Reef nutrition

battery backup options

newfly

newfly

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I'm planning ahead for the next fire season and rolling blackouts. I have don't have an elaborate tank setup, trying to keep it simple. Don't plan on spending thousands on Powerwall or something in that nature.

I have Varios2 DC return pump I'm trying to keep running during rolling blackouts. Its 24v DC. I figure i can get a battery pack with 12V DC out and a 12-->24v step-up converter (see pictures) . I assume if i avoid going DC-->AC-->DC via a inverter, it is a lot more efficient.

I'm pretty sure folks have thought out the solution to this problem. Can you share your setup?

Thanks
 

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I have a Goal Zero Yeti 3000. Just saw the price and they went way up. But it can run 3 tanks and a fridge for around 8 hours. If you have less stuff running it should last longer. It's supposed to run a fridge for 40 hours.
 
I’d do what the off-the-grid camping community has done for ages and wire up golf cart 6v batteries that are deep cycle in series/parallel to get 24 volts.
 
Natefank said:
I have a Goal Zero Yeti 3000. Just saw the price and they went way up. But it can run 3 tanks and a fridge for around 8 hours. If you have less stuff running it should last longer. It's supposed to run a fridge for 40 hours.
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Wow Yeti 3000 is $3000 . It’s outside my budget. I could get a smaller battery pack. Not many comes with 24v regulated output. I’ll need a step up converter. Wonder how reliable the converter is
 
newfly said:
Wow Yeti 3000 is $3000 . It’s outside my budget. I could get a smaller battery pack. Not many comes with 24v regulated output. I’ll need a step up converter. Wonder how reliable the converter is
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I'm not sure what your budget is, but the big one comes with 24v output and some of the smaller ones have a 12v output
 
The most common complete solution is to get a generator that you fire up when needed. Or Powerwall (which I saw you said is not in budget).

The most common partial solution is to get individual aquarium-made backup batteries to power mission-critical equipment like the return pump and an air bubbler. Home-designed battery setups like what @Randyadammartin mentioned are also good if you are so inclined. Make sure you test with a pretend extended outage.

If you happen to have an electric car you can draw off it’s battery in time of outage, details would depend on the car and what you are powering.

If you have solar, some inverters let you divert power to an outlet you can plug equipment into during daylight. Otherwise without a Powerwall/inverter or equivalent, when the grid goes out your solar shuts off.

There are lots of options. It‘s good you are thinking about it because many people who don’t lose their tanks every year.
 
Randyadammartin said:
I’d do what the off-the-grid camping community has done for ages and wire up golf cart 6v batteries that are deep cycle in series/parallel to get 24 volts.
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That might work. I have a storage space issue. I’ll look at at lithium 6v battery.
JVU said:
The most common complete solution is to get a generator that you fire up when needed. Or Powerwall (which I saw you said is not in budget).

The most common partial solution is to get individual aquarium-made backup batteries to power mission-critical equipment like the return pump and an air bubbler. Home-designed battery setups like what @Randyadammartin mentioned are also good if you are so inclined. Make sure you test with a pretend extended outage.

If you happen to have an electric car you can draw off it’s battery in time of outage, details would depend on the car and what you are powering.

If you have solar, some inverters let you divert power to an outlet you can plug equipment into during daylight. Otherwise without a Powerwall/inverter or equivalent, when the grid goes out your solar shuts off.

There are lots of options. It‘s good you are thinking about it because many people who don’t lose their tanks every year.
Click to expand...

I do have 2 electric car, Model3 and egolf. I have gone full electric. No longer own any gas car.

Can you pull power from the electric car to power the pump? Plug in to the USB port? haha
 
Vhuang168 said:

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or.. we talked about power backups in the last #letstalkreef

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I have that generator and while not a Honda it’s been darn solid. What I did was put in a dedicated circuit to back feed the panel. I then installed a manual transfer switch so you can’t back feed at the same time that the main breaker to pg&e is on. Very important! Without a transfer switch you can cause fires and even kill a utility worker by energizing down power lines

you should also know that this particular generator is 110v only.

Oh and you can convert this generator for about 200 bucks to use natural gas.
 
Randyadammartin said:
I have that generator and while not a Honda it’s been darn solid. What I did was put in a dedicated circuit to back feed the panel. I then installed a manual transfer switch so you can’t back feed at the same time that the main breaker to pg&e is on. Very important! Without a transfer switch you can cause fires and even kill a utility worker by energizing down power lines
Click to expand...

What maintenance do you need to do on the generator? I have been reading up a bit and seems like for infrequent use , propane generator seems to be the way to go.
 
newfly said:
That might work. I have a storage space issue. I’ll look at at lithium 6v battery.


I do have 2 electric car, Model3 and egolf. I have gone full electric. No longer own any gas car.

Can you pull power from the electric car to power the pump? Plug in to the USB port? haha
Click to expand...
You’ll have to do some research online for your car models. The easiest way if only powering minimal equipment is to use an inverter in the lighter outlet. This draws from the small traditional car battery, which is then recharged from the big battery. At least in Teslas, I don’t know about eGolf. I have used this for 150w power:

Amazon.com: FOVAL 150W Power Inverter DC 12V to 110V AC Converter with 3.1A Dual USB Car Charger: Automotive

Buy FOVAL 150W Power Inverter DC 12V to 110V AC Converter with 3.1A Dual USB Car Charger: Power Inverters - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
smile.amazon.com

You can also connect direct to the traditional battery for more juice, a bit more involved and not supported by the car manufacturers, but I posted about this before here:

https://bareefers.org/forum/threads/jvu’s-rsr750.24825/page-4#post-374381/
 
Vhuang168 said:
It only outputs 110v even though it is labeled 120v?

The natural gas conversion is interesting.
Click to expand...

I used 110V as a way to represent having a single hot and neutral. Actual voltage may vary. Same way it is in a house it ranges from 110-120v.

What I was trying to point out is if you think you're going to power anything that is 220V with this generator it isn't going to do the task. It's SINE based inverter only supports 110-120v.

Here is a YouTube Link to installing the Natural Gas Conversion on a Predator 3500.




- Randy
 
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Time to pull the trigger before the fire season/rolling blackout. I am planning on having a 12V DC powerhead for flow that is connected to a 300WH battery pack. The pump will pull 3-14W. Assume its 10W, and assuming 90% usable capacity on the battery (since its dc-dc, no inverter), this should get me going for >24hours. Hoping heater is not a big deal in summer time. I'll need a generator if i want the heater.
 
Thanks. Yes, i explored the pure DIY (buying charger, battery, voltage converter or inverter separately ) route. At the end of the day, you're not going to save a whole lot by buying separate components versus nicely build pack. I just ordered an Anker 388Wh battery pack for ~$260 (on sale @amazon). A similar 12V 30AH lithium battery alone will cost ~$180. I'm basically paying $80 extra for the inverter, DC output connector, charger, battery monitor all in a neat packaging.
 
It didn't cost that much for me to daisy chain a couple of batteries (12V 20Ah each) together to keep a vortech running in the event of an outage. Total cost was ~half the price of an Ecotech backup with better performance.

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