uninterruptible power supply help

So Im guessin 2-3hrs depending how often the heater comes on,, but we are going to make the room nice and warm, so that should help with the water temp.

Im guessing the inverter will drain the battery aswel tho?
 
Yes, but it might not be worth doing because it doesn't sound like the ups going to last long,, but the plan is before the power goes off,, we will turn the temp up on the heaters thermostat as far as we dare without killing the fish and heat up the room. Then hopefully it will take a while before the heater needs to come on when the power goes off... or thats the plan anyway.
 
Option 1:- Some small investment in time to try the UPS before the event and know how long you can safely support the fish without mains power.
Option 2:- Just hope for the best.

What happens now if the power goes off?
 
We had only just had the fish tank a few months ago, so its just connected to the mains power.. I only use the UPS on my computer stuff. But seeing that the power is going to be off in a few weeks, it might aswel be put to better use on the fish tank. Like its a tad of a waste of time trying my old UPS on the tank, as that lasts only about 10mins with a 150watt load. It should last roughly 20-30mins but the batteries need changing.

But I think when I get the new UPS,, I will test it first on the fish tank before setting it up on my computer stuff and see if its worth doing when the power goes off.
 
I could have had the same but with the external battery connector for £20 more, but you could do that forever,, a few more pounds.

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I received the UPS today but its been in the wars as the front grill has been marked and damaged slightly through the cardboard box, but it appears to be working ok and you cant see the damage from a few meters away. So I am going to see if I can have a partial refund

So its still on charge, Im going to leave it charging till tomorrow and then l will test it on the fish tank. Im not having high hopes for it lasting long at all, as 2 filter pumps need running aswel now:confused: I would put the filters pumps on my old ups, but apparently the simulated sine wave can damage motors, so thats out. But I couldn't really spent more money on a higher wattage UPS, because your getting into stupid money for over 2000wattage UPS's. They probably use more mains power too and also they use 6 or more batteries, so battery replacements wont be cheap either.

I might have to buy a tinted film for the screen as it is always lit up, even on battery mode (stupid design) and its in my bedroom.. Also the fans are not all that quiet, but you guys warned me about that one, so I'll have to get use to the noise or change the fans. These are only my 2 niggles I have with it at the moment, and when I get it into my room I will see how much power it uses on the online mode and eco mode. I'll report back with all my findings.;)
 
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I'd only expect the fans to be on while it's running from the batteries (and expect them to be very noisy).

Maybe it's because it's an online model rather than line interactive. I've never had any reason to buy anything but line interactive so I'm not sure. I wouldn't be changing fans unless you're 100% sure there's no chance of it cooking.

What's the recharge time? That's often one of the key differences between cheap and more expensive models.

Do you have any near neighbours? If that was my fish tank I'd be asking nicely and running a mains extension lead to next door. If I paid them £1/day or bought them a nice bottle of wine for the trouble they'd be well ahead.
 
bremen1874 said:
I'd only expect the fans to be on while it's running from the batteries (and expect them to be very noisy).

Maybe it's because it's an online model rather than line interactive. I've never had any reason to buy anything but line interactive so I'm not sure. I wouldn't be changing fans unless you're 100% sure there's no chance of it cooking.

What's the recharge time? That's often one of the key differences between cheap and more expensive models.

Do you have any near neighbours? If that was my fish tank I'd be asking nicely and running a mains extension lead to next door. If I paid them £1/day or bought them a nice bottle of wine for the trouble they'd be well ahead.
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The fans are on low speed, but they go high speed when ups gets over 70% loaded or in battery mode and the noise level ramps up quite a bit more. Im not sure about the recharge time, as it was about 80% charged out of the box with 1 charge bar needed charging as it was flashing. Its still flashing now but Im guessing its fully changed by now or there's something wrong with it.. The specs say 4hrs to 90%charge and the charger is 1.5A whatever that means.

Our neighbours wont have any power either, as they are upgrading the power cables to our houses...They were up and down the poles like wippersnappers changing all the cables about 10yrs ago aswel, so Im amazed they need changing again already. But good idea

Sorry for all the editing to my posts.
 
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If the power will be out because they're performing planned maintenance to the supply it can't be for very long. If it was they'd need to provide some temporary alternative.
 
bremen1874 said:
If the power will be out because they're performing planned maintenance to the supply it can't be for very long. If it was they'd need to provide some temporary alternative.
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Yeah its off for 1 working day, 9-5 on the 7th of next month... But to be honest its not my fish tank its my sisters, so its up to her really. But if the ups battery runtime is rubbish on the fish tank, I might suggest renting a generator and running the ups off that as voltages from generators can spike up and down, so the ups hopefully will do its job and smooth out the spiky power

But like I might buy a generator myself at a later date for long power cuts to be connected to the ups. With being in a wheelchair I'll need on with a easy or battery start as I have got no speed in my arm to pull the cord to start the engine.
 
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Unless it's marine or houses very sensitive species they'll likely be OK. It's sudden temperature drops that'll kill the fish. My tank dropped to ambient room temp of about 17C for a weekend after the heater failed while I was away. The fish were a bit sluggish in the colder temps but survived OK. The bigger the tank capacity the longer it'll retain the temperature also. Getting the room warm before the power goes off will help. With a 200W heater I'd guess 200 litres or so...
 
Its a marine tank, yes my sister had to be difficult.lol. So its not just the fish, its the live corrals too. But yeah its a 5ft tank so hopefully the heater wont need to come on much with the tank being big and if the room is nice and warm over 20c, that shold help matters too.
 
Well guys I have only tested the ups on the tank, like for 5mins, so that was totally pointless. But the mins remaining time without heater said 188mins and 27mins with heater running, but the heater turned off again within 3-4mins, so I dont know how long it will run for. But then I noticed it saying 188mins with nothing connected to the ups, so the ups can only calculate up to 188mins Im guessing? So fishtank could last longer then 188mins if it was just the filter pumps running..

Now my pc stuff...... First of all how much power it pulls from the mains without anything connected to it

old ups.... 25watts
new ups...online mode 40 - 50watts
eco mode 24-25watts
So not bad power usage and thats with the batteries charged
.........................................................................................
PC Stuff runtime

PC on standby with 2 routers running (about 30watts)
old ups....... 90mins
new ups......188mins (but maybe longer)

Using PC on the net (about 140watts)
old ups........10min
new ups.......60-80mins
..........................................................................................

So not a bad upgrade for me anyway, but sister wasn't that impressed, but people that dont know about UPS's thinks they are just a battery backup and nothing more.

So yeah the only 2 negative things so far are with the fan noise (it runs stupidly cool though) and the screen because it stays lit up, plus the runtime for the fishtank, but I knew that wasnt going to be good with the heater running.

I can change between eco and online modes on the fly, so I might only use online mode during bad weather and eco the rest on the time.
 
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Here's a few pics of the ups,its almost as big as my pc. Everything you see on my desk is connected to it (Sorry about the mess)... Im 3d printing a cover for the ups screen as its way too bright at night. With the pc, 2 routers and 3d printer running it say 35-80mins, but as the 3d printer heaters are constantly on/off, it cant work out the runtime properly.

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The ups had flicked over from eco to online mode on its own,,, I thought how odd, but then I realized the output voltage is set to 230 not 240. So when the input voltage went up to 242v, it flicked over to online mode to use the inverter so to get the output volts down to 230v..

Im guessing it will flick back over to eco mode once the voltage drops below 240 or something like that. I will change the output voltage to 240, but Im interested to see at what voltage it will flick back to eco mode. I think its something like 12volt difference either way.
 
Well guys its just dropped down to 236v and its flicked back to eco mode.... and a few mins later it flicked back on to online mode as the volts came back up to 242v.

Thats quite handy it changes between the 2 modes on its own, so I dont have todo it manually during bad weather. cool

Apparently the uk voltage was changed from 240 to 230 in March 1993. .. At the moment the input voltage on the ups says 243 and the reading on the ups has been round about the 240volt since getting the ups a few days ago. So either the ups is wrong or this country is still at 240?
 
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Phil2008 said:
Apparently the uk voltage was changed from 240 to 230 in March 1993. .. At the moment the input voltage on the ups says 243 and the reading on the ups has been round about the 240volt since getting the ups a few days ago. So either the ups is wrong or this country is still at 240?
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Uncalibrated voltmeters may be less accurate than their precision, but it's usually not significant enough to worry about. The nominal supply voltage spec was changed from 240V +/-6% to harmonise with the rest of the EU at 230V +10%/-6%, but the actual supply has not changed so you'll still typically measure above 240V at the outlets.
 
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