Uninterruptible Power Supply for Aquarium

Hello all,

I was wondering if there are some experts in low current electrical that could give advise on what UPS (kVA) would be sufficient enough to power 2000 Watt of aquarium equipment for at least an hour during power failures? Some voltages of the equipment are DC and others AC.

Would one UPS of the correct factor be able to provide backup power to both DC and AC units?

Any particular proffered UPS on the market?

Thanks.

 

You can try one of these sizer tools, will also recommend models of UPS then you can look locally for similar models. Note however that they will spec a UPS with headroom in case you wish to add additional items.

http://www.sizemyups.com/ajaxlib.php


I currently have just over 700W of equipment and use a APC 1.5KVA UPS, I upgraded the batteries, price depends on source. I get anywhere from 4 - 12 hours depending on how often the heaters are on this will depend on the ambient temperature in the room.

For your requirements you will most likely need at least a 3 - 3.5KVA UPS (larger depending on how much headroom you want), to calculate the battery requirements just calculate the Amp draw of the equipment then get batteries with at least double that amount in Amp Hours (AH) to be safe.

So 10A load, get 20AH batteries, should in theory safely give you 1H runtime, probably more. Also get deep cycle batteries and make sure they are sealed, more expensive but will survive being drained and recharged far better than a normal battery.

Maybe someone here can give better advice, but that is what I done in the past.

 

Hi cdk

A 2000 Watt ups will set you back around R 16 000.00 (APC). You can buy cheaper models but i think APC is the best. An Ups will give you DC(Batteries) to AC(220V). What i'll recommend if money is a factor is to run only the crutial stuff like heater and pump.

Go google runtimes for APC this site will tell you how long any ups can last on a specific amount of watage. Pm if any other Questions i run both my house and office from ups's

F

 

Agreed on running only the essentials but I'd not consider heaters essential during shorter outages, African weather ain't too bad you know....
Filters don't suck too much power so you can stay up longer for a lot less bank.

 

2KVA should be enough you can get one for about R5k but remember it has a build in battery that will give you about 15 min backup on full load. To get one hour you are going to spend another 2k on deep cycle batteries.

What I did is I got one from the work 2KVA and bought a 5KVA generator for 3k so basically what will happen if the power goes off the UPS will take the load until the generator kicks in and from there the gen will supply the UPS ( Plus lights etc of house) normal backup power

Remember a UPS is only there to provide uninterupted power supply should there be a power failure ( Grid Power ) to give time for the Generator ( backup power ) to start and synchronize the load ( takes about 10 sec ) and also to provide time to repair faults should the generator not kick in.

Remember also with only a UPS setup if the UPS fails your screwed , having a generator and UPS system you will have a backup power source....meaning if the UPS fails it will go into bypass mode and RAW power will be supplies to your reticulation system...also should the generator fail the UPS can give you ( On full load 2KVA ) 15 min to repair the fault....

Also with this setup you can connect more then just fish tank minimal operating equipment you can connect your LCD, Plasma, PC etc due to the fact that its is filtered power and always in sync and at 50hz constant with no transient voltage spikes from the Gen or grid supply.

I have a 1 KVA spare one if your interested but like I said its useless having a UPS and not a generator...the two go together as per design spec.....sales guys are so quick to sell you a UPS saying it will give you backup power should power fail, but its not design for that ..its designed for as the name stand uninterrupted power supply meaning it will keep the power source filtered and constant and will supply uninterrupted power for a short while while the backup power kick in and synchronize the load. Keep in mind that if you only use a UPS as backup power your batteries will shut off at 44 V DC depending on design spec to prevent damage every time the batteries drain to that voltage your life span on it decreases by 5% and with EKSDOM power supply and outages your batteries will last you a year before it needs to be replaced

APC is nice but for Data Centre and IT purposes and has a heck load of functions and remote monitoring software etc etc...GE is better and then the best is Cloride ....but like I said that is for high spec IT equipment like servers and Data Centre areas....

Just to give you an idea on cost .....I have 4 X550 GE Kva modular UPS in the Data Centre at work costing 1.2 mil each, the two APC 130 KVA ones was about 600k each and the GE 5 KVA in my office cost 36K

 

Thanks for the info guys!

@Blomhj , makes perfect sense having a UPS and of coarse a generator to provide "true" backup power.

Sounds like a great sum of money though, perhaps an investment...

Will start looking around for proper backup solutions although it sounds more like the equivalent of having to spend money on proper solar power equipment.

Thanks again all.

Cheers!