Is it possible?

[scottwhitson]

Ok I am looking to get a large auto start generator for our house. In the event of the main power being out I would like my Apex to only run the necessary items on my tank until the main power came back on this way I can get away with a smaller generator. I am trying to figure out what I would need to get that would tell the Apex that the main line power is out? Has anyone done this?

[aquamanic]

Are you going to be using some sort of UPS to bridge the time between utility power failing and the generator kicking in or let power go out for those 30 seconds or so?

And unless you have a massive Apex system, you're only talking about a single 15a circuit. Taking a few amps off of that isn't going to change how you size your generator.

[scottwhitson]

Yeah this is a 600 gallon tank so we are talking around 2000 watts just in lighting. I was just going to let the power go out until the generator got going.

[laugh]

So plug one EB8 into an outlet that will be powered by the generator and plug your essential equipment into that. Any EB's that are plugged into outlets that are not powered by the generator will be off. Your APEX will know which EB's have power and which ones don't. Nothing special needed.

[aquamanic]

Yup, that's the thing to do. And you can add alerts to your email so that the un-protected EB's when they lose power, notify you. I wouldn't let the controller die if I could avoid it.

[kurt_n]

Yup... these last two posts.

I originally just had just a single EB in my system. I had it plugged into a UPS and used programming to turn off unessential items when the power went out. Without getting into the ugly details, some items (think fluorscent ballasts) don't necessarily play nice with triacs and 'dirty' power coming from a UPS. Getting some things to turn off reliably didn't really work well.

For other reasons, I added a second EB. I then changed things around like 'laugh' mentioned - with just a single EB plugged into the UPS and putting the critical things on that. With the other EB not getting any power to the outlets, there was no reason for outlet programming and no doubt that things would turn off!

If you can do it, setting it up this way is the most reliable method.

[scottwhitson]

That sounds easy enough. I have a sump room so I think most of my essential stuff will be running off that EB8. Return pump, skimmer, heaters. I think my tank would be OK for quite a while with just the flow from the return pump i.e no powerheads. Thanks for the help.

[scottwhitson]

So you think it is necessary to have a UPS to power the Apex to bridge the gap between line power and generator power or would it be OK to power off for that 30-60 seconds?

Yup, that's the thing to do. And you can add alerts to your email so that the un-protected EB's when they lose power, notify you. I wouldn't let the controller die if I could avoid it.

[aquamanic]

I'd at least put the controller on the UPS. That way, you don't risk damaging the controller, your EBx modules come right back as soon as the generator fires up (because their electronics still have steady power), all your other modules function as-is because they only need the Aquabus for power and you don't have things going into fallback mode (because the EBx never loses communications with the controller, only utility power). You can get one for under $100 which I think in the grand scheme of things would be cheap insurance.

[kurt_n]

Agree. From many of the posts here, it appears the base unit really doesn't like a quick on/off/on cycle. Seems like many times those power blips corrupt the firmware. A power outage is *not* when you want your Apex to go wonky on you! Just my observation/opinion that may or may not be correct!

[aquamanic]

the base unit really doesn't like a quick on/off/on cycle

Neither do most electronics if you think about it!

[scottwhitson]

Thanks for the help. Will add a UPS to the list of things I need to purchase.