Hi everyone, I'm trying to work out how to do something that, on the surface, looks very easy, but I'm looking for advice on how to make it as neat, cheap and safe as possible.
I have a fishtank, which relies on constant power for the filter to stay alive amongst other things. In the near future we'll be rewiring, which is likely to involve several prolonged periods of power outage, on top of that, being as rural as we are, we're quite prone to power cuts, getting short outages about once a week during the day while we're out at work and often at night.
For the timings involved a whole generator set with automatic switch seems overkill. I'd considered a computer UPS but don't really need the quality of waveform (and therefore cost) to drive a pump.
My next thought was a battery with inverter for the short periods involved. I know I can run automatic switching for this with relays but can't fine anything proprietary and would prefer the safety of something properly made.
The final option, which appeals to me most, is a separate 12v inline pump (which I already have one of), with a battery, the advantage to this being that it can run if the primary pump fails as well as as a power fail backup.
My last question is, is there an easy way to add in an automatic system that both detects power outage and will also kick in if the primary pump stops drawing power (i.e. fails)?
Hopefully I haven't asked anything too badly explained.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
I have a fishtank, which relies on constant power for the filter to stay alive amongst other things. In the near future we'll be rewiring, which is likely to involve several prolonged periods of power outage, on top of that, being as rural as we are, we're quite prone to power cuts, getting short outages about once a week during the day while we're out at work and often at night.
For the timings involved a whole generator set with automatic switch seems overkill. I'd considered a computer UPS but don't really need the quality of waveform (and therefore cost) to drive a pump.
My next thought was a battery with inverter for the short periods involved. I know I can run automatic switching for this with relays but can't fine anything proprietary and would prefer the safety of something properly made.
The final option, which appeals to me most, is a separate 12v inline pump (which I already have one of), with a battery, the advantage to this being that it can run if the primary pump fails as well as as a power fail backup.
My last question is, is there an easy way to add in an automatic system that both detects power outage and will also kick in if the primary pump stops drawing power (i.e. fails)?
Hopefully I haven't asked anything too badly explained.
Thanks in advance for any advice.