Solar Powered Aquarium

[Nedly]

Hi, new to the forum, very new to solar energy.

I have an aquarium I am trying to get on solar energy. I have already been using old car batteries and an inverter when I lose power, but I have not yet set up a charging system for the batteries.

My aquarium peeks out at 400watts, and it runs more like 200watts on average - the difference is the heater running or not, it is more continuous in the winter.

I live in Maine, so in the winter we could end up with a couple to even several days without decent sun.

Right now I have been using two used car batteries that really aren't very good - I can get about a day if I cut back on consumption by turning off the lights.

So I tried running this small solar panel I have had, it is a "trickle charge" by SunForce. Its specifications are 5watts per hour (350mA current) at 15volts. It has a built in cut off for about 12.4volts for no over charge.

I thought this setup was cool, but my batteries can't hack it for a free energy based system - maybe just to scratch by on a power outage. So I have considered finding real batteries, something deep cycle - but affordable, that I can use with my tank.

My question is, with my aquariums consumption, how much battery power should I need to get by for about 3-5 days with no decent charge at 400watts. And, if I had these suggested batteries, what capacity of solar panels will I need to charge those batteries?

[SunEagle]

Hi, new to the forum, very new to solar energy.

I have an aquarium I am trying to get on solar energy. I have already been using old car batteries and an inverter when I lose power, but I have not yet set up a charging system for the batteries.

My aquarium peeks out at 400watts, and it runs more like 200watts on average - the difference is the heater running or not, it is more continuous in the winter.

I live in Maine, so in the winter we could end up with a couple to even several days without decent sun.

Right now I have been using two used car batteries that really aren't very good - I can get about a day if I cut back on consumption by turning off the lights.

So I tried running this small solar panel I have had, it is a "trickle charge" by SunForce. Its specifications are 5watts per hour (350mA current) at 15volts. It has a built in cut off for about 12.4volts for no over charge.

I thought this setup was cool, but my batteries can't hack it for a free energy based system - maybe just to scratch by on a power outage. So I have considered finding real batteries, something deep cycle - but affordable, that I can use with my tank.

My question is, with my aquariums consumption, how much battery power should I need to get by for about 3-5 days with no decent charge at 400watts. And, if I had these suggested batteries, what capacity of solar panels will I need to charge those batteries?

Hello Nedly and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

A quick calculation for your daily electrical load would be to multiple the watt rating of your load by the number of hours in a day.

We can start with that 200 watts average but it may be less or more all day long. So 200 watt x 24 hours = 4800 watt hours or 4.8kWh per day. That would require a 24volt 200Ah battery but you can't discharge the battery 100% so you need to multiply that 200Ah by 5 to get 1000Ah and you are now looking at a very big and EXPENSIVE battery system.

On top of that if you use 4.8 kWh a day your solar panel system will need to be about 3/4 of that 4800 watts or around 3600 watts because of the small amount of sunlight you get in the Winter.

As you can see that 5 watt panel and those car batteries will not do much of anything for you and what you are looking for in a solar / battery system will cost about $3000 per kWh of usage or for this simple calculation over $12,000.

So you have to ask yourself is it worth going with a solar / battery system to power your aquarium or maybe look into keeping it on grid power and having a small 1000 watt generator around if you lose power.

Solar power can save you money but only a Grid Tie system has any type of payback over a number of years. Add the cost of batteries and a charging system will always cost you about 5 to 10 times what it costs to purchase the same amount of power from a POCO.

[Sunking]

Last thing you want to do is take the aquarium off the grid. You have no idea what you are asking for. You have two options. Tell me which you prefer to do

Are you ready to spend $12,000 or more right now, and $5000 every few years replacing the batteries? That works out to about a $200 to $250 per month solar electric bill.

Or

Would you rather pay the mean ole Greedy Power Company $15 to $20 per month?

Which do you choose?

[Nedly]

At the very least I need some switch system and a backup battery supply, much like I already have, for when I lose power - kinda like a PC-saver. The root of my interest in this was simply that when I am away from home and I lose power, I can usually make it back within a few hours, but I need it to switch right over and keep on truckin when I lose power.

Generators is something I already have, including an industrial one that will power the house. My main situation is just the circumstance where I might be away when I lose power, and I want the aquarium to keep running when the power goes out, and keep it running at the least 5 hours.

Your algorithms was essentially what I need though, cause now I can look at the math, consumption, and generation process to see whether it is worth it or not to go certain routs.

The idea of having an off grid aquarium, according to your information, is far from what I am looking to do.

[SunEagle]

At the very least I need some switch system and a backup battery supply, much like I already have, for when I lose power - kinda like a PC-saver. The root of my interest in this was simply that when I am away from home and I lose power, I can usually make it back within a few hours, but I need it to switch right over and keep on truckin when I lose power.

Generators is something I already have, including an industrial one that will power the house. My main situation is just the circumstance where I might be away when I lose power, and I want the aquarium to keep running when the power goes out, and keep it running at the least 5 hours.

Your algorithms was essentially what I need though, cause now I can look at the math, consumption, and generation process to see whether it is worth it or not to go certain routs.

The idea of having an off grid aquarium, according to your information, is far from what I am looking to do.

Good. The idea is to think about what you truly need to run and for how long to run it. Cutting that load from 24 hours down to 5 will reduce your solar/ battery system significantly.

One tool to help you determine what your loads are actually consuming is call a "Kill a watt" meter. This meter allows you to capture the amount of wattage used over a period of time and will get you a lot closer to your true power needs. They cost about $20 to $30 depending on where you find it.

[lkruper]

At the very least I need some switch system and a backup battery supply, much like I already have, for when I lose power - kinda like a PC-saver. The root of my interest in this was simply that when I am away from home and I lose power, I can usually make it back within a few hours, but I need it to switch right over and keep on truckin when I lose power.

Generators is something I already have, including an industrial one that will power the house. My main situation is just the circumstance where I might be away when I lose power, and I want the aquarium to keep running when the power goes out, and keep it running at the least 5 hours.

Your algorithms was essentially what I need though, cause now I can look at the math, consumption, and generation process to see whether it is worth it or not to go certain routs.

The idea of having an off grid aquarium, according to your information, is far from what I am looking to do.

What kind of fish and how big is the aquarium? It may be that you need to figure out what devices need to be on for 5 hours to keep your fish alive. Sounds like a heater is a necessity. Is the room where the aquarium resides heated with natural gas while you are gone? If not, that could reduce the electricity you need.

Do you absolutely need filtration for hours, or would aeration do the trick? You have already mentioned that the lights don't need to be on. Can you convert your lights to led lights?

As for the mechanics, you need something like a inverter/charger. Since you are limiting your backup system to your aquarium, try to find out if you need a pure sine wave inverter/charger. If your equipment does not need it, you may be able to save money on a modified sine wave inverter/charger.

An inverter/charger is basically a UPS (Computer Saver) to which you add your own batteries. It has AC input and runs the equipment from that while it charges the batteries and keeps them floated. Then when the power goes out it switches to battery power because it has an internal transfer switch.

[paulcheung]

If it were me, I would just buy one of these and buy 2 12 volt 200 amps AGM batteries connected external. it will give about 5 hours continues power on 400 watts, or 14 hours at 200 watts. The ups has 5 connections for batteries power and 5 without battery power, that mean you can put your lights on the none battery power outlet so when the grid is down the light will be out to conserve power.

http://www.amazon.com/APC-BR1500G-Back-UPS-10-outlet-Uninterruptible/dp/B003Y24DEU/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1444624310&sr=1-6&keywords=ups

[lkruper]

If it were me, I would just buy one of these and buy 2 12 volt 200 amps AGM batteries connected external. it will give about 5 hours continues power on 400 watts, or 14 hours at 200 watts. The ups has 5 connections for batteries power and 5 without battery power, that mean you can put your lights on the none battery power outlet so when the grid is down the light will be out to conserve power.

http://www.amazon.com/APC-BR1500G-Ba...6&keywords=ups

Hey! I just bought one of those from Amazon along with the external battery a month ago.

Teach me how to extend it! It comes with a cable to an external battery pack, but how would you add AGM batteries?

[Mike90250]

I agree a UPS (of sufficient size) and a generator are the best way to do this. If there is a winter storm, solar recharge will be less likely (clouds, ice, snow) and a generator would be more reliable. Size the UPS for a 10 hour run, and recharge it from the generator, so you can sleep at night without the generator running. Beware of how long the internal charger may need to recharge, some need 24 hours to recharge. An external charger may BBQ internal gel batteries, but AGM cells are OK to fast charge .

[paulcheung]

Hey! I just bought one of those from Amazon along with the external battery a month ago.

Teach me how to extend it! It comes with a cable to an external battery pack, but how would you add AGM batteries?

Find a connector that can connect to the cable come with the unit. try an electronic store. make sure the connectors and the additional cable can support 50 amps.

[lkruper]

Find a connector that can connect to the cable come with the unit. try an electronic store. make sure the connectors and the additional cable can support 50 amps.

How do I know if the UPS puts out enough amps at the proper voltage for new batteries? Also, how does the software in the UPS know that there is excess capacity so that it does not shut down when it thinks the smaller bank is exhausted?

[paulcheung]

Normally the UPS are using voltage to shut down the unit. but if they are using software then you should be able to change the settings.

[lkruper]

Normally the UPS are using voltage to shut down the unit. but if they are using software then you should be able to change the settings.

APC has software called Powerchute and also a freeware from Sourceforge called Apcupsd. I have each installed on different computers. There are algorithms in the firmware of the APC units and these software packages communicate with it in a proprietary way.

The 1500 has two 9ah batteries and the external battery back has four more. The UPS is designed to charge the 54 AH in about 8 hours. If it were possible to add a couple 12v 200 AH AGM batteries to be charged via this cable (this is a 24v system), the amperage would be pretty low and the time to charge would be measured in days.

Also, what would be the effect of putting 200 AH batteries in parallel to the two internal 9ah UPS batteries? Not only are they different capacities, but they are also not the same kind of batteries.

Wouldn't it be more straightforward to get an inverter/charger and use it with the 2 200AH AGMs?

[SunEagle]

APC has software called Powerchute and also a freeware from Sourceforge called Apcupsd. I have each installed on different computers. There are algorithms in the firmware of the APC units and these software packages communicate with it in a proprietary way.

The 1500 has two 9ah batteries and the external battery back has four more. The UPS is designed to charge the 54 AH in about 8 hours. If it were possible to add a couple 12v 200 AH AGM batteries to be charged via this cable (this is a 24v system), the amperage would be pretty low and the time to charge would be measured in days.

Also, what would be the effect of putting 200 AH batteries in parallel to the two internal 9ah UPS batteries? Not only are they different capacities, but they are also not the same kind of batteries.

Wouldn't it be more straightforward to get an inverter/charger and use it with the 2 200AH AGMs?

I don't think trying to charge different size or types of batteries at the same time from the same charger will work for you.

IMO it would be better to charge those 200Ah batts using a totally different charging system then the one on the UPS.

[lkruper]

I don't think trying to charge different size or types of batteries at the same time from the same charger will work for you.

IMO it would be better to charge those 200Ah batts using a totally different charging system then the one on the UPS.

Agreed. In my case, the UPS keeps my TV, DirectTV, small desktop and an led light going for about 4 hours. That is long enough for me to decide if I need to start the generator. If I add a more substantial backup it will be through my manual transfer switch. I was intrigued that Paul mentioned the UPS that I just bought in this context.