Battery back-ups

[David Hart]

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

 

Battery back-up.jpeg

 

 

 

[TCLynx]

Thanks Dan,

I would still need a generator to run long term but not in the budget at the moment so my little battery set up gives a little piece of mind.

 

[John R]

Renewable energy is cool but linking it to aquaponics made it sing for me.  The system I'm putting together is all run on low voltage DC and I was wondering if anyone out there knew of decent volume air pumps that can be run from 12VDC.  There are plenty of tire pumps out there but everything I've seen is low volume.  Any ideas?  I can get everything else I need (esp. pumps) running on low voltage DC.

 

TCLynx's system is certainly workable in an outage but you give up significant efficiency with the inverter and I'd like to avoid it if possible.  And I'll second the motion of buying overrated inverters.  If you need it to run anything that even remotely resembles a motor multiply the continuous power needed by 5 to choose one and ignore the surge rating altogether if you're buying standard commodity equipment (i.e. at your corner big box store, no name mail order, etc).

 

[TCLynx]

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/1018/12V-Air-Pumps/DC%20air...

The DC8 might support a 200-250 gallon fish tank depending on depth

The DC15 might support a 450-500 gallon fish tank depending on depth

Just remember that running 12V DC you need bigger wires and to keep the batteries, power generation and use as close together as possible to avoid large line losses. 

 

I'm currently running an extension cord from the battery out to where the air pumps are and another one way out to the 300 gallon system but if this was running DC I would probably have to keep the air pump by the battery and run air plumbing all the way out to the systems instead as I'm not laying out feeder cable to run the battery back up.

 

There are not nearly as many choices in DC air pumps and even the larger one listed in the above link is not big enough to handle my large AP system on it's own (I had originally wanted that one and to skip the inverter but was talked out of it since it doesn't really provide enough air and I would have needed multiple air pumps to handle the one system.

John R said:

Renewable energy is cool but linking it to aquaponics made it sing for me.  The system I'm putting together is all run on low voltage DC and I was wondering if anyone out there knew of decent volume air pumps that can be run from 12VDC.  There are plenty of tire pumps out there but everything I've seen is low volume.  Any ideas?  I can get everything else I need (esp. pumps) running on low voltage DC.

 

TCLynx's system is certainly workable in an outage but you give up significant efficiency with the inverter and I'd like to avoid it if possible.  And I'll second the motion of buying overrated inverters.  If you need it to run anything that even remotely resembles a motor multiply the continuous power needed by 5 to choose one and ignore the surge rating altogether if you're buying standard commodity equipment (i.e. at your corner big box store, no name mail order, etc).

 

[David Hart]

TCL makes a very important point....the wire size is very important, along with the proper installation of the wire.

I'm providing a link to a site, that shows what gauge wire to use, according to 'what' voltage/wattage is being used ....and the distance. You first,  'must' know what your amp draw will be, for the device your trying to power.

This should help :-)

http://www.windsun.com/Hardware/Wire_Table.htm

[TCLynx]

Here is something that might be helpful for those who want a fairly simple battery backup option.

I just got an e-mail from the inverter store where I got the current inverter I'm using now.  It noted this inverter has the switch over and is a battery charger all in one.  So it seems to me with a connection to mains power (I couldn't tell from the video how to connect it to mains power to operate as a battery charger) nor have I checked the price yet.  Anyway, with the inverter and a good battery, it seems that may be all that is required to have a battery backup without having to wire up relays or additional chargers.

 

Oh, just checked the price.  pretty pricey but I suppose with a bank of batteries or a really big battery, it could drive everything on both my systems plus probably the freezer and fridge too!  LOL

http://www.theinverterstore.com/the-inverter-store-product.php?mode...

[George T]

Thanks.  A  Pure Sine inverter is the way to go according to the the reading I've done.  The drawback with the combo is if the charger fails, you've lost both.  I'm still researching but am leaning toward inverter and batteries for backup.  I still want solar for power but that may be down the road.

TCLynx said:

Here is something that might be helpful for those who want a fairly simple battery backup option.

I

[Sahib Punjabi]

This is SERIOUS! I really do need some form of backup!

 

Well what do you know...The GFI must have tripped some time last night and we ended up with a number of stressed Channel Catfish...half my stock, around 50 fish, did not make it (:

 

So what to do with these? We put them on Ice and I was thinking of having a few friends over some time and have a "Butter" channel catfish fry event. As luck would have it, Chris Muns arrived with my order of the Towers he built. He stated that he loved catfish so I offered them all to him. Lucky Day Chris...enjoy :-) 

 

 

 

 

 

[TCLynx]

WOW!  Sorry to hear about the loss there.  I'm kinda shocked that a night without power would have stressed such small fish this time of year?!?!  How many fish and how big is the tank?

[Sahib Punjabi]

Yes TCLynk...I am too!

 

Last I checked the system was around 5.00pm yesterday as I gave out some produce to friends. Everything was working just fine. The Channel Catfish are in the 285 Gal IBC (full size, I do not cut them), and I had about 100 that I purchased as fingerlings about 3 months ago. Well, I still have 50 or so :-)

 

Still, lesson learned. Plugged the Air Pump into a separate circuit breaker. Lets hope this does the job until I can get a backup system in place :-)

 

God bless,

TCLynx said:

WOW!  Sorry to hear about the loss there.  I'm kinda shocked that a night without power would have stressed such small fish this time of year?!?!  How many fish and how big is the tank?

[TCLynx]

Yea, separate circuit for the air pumps a good idea.  Especially with that many fish in less than 300 gallons even if they are still small, if they are eating well, they will be using up oxygen quickly.  I kinda hate to say it but 50 fish is a more reasonable number for that size tank anyway and as they get bigger you will want to eat the first twenty of them kinda small in order to let the others get to a larger size.  50 1 pound plus catfish start to look a bit cramped in a 300 gallon tank and if you plan to grow them out much over over 2 pounds I would try to give about 10 gallons per fish.

 

Welcome to the club, at least you didn't wipe out the entire tank full of fish though.