A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners
Battery back-ups
Hi, I've seen people mention needing to get some kind of a back up system or plan, but no actuall "HOW TO".
I've just built a battery back up, which will power a bilge pump(s) when the power goes out. So far, I haven't tested it yet.
Since I do AC work, of course, I used parts I normally have on hand.
In case you want to give it a try, here is a drawing......sorry...no cad in my computer.
I built it inside a box I bought at a home improvement store.
The charger will be an aoutomatic type charger....like a batteryminder brand. The charger will flow through the relay, till the power goes out. Then the battery will flow through the relay,powering the 12V pump
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sahib Punjabi on
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Well done David,
I would love to try this. Could you build me one? What would be the estimated cost and time frame?
Thanks :-)
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Permalink Reply by David Hart on
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Hi Sahib, Thanks for your comment :-)
I really hadn't planned on making and selling them...It'll be a little longer, before I can get all the stuff together, so that I can even test mine.....then there is the 'liability' issue. I'm not an electrical engineer, nor do I have 'approved plans'
I know Murray sells one that is made for our power, here in the states.
I'm surprised that Sylvia isn't selling them in her 'store'...(hint hint)
I don't know how 'handy' you are (?)....I could help you get the parts and 'suggest' how to put one together.
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Thanks David.
Reasonably handy. I would love to work with you...especially as we are fairly close to each other.
Bummer is that over the weekend I slipped in the pool and initial diagnosis is that it is probably torn achilles tendon...WOW! Just had MRI and will get to know in a day or two if I need surgery (:
As if this is what I needed right in the middle of building my research aquaponic commercial garden project!
I also read that you are seriously considering going commercial. Great :-)
I would love to share info and work with you as we both grow in such ventures. Speak to you soon.
God bless
David Hart said:Hi Sahib, Thanks for your comment :-)
I really hadn't planned on making and selling them...It'll be a little longer, before I can get all the stuff together, so that I can even test mine.....then there is the 'liability' issue. I'm not an electrical engineer, nor do I have 'approved plans'
I know Murray sells one that is made for our power, here in the states.
I'm surprised that Sylvia isn't selling them in her 'store'...(hint hint)
I don't know how 'handy' you are (?)....I could help you get the parts and 'suggest' how to put one together.
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.Wow Sahib.....sure hope you heal fast.... :-)
I just hurt my lower back, this past Wed. I was digging trenches for some of my drains. It still hurts :-(
I'll keep you up-dated on how the testing goes...
It would be nice to get together...It really doesn't take too long to assemble one.
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Permalink Reply by George T on
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I hope all the bad backs are better.
David, please give me more information on the relay, common name, maker, model. I want to use something like that but don't know how to even start researching. TCL mentioned a "wall wart" and I don't know what that is either.
What I'm thinking of doing is running my pump, timer and aerator with battery backup, the batteries supplying power through an inverter. What I don't know how to do is make the switch automatically from grid to battery power. I'd like to the extent possible build in failsafe and redundancy. Any suggestions along those lines are welcome. The system I'm planning will be media beds/indexing valve.
thank you
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Hi George, What I built 'only' powers a 12 Volt device... when the main power is off. For example....a bilge pump, with a venturi or a spray bar, that 'only' runs, when the main power goes off.
I don't know if Sylvia is selling any yet ? I know Murray sells ones that are designed for the USA power grid.
By the time I added up my time to buy the parts, and make it....I really didn't save 'that' much'.
Your idea of powering a pump(s) by using a 'convertor' is pretty popular.
There is no 'switch'.....main power (grid) is constantly powering a battery charger(s)....which is constantly charging your battery.... the convertor takes the 12 ( or 24) volt power (from the battery(s).... and transforms it to 120 volt (USA), which in turn powers your pump(s).
In an emergency, it works till your battery drains down.. same idea as a battery back up for your computer.
Maybe TC Lynx will talk about her set up....I think she runs either a water pump or an air pump this way (?)
The 'wall wart' charger that TC mentioned is simply a 'plug in' charger that has a small box, which is the convertor
(transformer). Most cell phone use them....kids toys have them too. Takes 120 volts and transforms it to what ever voltage is needed. The picture, is one used for remote control airplanes.
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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on
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Hum, I'll have to go try to do a diagram but my set up...
I run my air pumps with battery backup.
They normally run on mains power but when mains power goes out, they switch to the battery power. This is done with a DPDT relay I picked up at Skycraft.
Parts-
Big 12 volt 105 AH Deep cycle AGM sealed gel type battery
Battery charger (used to have a fancy one that would switch from charge to float automatically but it died,. now using a cheap one that I have to switch to float once the battery is charged back up after a power out.)
Inverter 12 VDC to 115 VAC to power the air pumps when running on battery power (get a good one)
All the wires to hook that stuff together.
Relay
Wall wart (this is to let my relay know when there is power and to keep the connection for the mains power to my air pumps, when the wall wart looses power the relay switches to it's de-energized state which opens the mains connection and closes the connection between the air pumps and the battery power.)
I'll have to do some diagrams and get some pictures up into a blog post here soon.
The nice thing about using the 110 AC power run out to the air pumps is that regular heavy duty extension cords can handle the higher voltage but when running DC power you need big wire. The only run I have of that is between the battery and the charger and the inverter, after the inverter we are back to 110 AC. Also, I could also hook my small (300 gallon) system pump up to this as well though my battery wouldn't last as long with more draw and one must make sure the inverter is sized to handle the needed wattage plus lots extra.
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Hi TCLynx, I guess I forgot you were using a switch. I thought it was more like a battery back up, used for computers.
Skycraft...LOL....for you that don't know, it's an electrical version of Michael Cosmo's "BarterTown". Michael, maybe you could come over and do a cool video of Skycraft.
The first time I went in there, I spent about 2 hours, just looking. I don't know how many times I picked something up, looked at it and said.."Cool, I wonder what it is ?" :-)
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TCL, what do you think of running a 12V battery bank to inverter and then to system, all the while leaving a charger connected to the 12Vs? If it feasible to expect the charger to keep the batteries at full charge until power loss, at which point the batteries would drain to the system components?
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I know of some people who run such for backup but I don't think it is very advisable for the entire system since inverters can fail too and I've had to replace mine twice already as well as having a battery charger give up.
This might work for a very small system or for say an air pump but if for some reason the power is out for long enough to drain the battery down, you need a charger able to re-charge as well as supplying the system with power and this is not always an automatic option.
I would definitely advise a switch over so that you are not constantly pulling though the battery inverter and charger. I'm even thinking I would like the switch over to shut off the inverter as well so it isn't constantly pulling power.
Keep in mind that inverters definitely need to be far over rated. Even though my air pump is only 60 watts, I can't use a 100 watt inverter for this operation (the 100 watt inverter I first tried said it was rated for 100 watts continuous and some higher number surge but in the fine print that you can't see till after you open the package, it actually said 100 watts continuous for up to 20 minutes at a time !?!?!?!?! WHAT? Anyway, it died after a few hours.) I don't know how big your whole system is George but you would need to make sure the inverter was big enough to handle the peak of your pump start up plus anything else hooked up and be way bigger than the overall draw. The next inverter I got was rated for like 400 watts continuous and it did much better, I think it did ok for 4 months before it's little internal fan quit, I got it replaced (still under warranty.) but the replacement only lasted about 8 months and the fan gave up again. Perhaps the problem being in my garage that gets hot in summer. So the next inverter I went shopping for I tried to make sure it could survive warm temperatures and had a somewhat higher rating as well. It is still working but the fancy self regulating battery charger quit so now I have to check on the battery charger and switch between charge and float manually.
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