Help me choose a UPS/battery backup?

[Jan]

Hi all,

I have put together a disaster-preparedness system that includes the following:

5500 watt portable generator (gas)
auto-dialer call box, will call 4 phone numbers to notify me of power outtage

Now all I need is a UPS/battery backup. Into that I will connect the auto-dialer box, plus 3 tunze nanostreams/koralia type pumps to keep water circulating long enough to get home and turn on the generator.

So for the UPS, I know that I need "true SIN" for the pumps, and I would want it to run those 3 powerheads for around 90 minutes. That should be a load of somewhere between 24 - 36 watts not including the UPS itself.

Do you think this is a good choice of UPS:
http://www.ncixus.com/products/16880/PS800B/OPTI-UPS/#CustomerReviews

And do you think there are retail stores in the Seattle/Everett area where I could buy something like this without having to order it online? If so, where?

Thanks for your assistance....

 

[Tony_Romano]

Tell me about auto-dialer box please. Can't help with UPS...

 

[jezzeaepi]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2224144&CatId=237

It has a 40Ah battery in it which will run a ~36W pump for about 10 hours. For comparrison, the one you linked has just 2 5Ah batteries, so only a quarter of the juice and it costs more. Im not sure that it has a "true sin" inverter, but I can tell you that it works perfectly fine with seios, nano streams, and the bigger tunze.

 

[NC2WA]

Jan,

So the generator you are getting does not run on natural gas nor is an automatic standby??

 

[Jan]

So the generator you are getting does not run on natural gas nor is an automatic standby??

That's right, my friend, after researching the auto-standby and installataion costs we decided not to afford it. We don't have natural gas so that's out. I wanted to get the quitetest one I could find in the pricerange though, which prevented the purchase of your generator...man, that thing was loud! :shock:

Thanks for the link to that UPS, Jesse...much appreciated!

 

[Jan]

Tony, I found a person on RC who works for the phone company and he builds a few of these boxes on the side. He built it for me. It will call 4 numbers and when you answer you will hear 3 beeps to indicate that the power is off. It cycles through to the next number down the list and will repeat the calls. Later when power is restored it calls and leaves 1 beep. If you would like more info. send me a PM and I will forward your contact info. to this person, okay?

 

[MC Lighting]

another autodialer option is the sensaphone which is what I haev it has either 4 or 8 inputs depending on model that can be used for closed or open contacts as well as temperature it has its own battery suppl and built in power fail notification it also allows me to listen to the room and can be configured to alert you to a high sound load such as from a smoke alarm etc... as far as UPS's go I run APC Smart UPS series without any problems but for the serious solution a couple of deep cycle AGM batteries and a good inverter is the better way to go since you can recharge it from your vehicle in dire emergency istuations like when the generator refuses to start (this has never happened to me)