoid anything with the outlets facing up as get salt in the ports would corrupt the system and make it worthless.

A controller also helps as you can set which devices are on when the power goes out. Having to run a return pump and a heater would create a significantly lower demand than all pumps and lights.

Generators are the king of this and you can do all sorts of things. I started with a Honda 3k which was fine for the major storm I was home for but with how often our power goes out I transitioned to a natural gas generation with an automatic transfer switch. When the power goes out my UPS keeps things going while the generator starts, about 13 seconds.
 

chipmunkofdoom2

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@mfollen glad to help.

Unfortunately, I don't have many good resources for transfer switches. Most of them require comfort working with 120VAC and knowing how to wire things up. I don't know of any plug-and-play options like the one I made. Even the commercial transfer switches usually have some bare wires so that you have flexibility with how you attach it to your RV/boat.

If you want something that'll do the basics, you can get an inverter/charger. These devices are basically like the system I set up, only it's all in one unit. The inverter, charger, and transfer switch are all built into one box. You basically hook up a battery to the inverter, plug the inverter into the wall, then plug your equipment into the inverter.

Here's how an inverter charger works under normal circumstances:

1597421824725.png

When power is flowing, the inverter feeds the 120VAC directly to the power strip. It also uses power from the wall to keep the battery charged up.


And here's how it works on failure:

1597421886215.png


Once power fails, the inverter begins drawing current from the battery instead of the wall. Once the power comes on, the system reverts to the first diagram again.

There are two main downsides to inverter/chargers. The first is cost. They're more expensive than DIY. They're not prohibitively expensive though, and if you don't know how to DIY, it's the next best thing. Second, they consolidate a lot of different functions into one device (battery charger, inverter, transfer switch). If any one of those fails, the unit is a brick. I don't know the relative failure rates of these types of units. They're probably not bad. This was just more reason for me to DIY than to buy something new.

Here are two that would probably be fine for most reefs:





Note the first inverter is modified sine wave, while the second is pure sine wave. The differences between the two is a bit outside the scope of this discussion. The pure sine wave will give you a cleaner waveform than the modified sine wave inverter. In general, it's better to run electronics on pure sine wave. Having said that, I have my backup running modified sine wave.
 

h2so4hurts

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Im about to buy an inverter type portable generator. It states its safe for sensitive electronics. Thats not what your referring to, right? Your referring to the modified sign wave generators only, right?
Unless you're buying a Honda, they're basically all modified sine. Some of them have better resolution of the steps, but if you put something like a reeflo pump on a modified sine, you're going to hear it. It will be VERY loud. It will still work, but it's going to run inefficiently and sound like a running washing machine full of quarters.
 

Trivan

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So, how many hours will this run between oil changes?

I have a Kohler 20Kw, the recommended is, check every 8-24 hours when running (it eats oil as all of them do) and change every 150 hours. I change the oil and filter after any extended run time. This past storm I was out for 6 days.
 

Saltyanimals

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This type of system can't connect to the backup ports on Vortechs, although it easily could. If you have Vortechs, you really only need the battery and the maintainer/charger. Put the battery near the tank and attach the charger/maintainer. Then, you would need battery clamps and a DC power connector that fits the Vortech's backup jack (not sure what that is). Wire up the DC jack to the clamps, clamp them to the battery, and plug them in to the Vortech. The Vortech controller accepts 12VDC directly from the battery and the Vortech controller automatically switches over to the battery on power failure.

Note that this will most likely void your Vortech warranty, so caveat emptor.

Woah.. is it that simple? I'm I understand you correctly a car battery is ~12V DC already. So grab any car battery and connect barrel plugs directly to the battery like the one below assuming it'll fits to the AUX barrel connector to the vortec. Add in any battery maintainer like the $20 one below to keep the battery charged.. and that's it? ???

My concern this entire time is with overloading the vortech. I mean.. in idiot terms.. A giant car battery connecting directly to a vortech. I assumed something needed to scale down the power. Like in the movies where Rambo get's the car battery shock skin treatment. I was thinking the same would happen to my vortechs.





barrel.PNG
battery.PNG
 

chipmunkofdoom2

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Woah.. is it that simple? I'm I understand you correctly a car battery is ~12V DC already. So grab any car battery and connect barrel plugs directly to the battery like the one below assuming it'll fits to the AUX barrel connector to the vortec. Add in any battery maintainer like the $20 one below to keep the battery charged.. and that's it? ???

My concern this entire time is with overloading the vortech. I mean.. in idiot terms.. A giant car battery connecting directly to a vortech. I assumed something needed to scale down the power. Like in the movies where Rambo get's the car battery shock skin treatment. I was thinking the same would happen to my vortechs.





barrel.PNG
battery.PNG

It is really that simple. Someone here did a disassembly of an Ecotech battery. If you stop the video around 2:47, you can see it's wired directly from the battery to the ports on the box. The same member who did the disassembly also did a DIY Ecotech backup thread here. I don't know if I would use the same battery, but this is the basic idea of how you'd do it. It looks like the controller takes 5.5x2.1mm connectors. Watch the video to be sure though.

You don't need any sort of converter between the battery and your Vortech controllers. With most electronics, the components are sensitive to the voltage, not the current. Since the battery is 12VDC, the voltage is good. There's a lot of current stored in the battery, but electronics will generally only pull as much current as they need. If they only need a little, they'll just take a little. If they need a lot, they'll take a lot.
 
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Saltyanimals

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It is really that simple. Someone here did a disassembly of an Ecotech battery. If you stop the video around 2:47, you can see it's wires directly from the battery to the ports on the box. The same member who did the disassembly also did a DIY Ecotech backup thread here. I don't know if I would use the same battery, but this is the basic idea of how you'd do it. It looks like the controller takes 5.5x2.1mm connectors. Watch the video to be sure though.

You don't need any sort of converter between the battery and your Vortech controllers. With most electronics, the components are sensitive to the voltage, not the current. Since the battery is 12VDC, the voltage is good. There's a lot of current stored in the battery, but electronics will generally only pull as much current as they need. If they only need a little, they'll just take a little. If they need a lot, they'll take a lot.
Awesome! Thank you for pointing me that direction. Cheers!
 

BackToTheReef

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I installed a solar system consisting of 18 x 365 watt solar panels connected to 2 x 5 kw inverters with 2 x 4 kw batteries. I do stay in South Africa and we experience an insane amount of what the power utility calls "Load Shedding" where they cut your power between 2 hours 30 min up to 10 hours every day to protect the grid from overloading due to their inability to continuously supply enough power (Discussion for another day).

The cost of the system, in $, was around $7500. I did not do the instillation with a reef-tank in mind but rather to get rid of the inconvenience of the load shedding.

The stability of my power, after the installation, allowed me to enter the hobby. The batteries only gets charged by sunlight during the day via the panels that also supply 100% of my homes consumption during sunlight hours, including the water heating system. I still use power from the grid during non sunlight hours to spare some capacity on the batteries to use during load shedding at night or cloudy day's, that is few and far between in South Africa.

The system works well and I have never been out of power and just smile when I hear the generators starting up, from the neighbors, every time load shedding is initiated.

Converting your home's electricity supply partly to solar or any other renewable energy source may save you money on your monthly bill but I am not convinced it will result in savings in the long term taking the initial cost and replacement cost of the batteries into account when it becomes due. It is however worth every penny knowing that you will not run out of power when you are on a business trip or vacation etc.

Well this is good to hear on a number of different levels (I make my living in energy efficiency/sustainability) but especially b/c you were able to overcome the obstacle of load shedding and not just for the hobby!

I was doing the math on some of the tank equipment I want to run at my current kwh rate it wouldn't take much for the solar system to have some economic advantages. A 500g reef loaded to the gills with gadgets sucks up a lot of power.

Outside of the hobby I recognize that right now the economic benefit isn't there as I don't live in an area with varying time of use rates but for me it is more of a personal goal to be more sustainable. As a building science/efficiency geek I would also like to come as close to passive house standards as possible and in the long run become net positive.

However, offsetting $500 a month in reef operating costs per month would suffice for the time being! :D
 

BackToTheReef

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1E0835CB-95EB-49AC-A62E-29530D78165B.jpeg
In NJ we were with out power for 6 days last week. While I agree small generators are a good idea - you really have to keep up with their maintenance - including starting them monthly to ensure they work and actually being home to start them. Also remember that most gas stations don’t have back up generators to pump gas so make sure you have some on hand. It amazes me how many people I’ve seen posting in NJ and the surrounding area that lost everything this past week. Spending 5-10k + on tanks and livestock and it’s all gone. After Sandy we put in this and it’s been a life saver. Not sure I’ve ever seen a build thread that included A back up power plan. Don’t care what it is everyone should be prepared for an extended outage for your reef - not just a couple hours.

Natural Gas or Propane?
 

Brian_68

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This Battery Backup unit has sufficient capacity to run most pump systems and one(1) 300-watt heater. It uses the typical 12v Gel Cell battery that's replaceable, and can be "hotwired" in parallel with one or more external batteries for added runtime if you are electrically inclined (and willing to void the warranty).

1597198850434.png
Problem with a small UPS is you may get 15 minutes with a 300 watt heater with this size.
 
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