APC BX1500G Battery Backup Review

Motors wont last as long if its not a true sine wave, they will run on modified sine wave but they don't like it. they cover this subject on solar sites big time when talking about converters and well pumps.
and most genorators dont give you the right sine wave eather for that fact

 

Line conditioners aren't that expensive though. Especially if you don't need much voltage. Regardless, I'd rather sacrifice a pump than my corals or fish.

 

I feel the same way as you, a new pump or power head is a cheep price to pay for the life in the tank.

 

Im in "IT" so, i come across clients replacing their UPS systems all the time due to old batteries. Most people upgrade to a bigger better one. So I actually have several UPS laying around. I recently had a power outage and ran a FW 55gal tank that as a Fluval305 on it, 1 maxijet 1200's for my 20gal and a air stone for 2.5hours on a 3000VA unit. I had three, id have one charging, id cart the dead one to my buddies house across town and charge it while the other depleted and had a series of tandem runs across town going on while our power was out for 4.5 days!

They're great. This is totally worth the investment. If you cant afford one with a really long runtime, its worth having for those quick brown outs, and 15-30 min power outages if you have them in your area.

When you start considering larger KVA units, you should start considering a smaller unit, and using the money on a small gas powered generator to handle the long haul outages. I have a small gas generator i got from home depot. It was fairly inexpensive by comparison to a rack mountable UPS designed for servers, and will run forever as long as you keep it fueled. Depends on living arrangements, and such i suppose.

Oh, and Matt - as far as your computer not being close enough for the APC; You can actually cut up a USB cable, check the pinout, use ethernet, and just solder the ends on. I have done this before for that to extend it. Just dont do this kind of extension for any kind of USB cable that provides power (i.e. a USB cable that powers a USB camera as it requires more components to be soldered in to insure it doesnt fry the device)

 

one more thing to note with mine...people mentioned sine waves. the units i use are not line-interactive. they're true double online conversion units, they get better battery live, and they condition the line. but again, they dont condition assuming you're putting motor load on it.

ive watched the AVR trimming occur when I put a larger pump on it (1000+GPH pumps, or multiple smaller pumps (4 maxijets).

in the recent event that lead to me having 5 DAYS of no power, i didnt care, i used any available UPS batteries i had. all in the name of the livestock...


heres a good document explaining how the UPS function and the difference between line-interactive and "double online conversion"

http://www.apcdistributors.com/whit... On-line vs. Line-interactive UPS designs.pdf

 

you could always spec a disaster plan for the tank. that would include "backup" less costly pumps to keep circulation flowing during a power outage. the secondary pump if it failed due to a UPS conditioning or lack thereof, you wont care if you loose the backup pump.

 

Wow big thanks and k+ to homegrowncorals and bje for the great adds here. I really appreciate it. That is an interesting comment about non-sine and pumps .. but if sine is not right either then why pay more for them?

matt

 

pure sine wave will not hurt a pump motor is why they get more for that style.
I don't think it is really such a big issue with small magnetic drive pumps and power heads like we use in our tanks.

 

i have been playing with some 12 volt pumps in the hopes to use them as back up pumps during power outages.

 

Ahh... I must have misread your other post. Thanks. I have blind faith in my Eheim 1260. If it damages it, I'd be amazed.

matt