Power failures - UPS ELECTRIC Inverter

About four months ago I bought from UPS Electric ( one of our sponsors here on TASA ) their 1200 watt Inverter, as a battery back-up for when I have power failures. Everyone here is always talking about power failures and what you should do, and then one day, I just thought to myself - LISTEN TO WHAT OTHER GUYS ARE SAYING and have a back-up plan for power failures - they WILL happen in this wonderful country of ours - that's a guarantee.
I have had several like 1-2 or 3 hour power outages over the last couple of months - nothing too serious I thought - my fish can last that long without any help from me.
Then two weeks ago, in my area, we had a power outage that lasted for 20 hours - Monday to Wednesday.
My 55 watt return pump from the sump - NEVER STOPPED WORKING FOR THOSE 20 HOURS !!!
I also have my air pump connected to the same Inverter. My 2 x 300 watt heaters are plugged directly into my mains ( Inverters and heaters are not good friends apparently).
All I can say is that I cannot begin to tell everyone the peace of mind I have when it comes to power failures - NO MORE WORRIES when the power goes out. I was totally amazed at the fantastic way the Inverter works, and how long it lasted - 20 hours!!!
I would never admit this to anyone else - (but I know that my secret is safe here !!!!!!!!) about how much money I have spent on my hobby - in just over the last year, and honestly, the price I paid for the Inverter, has been worth it - every single cent of it.
My fish are safe and my mind is at ease - and for that there is no price I reckon.
I would hate to have all my fish die because I was too mean to spend money (the equivalent price of a few fish), on a battery back-up system.
I know that this might look like, or sound like, a ' paid advertisement' for UPS Electric - but it is most certainly is not the case - it's just my personal experience that I want to relate here.!
The point is that is it is worth the money !!!!!!!!!
What has prompted me to write this is a post that I have just read by @HvNDhF - he posted an hour ago about his current power outage.

 

It seems stupid to buy a inverter,if it can't run a aquarium heater. :wondering:

 

Heaters have elements - elements CHEW electricity and I would rather save my sump and filter bacteria and have my water properly aerated - if the temp drops by a few degrees the fish can handle that. Like I said - after 20 hours my bacteria would all have died and would have to re-start my filer material all over and re-cycle the tank and we ALL know how long and dangerous a process that is, more so with a tank full of fish !

 

And the square-wave is NOT good for the heaters.

As an added measure you can always get a small 650 to 900 W genie additional.
They go for around R1000 to R1200 to run the heaters and sump pump or canisters from time to time.

 

Hi all,I am returning to the hobby after a number of few years absence (work related) and am presently setting up my tank.Nevertheless I would like to comment on this matter.There is no real reason why heaters and inverters/UPS systems are not good friends, except that heaters are usually the biggest power consumers and will drain your inverter/UPS much faster than a filter pump or air pump (depending on how often/long they need to come on to maintain the required water temperate of course).Apart from that, heaters are very basic electrical devices, pretty much a simple copper coil which heats up when current is pushed through, not unlike a lamp filament). As such they don't require a perfect sinus curve in their supply voltage and will handle the pulse modulation or frequency modulation of the inverter/UPS.If the output of the inverter/UPS is really bad, I would rather be concerned about the return pump ...@eros111, you do not provide the full data of your inverter/UPS, you just state that it is 1200W. Assuming this means that it can supply 1200W this doesn't tell us how long this wattage can be supplied. You need to look at the Whr or VAhr rating (pretty much like for a car battery) and then it is easy enough to calculate how long your inverter/UPS will last before it runs out of juice.Hope this helps

 

It says the VA is 2000 ?? does not mean too much in my life however.
All I do know as I said above, a 55 watt pump and an air pump ran perfectly for 20 hours - and was still going strong when the electricity came back on.
For the correct specs you could ask the guy from UPS Electric - I am sure he will tell you what you need to know. He did advise that I CAN run pumps and heaters etc. all from the inverter - however the battery would last much longer without the heaters drawing current from it - so that's what I chose to do and it seemed to have been a good choice

 

I had a power outage for 53 hours winter before last. My tank dropped to 18 Degrees and I lost three fish. I suspect no amount of backup is going to cover your ass if that happens. Perhaps it would have slowed down the temp drop but eventually you will loose power all together.

If I was in a house I would have fired up a generator but I stay in a flat. I put in an offer on a house on Sunday that was accepted this morning so I wont have to worry about that again.

 

@eros111 thanks for the info. I had a look at UPS Electric's website. The stuff isn't exactly cheap, but I guess peace of mind doesn't carry a price tag. How many batteries (of the recommended 102 Ah deep cycle unit) did you get with your unit? It looks like 1 battery (102Ah) would be sufficient to run your return pump for those 20hrs you mentioned, provided you ran almost nothing else (air pump uses peanuts). But I guess you have 2 batteries and as such you will be able to handle Escom's shenanigans without any undue stress. Good choice.

 

I woke up this morning with no power. Going to have a fantastic day worrying about if my fish are going to be ok. As you said, it is worth the money.

 

Me too. I got an sms just now so it seems it's back on in the area.

 

I still think nothing beats a silent diesel generator

 

I got the one with 2 batteries @JCL

 

@sub-lime - yes I could not agree more - BUT - what does a SILENT generator cost !!!!

 

Anything from 15K up. lol But it can power a lot more without dying (Unless you run out of diesel...)

 

How do you start the genie when you're not at home?

 

Never mind the starting of the diesel generator, that can be done, .. but I don't think this is a feasible solution. Way too expensive, bulky and noisy (what is the noise level of the silent ones in dB?). And then the exhaust fumes may be a problem for those people living in a flat. @eros111 -you got a nice system which will last around 40hrs. If you are concerned about a prolonged power failure you could consider adding solar panels to the setup. Mains power would keep your batteries topped up, when power goes, batteries come into play and solar panel could be automatically switched on to supply batteries and thus stretch the duration you can be without power. ...Or simply get more batteries, ...but the solar panel addition sounds like a nicer engineering challenge. ;-)

 

@JCL - ok so what I did not tell you ( for fear of sounding paranoid) is that on the Wednesday ( power went off Monday morning) I spoke to the guys that were just down my road trying to repair the broken cables, and they estimated that it would ANOTHER take 24 - 36 hours to get the power back on. These A-HOLES were all sitting in a big city power truck, must have been like 6 guys, and they were WAITING FOR ANOTHER TEAM TO ARRIVE to dig the trench to get to the broken cable - they said that THEY do not dig holes - somebody else does that - I must admit I had a sense of humour failure right there and then !!!!!!!!
So off I went to Makro and bought a 5,5kw diesel power generator. Got it home, set it up, started it and six hours later guess what - power came back on - I was NOT amused but I was happy to have the electricity back on.
The little generator works like a bomb - connected up the UPS, lights, TV etc. etc. to it as well. However, the noise that the generator makes, and the fumes from the exhaust is another story, but, I now have never again have to worry about any of my tanks 'dying' from lack of power - ever again - or living in a pitch black house at night.
If I did happen to have the odd 30 or 40 thousand rand lying around I would put in a silent fully automatic generator.
I am so tired and pissed of with electricity problems - what the hell do I pay rates and taxes for and monthly bills from Jhb Municipality and put up with bad delivery service - but that is the reality of life - and I doubt that this situation will change in the forseeable future to be quite frank.