DIY Battery Backup

[Blazinreef]

So after trying to figure out if I can buy a computer battery backup to run my pump for an hour or two while I have time to get the generator running, I found it would be ungodly expensive.

My return pump is a Panworld Blueline 70. It uses 290w. I think the better way to go is a deepcell marine battery and an inverter. I am not an electrician, so I need someone who has something like this set up to walk me thru piece by piece and step by step of what I need to do. Much thanks up front.

[Todd W.]

Not an electrician or EE but there are some here who are....  However you may want to research the charge/discharge/battery life of a deepcell.  The difference between a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) and a deep cell is the UPS keeps the batteries in top shape and always ready to kick on automatically (hint hint automatically).

If you have a deep cell, depending on the type of battery charger you have it hooked up to (some battery chargers are designed for deep cell batteries and monitor them but they may be pricey) you have to check your charge manually.  Then you have to manually hook up your tank equipment.  With a UPS you can plug the heater and pump in and it uses AC power when there isn't an outage.

During the Ohio Hurricane I kept my 46 gallon alive with a Maxijet 1400 and a 200W heater for 4 1/2 days by rotating a deep cell and a car battery that I charged at my brothers house.  Each battery lasted about 24 hours with the power inverter (can't remember how many watts).  This solution was time consuming.

Hope this helps....

[Blazinreef]

My only issue with the UPS is that everything I have been able to find, to run the 290w pump for even 20 minutes the backup would be over a grand.  They aren't made to run more than a few minutes to save your work on your computer.  I know I have heard that people have setups where they kick on automatically by a switch and continually charge the deep cell battery.  I would love to go with the prebuilt ups, I just don't think I can for that price.

[Todd W.]

Yea that is a problem....  There has to be a DIY or cheaper solution for the deep cell idea.

[Blazinreef]

I have read on reef central where people have done it and used a battery charger as well to keep the marine battery charged.  Like this one: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1695015&highlight=deep+cell+marine  but I don't really understand it all.  I am electrically challenged.

[cyberwollf]

The question is do you want it to be semiautomatic or do you want to just flip a switch to activate it when power goes out.  The manual way is much simpler.... The semiautomatic way is not much harder but it will require some power supplies and Normally Open relays, soldering, etc.

[DarinSchmidt]

Does it take you a long time to get the geny running? Your tank will be fine with a few hours of your equipment not running.

[Viggen]

Ouch.... that's a hungry pump

Years ago I did a DIY battery backup using a car battery, car charger, Bosch relay, boat saltwater safe bilge pump & some wiring.  The relay is wired to plug into the wall & when the wall outlet looses power it turns on the bilge pump.  You can then determine how long you want to keep the bilge pump running & buy the proper size battery(s) from there.

It's a LOT cheaper then the UPS system & works quite well.  I plan on doing this on my 475g & I even thought about adding a solar panel or two on my house with 100-200w of panels to keep it going if needed.  Haven't done much research on the solar panels yet though.......

[Boonjob]

Years ago I did a DIY battery backup using a car battery, car charger, Bosch relay, boat saltwater safe bilge pump & some wiring.  The relay is wired to plug into the wall & when the wall outlet looses power it turns on the bilge pump.  You can then determine how long you want to keep the bilge pump running & buy the proper size battery(s) from there.

I have a similiar set up for a back up home sump pump... you can get a similar watch dog kit for around $200.

Also I am wondering if you could have the pump/life systems turn on and off intermitently to extend your battery life even further... I think 10-20 mins off every now and then shouldn't hurt anything...?

Why not a generator, after that "hurricane" wind came through here, you can get em pretty cheap on CL, though they are slowly dwindling down now.

I always used my truck to power different items in a long power outage, I would park it in my garage and just run a cable into the house from it, and power on the lights, tv, comp, watersoftner etc...