Run air pump & heater on COMPUTER UPS?

[sen5241b]

Has anybody tried running an airpump and heater on a computer UPS? I've heard too many stories about people not being at home and the power going off and they lose EVERYTHING. I have biocube 29.

 

At $550 this was too pricey for me: TRIPP LITE POWERVERTER APS 750 POWER INVERTER 750W 2 OUTLETS 12VDC-120V with double 12V DEEP CYCLE MARINE BATTERIES

 

The good thing about a UPS is that it automatically switches over duirng an outage.

Edited December 1, 2009 by sen5241b

[Brian Ward]

I have heard of several people using a computer UPS as a backup. Look at the total watts it will source to figure out how long it will run, the air pump will run quite a while by itself, the heater is the one that will suck up the power. I would probably only connect about 25W of heater to the UPS, that and an airstone should run for several hours depending on the model you purchased.

[Coral Hind]

I have an APC 1000 on one of my systems. No issues with it at all.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Has anybody tried running an airpump and heater on a computer UPS? I've heard too many stories about people not being at home and the power going off and they lose EVERYTHING. I have biocube 29.

 

At $550 this was too pricey for me: TRIPP LITE POWERVERTER APS 750 POWER INVERTER 750W 2 OUTLETS 12VDC-120V with double 12V DEEP CYCLE MARINE BATTERIES

 

The good thing about a UPS is that it automatically switches over duirng an outage.

 

 

You cold just buy the power inverter (<$50) and manually plug it in to your (idling) car or spare battery during a power outage. Would only cost ~$50 for the inverter.

[sen5241b]

I have an APC 1000 on one of my systems. No issues with it at all.

 

How long does it last and what does it run?

 

 

You cold just buy the power inverter (<$50) and manually plug it in to your (idling) car or spare battery during a power outage. Would only cost ~$50 for the inverter.

 

I've done that but it didn't run my pump because the, if I understand right, was not sine wave. The sir pump ran okay though. Also this solutoin doesn't help if you are not home.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I've done that but it didn't run my pump because the, if I understand right, was not sine wave. The sir pump ran okay though.

 

Weird. I guess the $550 solution above wouldn't work either then, since that is all it is...

 

Also this solutoin doesn't help if you are not home.

 

Right

[Origami]

One thing you'll have to look at is the run time chart for whatever UPS you're considering once you have an idea of how much of a load you want to run during the power outage.

 

During an outage, the most immediate concern you're going to have is water movement and dissolved oxygen. Temperature, for a small system like you're talking about will be your next priority since heat loss will be faster in a small cube like the BC29 than a system with much larger volume.

 

For example, here's the run time charts for some of APC's UPS's: http://www.apc.com/products/runtime_for_ex...fm?upsfamily=23

 

You'll note that the BR1000TW will run a little over 2 hours while driving a 50W load, but only 18 minutes with a 300W load (and only 6 minutes at 600W). Because the run time falls off very quickly at high loads, you may want to do what Brian suggests and put use the smallest heater you can get away with on your backup circuit in order to maximize run time.

 

This example UPS has a stepped, simulated sinewave output - not a square wave like some cheaper automotive-type inverters. See: http://www.apc.com/products/resource/inclu...se_sku=BR1000TW

[sen5241b]

One thing you'll have to look at is the run time chart for whatever UPS you're considering once you have an idea of how much of a load you want to run during the power outage.

 

During an outage, the most immediate concern you're going to have is water movement and dissolved oxygen. Temperature, for a small system like you're talking about will be your next priority since heat loss will be faster in a small cube like the BC29 than a system with much larger volume.

 

For example, here's the run time charts for some of APC's UPS's: http://www.apc.com/products/runtime_for_ex...fm?upsfamily=23

 

You'll note that the BR1000TW will run a little over 2 hours while driving a 50W load, but only 18 minutes with a 300W load (and only 6 minutes at 600W). Because the run time falls off very quickly at high loads, you may want to do what Brian suggests and put use the smallest heater you can get away with on your backup circuit in order to maximize run time.

 

This example UPS has a stepped, simulated sinewave output - not a square wave like some cheaper automotive-type inverters. See: http://www.apc.com/products/resource/inclu...se_sku=BR1000TW

 

This is very good info. I haven't done the exact math but these units could run an air pump and small heater for hours for under $200.