I've got a good question

[sanababit]

I am going to buy another eb8, this bar is going to be plugged into a battery backup, all of the outlets are going to be used for the return pump, the filtration pump, little skimmer and an air pump, anyways, I know that the bar or is it the brain that detects amp?, anyways, is there a way that in case the electricity goes out this energy bar is going to stay with power from the battery backup and 4 things are going to be hooked up on it, can I shut down systematically the outlets from the one that uses the most electricity to the least, I know the backup lasts an hour with everything hooked up, or can I alternate between them for a certain amount of time, maybe someone can shed some light on this, thanks

Sana

[kurt_n]

The EB only senses amps for the entire EB... it doesn't break it down on a per-outlet basis. So no... you can't have the Apex automatically figure out what is using more amps and shut that down.

However, what you're listing are pretty constant in their power draw. So you can figure out for yourself which ones are the biggest energy hogs, and work out a shut-down routine that triggers when the Apex senses a power outage. Not exactly sure how it would work, but I'm sure it involves several countdown timers which can be done with virtual outlets. I think the Comprehensive Manual lists the code on how to detect how long something has been on, which is what you probably want to use somehow.

[sanababit]

wow, that is a little beyond my knowledge, i am still trying to figurethis thing out, anyways, the timers do sound resonable but if the brain shuts down, then what is going to control the eb8 or am i wrong, is the eb8 self reliable, meaning it can run without the apex brain and display powered up?

Sana

[aquamanic]

The EB8 can only go into Fallback mode without the controller. So it has a bit more intelligence than a dumb power strip but it's not a program. However, the way the Aquabus works, if your EB8 is powered either via the UPS batteries or by utility power via the wall, then the controller will be powered.

What I would do is add to that UPS your router and modem if at all possible (or put them on their own little UPS if they're in a different room). Then you have full control of your system during a power outage.

One command you should look at during a power outage is the oscillate. With that you can cycle pumps on/off every 5 minutes or so and save a huge amount of battery energy. There's some threads on this over in the Neptune Community forums if you want some examples of how that would work.