Just thought I'd pass this along for anyone that has fish on life support in a building or in a basement like I do.
I bought two Inverters (Tripp-lite Model APS750), one for myself and one for a recirculating aquaculture system I set up for a local high school.
You can parallel wire several batteries to get more amps (run time if the power goes out) to run AC applicances, which in my case are linear air pumps and mag drive water pumps.
According to a conservative online calculator the school's system at 100 watts will run 21.6 hours with two Group 27 deep cycle batteries at an estimated 180 amp hours.
The inverter automatically kicks over if the power goes out and even charges the batteries when it comes back on. I have such a density of fish in my tanks that they wouldn't last too long without aeration etc. Also it will keep my RBC turning so it doesn't dry out and kill the bacteria that oxidizes the waste products from the fish. What I really like is I don't have to worry if I'm asleep or not home if the power goes out.
Two things to keep in mind though: The inverter needs to be connected to an earth ground or your outlet it's plugged into needs to be. You also need to wire in a fuse block and fuse (in the case of my model a low volt limiter fast acting fuse block Bussman model number 4164 I got from Grainger and Bussman ANL125 fuse.
Last year I tried a computer UPS with a 60 watt water pump and it ran for about 10 minutes before the UPS started heating up and warping. LOL Obviously not right for the device!
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 11/23/11 10:10 PM.
