AC3 what not to do

[kngfisher]

So, tonight I learned a quick lesson as how not to split power of the AC3 and DC8. I thought I was smart well, not quite.

 

Theory

plug power to DC3 into wall (via GFI) and AC3 power into UPS that way, settings will stay and in the event of a power loss, once the power comes back on, setup would not have missed a beat....

 

Result

During complete powerloss to house, AC3 remains on as long as the UPS remains running. The only other thing pulling power from the UPS is a tunze 6055 to keep water motion in tank to O2 level in tank as high for as long as possible.

 

Weekness

In the event that the GFI trippes but power to rest of house.....and power to UPS remains on. All lights, return pump, heater, pump to top-off remain off until GFI is reset. Status messages from the AC3 still sent via email and pH readings remain withing tolerable levels unfortunatly, there is no way to track is the DC8 is accually powered. No way to tell how long DC8 was offline.

 

Lesson Learned

Dont split to DC8 and AC3 into two seperate power sources.

[Brian Ward]

So, tonight I learned a quick lesson as how not to split power of the AC3 and DC8. I thought I was smart well, not quite.

 

Theory

plug power to DC3 into wall (via GFI) and AC3 power into UPS that way, settings will stay and in the event of a power loss, once the power comes back on, setup would not have missed a beat....

 

Result

During complete powerloss to house, AC3 remains on as long as the UPS remains running. The only other thing pulling power from the UPS is a tunze 6055 to keep water motion in tank to O2 level in tank as high for as long as possible.

 

Weekness

In the event that the GFI trippes but power to rest of house.....and power to UPS remains on. All lights, return pump, heater, pump to top-off remain off until GFI is reset. Status messages from the AC3 still sent via email and pH readings remain withing tolerable levels unfortunatly, there is no way to track is the DC8 is accually powered. No way to tell how long DC8 was offline.

 

Lesson Learned

Dont split to DC8 and AC3 into two seperate power sources.

 

Lesson noted. But you frequently have to split the power sources. Each DC8 can handle 15A of power - the same as a standard home circuit. I split my DC8's across multiple circuits so that I can use the max power rating of each DC8. With 2 400W MH lights, chiller, heaters, pumps, etc. going over 15A is pretty easy. Also, you always want to plan your steady-state power consumption at 80% of the rated max. So 12A steady power draw is the recommended max draw on a DC8. If you're close, going up 1A or so shouldn't be a big deal but running multiple circuits is frequently a must. Esp when it comes to larger tanks.

[ErikS]

Further limitation - the max for each device on a DC8 is 6 amps (total of 15a for the entire unit).