Cheap Power Outage Protection

[cameron]

I can't claim victory on this one as someone else pointed it out to me. I am just passing it along. Penn Plax makes a very cheap battery operated air stone pump that comes on only when power is interupted. Great part is it is really cheap and works really well. You can also pick up this pump locally at PetCo or PetSmart. Possibly some other places as well.

It is recommended you have one for every 2-3' of surface area in your tank. I would probably get one for at least every 60 gallons rounding up. I haven't tried running one till it stopped on fresh batteries, but mine did run for over three hours on some worn out batteries.

Anyway to the links:

Here is the pump (out of stock right now, but they will be back in shortly)
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/212719/product.web">http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/212719/product.web</a>

A nice shelf to mount it on:
[IMG]http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/212408/product.web">http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/212408/product.web</a>

Stealth airline tubing to blend in a bit better:
[IMG]http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/204157/product.web">http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/204157/product.web</a>

Tubing suction cups:
[IMG]http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/211343/product.web">http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/211343/product.web</a>

Improved wooden air stone:
[IMG]http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/209222/product.web">http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/209222/product.web</a>

Total about $25 per 2-3' of surface area on the tank + cost of batteries.

 

[darren24]

Great information. I have one from WalMart but it has to be turned on manually.

 

[wbholwell]

This would be nice to have for when you're not there. Where would you recommend mounting the airstones so that tubing is not visible in the display tank?

 

[flyingarmy]

I have a battery operated pump from Walmart also but it doesn't detect a power outage. I'll have to pick up 2 for the tanks! Thanks for the heads up!

 

[frewl]

I found a site that reviewed these pumps and they said that the batteries lasted 5 days.

check it out.

 

[cameron]

I ran my tubing down the side of my overflow. You could also get clear tubing and run it down into the corners. The other option would be simply to run rock up to near the surface and just hide the tubing behind the rock.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Cameron, am I correct in that they pump is running all the time? It runs off AC when power is available, and turns to batteries when AC is out, right?

I have a rather "oversized" battery backup for my two Tunze 6100, that runs them both for over 8 hours. It cost me a bit over three hundred, but is rather small, and worry free. AS we mentioned in an earlier post, it is a modified sine, so it wont run certain pumps (for example, it wont push my MAg 18 return pump), but thats fine with me. The tunze pull about 30 watts combines when the power is hours, so I get the long run time.

Definitely not as cheap as your solution, but it works.

 

[fishybusiness]

Ive got a couple of these used at my shop that I need to get rid off. They are off until the power shuts off and then they switch to thier battery power. The batteries have lasted quite some time with good quality batteries but they do age even when not in use so its a good idea to swap them out from time to time.

 

[cameron]

jmaneyapanda;35763 wrote: Cameron, am I correct in that they pump is running all the time? It runs off AC when power is available, and turns to batteries when AC is out, right?

They only come on when AC power is off.

jmaneyapanda;35763 wrote: I have a rather "oversized" battery backup for my two Tunze 6100, that runs them both for over 8 hours. It cost me a bit over three hundred, but is rather small, and worry free. AS we mentioned in an earlier post, it is a modified sine, so it wont run certain pumps (for example, it wont push my MAg 18 return pump), but thats fine with me. The tunze pull about 30 watts combines when the power is hours, so I get the long run time.

No battery solution is worry free. Eventually all battery backups must have the battery replaced. Some require changes yearly others every 2-3 years. Few make it five. Also, I am suprised you get that long of a run time. Converting DC to AC is actually very taxing on a battery system. You lose somewhere around 70% of the power of the backup due to this conversion. Most affordable battery systems are designed to run a light load under one hour. As the battery ages it also loses charging capacity. What it did when you first got it, probably won't be even close a few months later.

I think it would be relatively easy to do a great battery backup on a DC pump, but there aren't a lot of those pumps around and even fewer are affordable. Had I designed those Koralia pumps, I would have created the pump as DC and a modular power supply. You could even create an entire line of pumps and lights that run 12V or 24V DC. If you went 12V you could use a good 500W PC powersupply to run an entire system. Most pumps would pull about half or less wattage for the same effort.

 

[george]

Cameron;35797 wrote: You lose somewhere around 70% of the power of the backup due to this conversion.

That's not the case for modern (post 70's) inverters. That figure is much more like the loss going from AC to DC which involves not only stepping down the voltage, but full-wave rectification of the oscillation portion which is where most of the heat of an AC-DC transformer occurs.

A typical inverter will run between 60% and 90% efficiency depending on the load with 80%-90% efficiency being common with a 20% to 80% load.

Considering how low watt Tunze's are, 8 hours is quite possible from a device designed to keep a 100+ watt computer up for an hour or so.

 

[cameron]

George;35816 wrote: That's not the case for modern (post 70's) inverters. That figure is much more like the loss going from AC to DC which involves not only stepping down the voltage, but full-wave rectification of the oscillation portion which is where most of the heat of an AC-DC transformer occurs.

A typical inverter will run between 60% and 90% efficiency depending on the load with 80%-90% efficiency being common with a 20% to 80% load.

Considering how low watt Tunze's are, 8 hours is quite possible from a device designed to keep a 100+ watt computer up for an hour or so.

You are referring to the inverter itself. They badge an inverter as 90% (or more) effecient because the circuit has little loss converting the sine wave, but the loss due to actual continual draw measured over time is quite a bit more. A great test is to plug in a 30w DC pump directly to a DC battery then plug a 30w pump through the inverter on AC current. Few inverters (probably none) espeically those in budget land are going to run 90% as long. At best they will be in the 50% to 60% range. Problem with a DC to AC invertor is that if any load is present it must convert the signal which drains the unit. It may be 99% effecient at converting that signal, but the circuit still drains away. Even under minimal load (5w or so) most UPSes under $500 won't make it 8 hours. He did the right thing and got a square wave inverter which is much easier to convert as it is a digital inverter rather than an analog one. He gets a lot more time possibly even double an analog converter, but not everything will run on a square AC wave and you still have the problems of the battery itself wearing out over time.

Oh and don't even get me started on how much you lose converting DC to AC and then right back to DC which is exactly what his pump is doing. If nothing is plugged in but an AC to DC brick, I bet the UPS dies quick.

 

[washowi]

So what would you suggest that it plugs into that will make it turn on if the power goes off....just a UPS?

Playing the stupid guy here tonight.

 

[siege]

Well, after a 3-day power outage here and a failed UPS, I finally brought home a 100 lb. 3000-watt server grade UPS that I have plugged the powerstrip controlling the powerheads into. I tested it and found that it will run my 650gph sump pump, powerheads, <u>and</u> heater for about 4 hours, so I figure it should run the powerheads for a good couple of days... The powerloss over such an extended period of time was really catastrophic for my poor tank, and I'm ensuring it never happens again... I think I'll go get one or two of those things also!

 

[frewl]

I picked mine up locally at Imagine Ocean in Canton. Jenn was really nice and talked to me about my setup.

Now I just need to find one more 22 Oceanic like she uses for her displays.

 

[siege]

Thats a bit far away for me :/

 

[frewl]

They have these at petsmart.com if you order 4 of them for little over 60 and there is a coupon for 10 bucks off 50 or more and then if you have over 50 bucks its free shipping.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441779314&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=282574488339089&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&bmUID=1177044611736">http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441779314&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=282574488339089&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&bmUID=1177044611736</a>

So 53.96 for 4 of them. They might have to add tax.

Just thought I would drop that out for everyone.

 

[siege]

Thanks a lot for the link!

 

[george]

Cameron;35824 wrote: At best they will be in the 50% to 60% range

That's very much dependent on the design. Newer UPS systems easily get nominal ratings out of 1kW untis of 50%-60% with 5kW and up units hitting 80%-90%. Now granted most people don't have a 5kW UPS at home, but even the little 500W-1kW jobs can be pretty efficient. But no battery is ever efficient over the whole spectrum of draw. And I do agree that the battery will degrade over time. Quite severely at first, depending on battery technology.

In any case, I wouldn't run Tunze's on a backup for the very reason you stated.

If you want a perpetual system, hook up an air line to a compressor for air tools. Let it run air stones, then when the power comes back on, it'll automatically recharge. Not sure how much bubbling you'd get out of a tank of compressed air, but I bet it would last for a fairly long time. Extreme, but guaranteed to be there.

 

[cameron]

Copule things up front. First, that Penn Plax shelf for some could make a great probe holder. Depends on the water level in your sump, but if your water level is around 3-7" from the surface give or take I think it would work well. Second, a bit of PVC or pex pipe can conceal the tubing fairly nicely. Pick up some black PVC and it would really nice.

washowi;35896 wrote: So what would you suggest that it plugs into that will make it turn on if the power goes off....just a UPS?

Right into the wall where your pumps go. The pumps run off of 2 D batteries when the power goes out. A couple places online list these pumps running for days on 2 D batteries and I can't see why they won't. They use really small DC motors which will easily run for a day + on AA batteries much less a D. Also, they can run off of a single D but a bit slower so if one battery goes early the unit just keeps pumping along.

george wrote: Now granted most people don't have a 5kW UPS at home, but even the little 500W-1kW jobs can be pretty efficient.

Compared to where UPS technology used to be they are much better, but converting a linear wave into a oscillating one causes that constant draw. Most manufactorers plan on a medium sized UPS (1000VA) to run around 6 hours just converting the signal so it is rare to find a UPS that will run for much more than a day much less with a load. People think that a bigger UPS will solve the problem, but even HUGE UPS systems in the 5000VA range generally don't make it a full day with practically no load. That same battery pushing a pure DC current would last for days so I never understood why they only measured sine conversion for effeciency in the UPS. I guess 90% sounds better than 50% and I suppose it is highly dependant on what you are running. Regulated power supplies get juice at the peak rather than the full range so running an unregulated power supply on a square wave UPS could do some pretty awful things to a motor or circuit. Either way, I wouldn't run anything expensive on one for long even if it appeared to work.

In general, people don't understand what a UPS does so they just plug XYZ into it expecting it to perform just like AC voltage coming from the wall. Problem is a UPS good at converting that signal lose a ton of power doing it, but will power your equipment very well. Digital ones run a lot longer as the conversion isn't nearly as taxing but create a squared off wave that many electrical components have a hard time managing.

In general, I wouldn't run a UPS on aquarium equipment unless it was a really well built unit. Even then I wouldn't expect it to go more than a few hours on a light load unless it cost more than most of my aquarium gear. After that you get to look forward to regular expensive battery replacements. Give me a $15 dollar D battery pump any ole day. Cheap, works and the worst thing about them is hiding the tubing.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Cameron- good cheap fix, then. I hate the look of bubbles in every situation- EXCEPT IN POWER OUTAGES!!!

BTW- I think Tunze has really thought it through well, using an appropriate rectifier and such. I spoke to Roger Vitko at Tunze, and he told me that as long as the frequency is under about 80 hz, the Tunze streams will work fine on the UPS. The power unit I have is 1800 watts, and actually powers the two tunzes for longer than 8 hours- I just tested it for 8, and the unit claims (it has a little digital display that informs of remaining power in the batteries) it had 10% left.

And another BTW to anyone using the air pump- I would suggest no airstone on the end of the tubing. You want those giant wave like bubbles, as they will move more water than that little fizzy airstone.