Battery backup

[DarkAngel]

We are getting ready for a trip that is taking us outta town for 9 days. I’m a bit worried about power outages because of the time of year. Can anyone suggest a battery backup that I can hookup my Apex into so I can have some peace of mind while I’m gone? Thanks!

 

 

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[SuncrestReef]

I recently helped another forum member with setting up an Apex for backup power management.  As for what model of UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) battery to get, it really depends on how many and what type of devices you plan to run, and for how long, on battery power.   I'm using an APC BR1000MS on my Reefer XL 425:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0779KYKLB

Things like heaters and return pumps will drain a battery very quickly.  I recommend programming the Apex to shut down any non-critical devices to conserve battery life, but to do so, your Apex needs to know when it's running on the backup battery.  This requires a 12V auxiliary power adapter that's plugged into a regular wall power outlet (not plugged into the UPS battery, while the Apex Energy Bar is plugged into the UPS battery) so it can detect when your house power fails.

Here was the recent advice I gave:

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1. Purchase this Apex 12V auxiliary power adapter: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/12v-power-supply-neptune-systems.html
2. Plug your Apex Energy Bar into your UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) battery backup.
3. Plug the new 12V power adapter into a regular wall power outlet and connect it to the Apex auxiliary power port.
   
4. In Apex Fusion, click the Apex menu, then click Misc near the bottom of the menu
5. Under the Power section, set Monitor to Enabled, then save the settings to your Apex.
   

Once these steps are done, you can configure various outlets on your Energy Bar to react when your house power goes out.  Here are some examples:

Turn off return pump:

Fallback ON
Set ON
If Power Apex Off 000 Then OFF

Turn off heater:

Fallback OFF
If Tmp < 78.0 Then ON
If Tmp > 78.0 Then OFF
If Power Apex Off 000 Then OFF

Turn on air pump:

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Power Apex Off 000 Then ON

In general, you should only run the bare minimum devices on battery power.  Heaters, lights, and anything with powerful motors (like return pumps or skimmers) will drain the battery quickly, so they should be turned off.

Since these programming commands need to be integrated with how things are already set up, I'd highly recommend you run things by me or other Apex support resources rather than just pasting in my examples.  

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I took my setup to the next level with a whole-house generator, so my UPS only needs to keep things running for about 30 seconds until my generator automatically starts up and switches the whole house over to backup power.  But that's beyond the scope of this thread...

Edited December 18, 2018 by SuncrestReef

[pdxmonkeyboy]

my suggestion.... set your apex notifications to my phone, tell me where your generator is at.  

Seriously though.. the power outages in our neck of the woods can last a while because typically trees fall on stuff.  I have a generator and a cord that I plug the main apex power bar into.  runs heaters, return pump, and skimmer.  Just enough to keep the apex running and  to keep the tank warm, aerated, and the water moving.