Dealing with a Power Outage - Will this work?

[dubbly]

Hi Everyone,
I have been trying to come up with a good solutions for dealing with short term power outages. I have a 14 gallon nano tank and need to be able to run a pump and heater. Unfortunately, I don't live in a place were I can have a generator. So, I have been looking at a solution that uses a battery and an inverter. Ideally the system will automatically switch to the battery when the power goes and charge the battery when it turns on.

After much searching. I believe that I found the perfect product for this purpose. The Kipoint KI-600-CC-12V true sine wave inverter with charger. I have been talking to the manufacture about using it indoors for an aquarium and they have answer every question that I sent their way.

A. As some appliances and tools with induction motors may require from 3 to 7 times the continuous wattage when starting. The start-up load of the appliance or tool determines whether an inverter has the
capability to power it. Be sure to check the specific wattage requirements and operating instructions for appliances / tools to be used.
So please kindly make sure the continuous power wattage and surge power wattage of all your appliance are not over than the continuous power wattage and surge power wattage of our inverter.

Kippointhttp://www.kipoint.com.tw/index_down.php?openCatIDfor3=&openCatID=32&CAhs=defuse&firestpageset=1&ISPID=253&IIBig=77&sele=shopbig_dm_right&searchname=

A. Yes, the model runs city power, and switch to inverter only when the city power doesn't exist (blackout) or its voltage is too low (brownout). B. The

B. KI-600-CC-12V can be charged battery during power is on.

C. The Charging current can be adjusted on your computer through the RS-232 port with our green cable. This way you can charge slowly enough to eliminate out-gassing.

D. We have 600, 900, 1200 and 1800 Watt Models

E. You can connect a car, marine or close cell AGM battery to the unit.

 

[gas4544]

Here is a similar product that I was looking at online this morning:

http://www.pcnation.com/web/details.asp?affid=305&item=F62127

 

[dubbly]

Here is a similar product that I was looking at online this morning:

http://www.pcnation.com/web/details.asp?affid=305&item=F62127

The only downside of the one that you have is that it appears to be only Modified Sine Wave rather than true sinewave.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[MC Lighting]

I have a ton of experience with inverters, generators etc, that being said I assume you are running powerheads and probably a magnetic style pump. You need to run the pure sine model inverter otherwise you will have a lot of noise and possibly burn out the mag style pumps due to overheating. Any inverter that has a ATS built in will work fine for you. You do not need a huge inverter as I would not run lights on it and most likely do not have a huge heater.

Also spend the money on a good sized AGM battery you can get some great run times if you are willing ot spend some $$$ plus with the AGM no outgassing to worry about and so indoor installation is a NBD.

If you have any questions please ask.

 

[edwing206]

^That guy knows what he's talking about. Show em your setup Mike.

 

[MC Lighting]

lol thanks man its a small setup

 

[Myteemouse]

WOW thats cool!
What the small white box on top and the small gray one next to your sub panel?

 

[MC Lighting]

Thanks for the comp, the white box is a charge controller for my solar panel; it is not wired in yet as I have not mounted the panel. I am going to be building a generator house on my balcony so the generator will be quieter and not easily accessible by thieves looking for a freebie. The gray box is a 60 amp fused service disconnect on the output of the inverter feeding the sub panel.

 

[dubbly]

Wow, I would like some feedback on the Kippoint product that I reference below. Do you believe that it will work? I can get either the KI-600-CC(12VDC) (600W, Surge 1800W) or the KI-900-CC(12VDC) (900W, surge 2700W). I am running two powerheads and a 100W heater on my Nano. The difference in price is about $45.

Cheers,
Dubbly

 

[MC Lighting]

Sorry I thought I read after your post that it was not a pure sine inverter I should have checked myself. Anyhow I have no dealings with that company but from a specs perspective it looks fine to me. I would definitely go larger for the small amount of $$ as down the road you may have a bigger tank that uses a bigger pump etc.

For a battery I would use something along this line of course you can go larger or smaller as you wish to spend but this is what I would use minimum. http://www.sunxtender.com/solarbattery.php?id=12 I use this line of batteries and they are going on 9 years old under heavy use so I have no problems recommending them I use this model x4 for my system http://www.sunxtender.com/solarbattery.php?id=10

Based on your power consumption estimate you will be drawing roughly 10 amps at 12vdc so if you go with a 100 amp/hr battery you are looking at about 5 hours of run time to 50% battery discharge which is all I would go down to for the life of the battery. So either go bigger for more run time, add a second battery in parallel ( you need to determine which is more cost effective) somthing to consider is if you run two batteries in parallel you have the ability to charge one from your vehicle while the other is running the tank.

Something I have done is installed Anderson style battery quick connects on my systems, I then have one on my vehicle with a 20' interconnect cord. This allows me to directly hook my vehicle into my battery systems with no risk of reverse polartity etc. for charging and or extended run time. If you install these quick connects on the battery packs it would allow you to have both connected normally then when the batteries are getting down on charge you can disocnnect one go charge it and then plug it back in and take the other off for charging etc. Plus it would again allow you to plug your vehicle in directly to the system if your car is close enought to do what I do.

Just some things to consider when it comes to powering these tanks creativity and redundancy are key points.

 

[jezzeaepi]

How much are you trying to power?

IMHO you wont find a better priced, more compact and easy to use product then:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E6LEI2
Its got a 40 a/hr battery, and automatically comes on when the power goes out. I have used it to run tunze, MJ, ehiem and seio pumps without issue. You can get almost 24 hours run time if your using a low wattage powerhead(10-12W).

 

[MC Lighting]

because of the small size of his tank he also will be powering a heater although that unit will still work just won't have much run time for his load. I am not sure is that a pure sine inverter in the Xpower I will have to go look it up.

 

[dubbly]

Battery backup

Thanks for your reply. My fault, I was responding to the second post regarding their Modified Sine solution. This product is a Pure Sine product as you figured out. Have you seen any other similar products that you recommend? Cheeper? Any downsides to going with the larger wattage solution other than price?

I just double checked the price and it is $325 with shipping for the 600 Watt solution and $388 with shipping for the 900W. The shipping is a abit more for the 900W because of weight.

Thank you for the battery suggestions!

Cheers,
Ben

Sorry I thought I read after your post that it was not a pure sine inverter I should have checked myself. Anyhow I have no dealings with that company but from a specs perspective it looks fine to me. I would definitely go larger for the small amount of $$ as down the road you may have a bigger tank that uses a bigger pump etc.

For a battery I would use something along this line of course you can go larger or smaller as you wish to spend but this is what I would use minimum. http://www.sunxtender.com/solarbattery.php?id=12 I use this line of batteries and they are going on 9 years old under heavy use so I have no problems recommending them I use this model x4 for my system http://www.sunxtender.com/solarbattery.php?id=10

Based on your power consumption estimate you will be drawing roughly 10 amps at 12vdc so if you go with a 100 amp/hr battery you are looking at about 5 hours of run time to 50% battery discharge which is all I would go down to for the life of the battery. So either go bigger for more run time, add a second battery in parallel ( you need to determine which is more cost effective) somthing to consider is if you run two batteries in parallel you have the ability to charge one from your vehicle while the other is running the tank.

Something I have done is installed Anderson style battery quick connects on my systems, I then have one on my vehicle with a 20' interconnect cord. This allows me to directly hook my vehicle into my battery systems with no risk of reverse polartity etc. for charging and or extended run time. If you install these quick connects on the battery packs it would allow you to have both connected normally then when the batteries are getting down on charge you can disocnnect one go charge it and then plug it back in and take the other off for charging etc. Plus it would again allow you to plug your vehicle in directly to the system if your car is close enought to do what I do.

Just some things to consider when it comes to powering these tanks creativity and redundancy are key points.

 

[MC Lighting]

A couple that come to mind is Costco http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11282990&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|3960|21269&N=4018437&Mo=8&No=1&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=59839&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1〈=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=
however this one does not have an ATS.... Ebay has several if you look up pure sine inverter with ATS but again I do not have experience with many of them as they are all made in China. If you find a good price on one that is pure sine and high power like the costco one you can get a stand alone ATS easily such as http://www.iotaengineering.com/its30r.htm

Maybe not as clean as the integrated model however gives you a much larger selection of well priced inverters. You can make the ATS all plug & play if you so desire.

 

[dubbly]

Thank you! Any idea what a stand alone ATS go for?

Dubbly

 

[MC Lighting]

they are about $60

 

[jezzeaepi]

Running heaters off of batteries is really not feasible. Once you consider the cost, the amount of space a large battery set-up takes, and how little run time you get, youll see that its rather rediculous. Its about 500+ for 8 hours of heating? Throw a blanket around the tank, and just keep circulation high. If you really need heat, try floating some heated water bottles.

Peace

 

[MC Lighting]

If I were heating my system I would agree however a 100 watt heater on a 14g tank is not such a big deal, it is doubtful it will be running constantly unless the house is really cold. plus for him not having the ability to have a generator the money he would have spent on a generator is absorbed into a bigger battery setup and gives a complete on-line solution so if he is away he knows that he has at minimum 8 hours to get home and deal with the issue. Being I am in that situation I must tell you how nice it is knowing I am covered for a good portion of a day and not having to worry that my tank is slowly dying because it is taking me several hours to get home.

 

[jezzeaepi]

Will heaters only run on a true sin wave inverter? I know the one I linked runs all pumps just fine. I ended up buying a 500W mini honda generator that I cun run on my balcony in the event of a prolonged outtage. Otherwise, the item I linked has saved my butt on numerous occasions. Things always like to go wrong when your away from the tank it seems...

 

[MC Lighting]

Although I am very happy that you have not had problems with your pumps I am a bit surprised... Power heads and mag style pumps usually do not do well with a MSW for instance my Quiet one 6000 will actually overheat to the point of thermal shutdown. I am wondering if they are filtering the MSW more than a typical inverter. Again I don't dispute yours is working fine I just would like to figure out why it does.

As for the heater I do not see why it would not work resistive loads are usually ok on MSW.