DIY DC Battery Backup

[Phantom7]

Following the hurricane, and still being on generator power as we speak, I’ve had a lot of time to spend looking at battery backups for my pumps and decided maybe I should make my own. I have a Jebao DCP 13000 on the main tank I’m concerned about, running at 95 watts. I was looking at this battery (https://a.co/d/4WUP236) and a ‘switch’ such as this one (https://a.co/d/2GCIsZK) and was hoping someone would look over my ‘novice research’ and make sure I’m not missing something? I was going to get a trickle charger as well, and DC pig tails so I wouldn’t have to ‘splice’ my Jebao wires. If anyone has any recommendations/advice to add feel free, I have no idea what I’m talking about on the subject aside from the little research I’ve done.

 

[Timfish]

I haven't messed with the Jabeo you have but you need to make sure the driver will work with 12 vdc instead of the 24 vdc the Jabeo power supply provides and you als o need to make sure the "switch" provides enough current.

An alternative set up would be to use the same battery, switch and charger and instead of powering your Jabeo have one or two small 12 vdc water pumps running all the time. Using smaller water pumps will give you a lot longer run time on the battery than the Jabeo.

 

[Phantom7]

I haven't messed with the Jabeo you have but you need to make sure the driver will work with 12 vdc instead of the 24 vdc the Jabeo power supply provides and you als o need to make sure the "switch" provides enough current.

An alternative set up would be to use the same battery, switch and charger and instead of powering your Jabeo have one or two small 12 vdc water pumps running all the time. Using smaller water pumps will give you a lot longer run time on the battery than the Jabeo.

this is true, the whole smaller pump thing.
alternatively, I think that big of a battery would give me ludicrous run time anyways (now that I say it, it won’t.), and after looking at stuff more I figured I could put a 12vdc to 24vdc transformer (https://a.co/d/1cRPYMj ,exact one I ordered but I just now realized it’s only 72w smh, I’m a dumb-) anyways, I would hope that would work? (had I ordered one rated for enough watts)

 

[Timfish]

To figure out how long your pump will run you can use wattage. The 200ah battery gives you about 1200 watts. Your pump pulls 95 watts. 1200/95 gives you about roughly 12 1/2 hours of run time.

The step up converter might work if your pump is running at low power but I've never tried anything like that. Personally I'd rather go the route of redundancy and have multiple and seperate pumps.

If you haven't already you might look online for info on "Ohm's Law" to better understand the realtionship between voltage, power and wattage.

There are excellent sites for DIY backup battery stuff. One I would recommend is https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

To figure out how long your pump will run you can use wattage. The 200ah battery gives you about 1200 watts. Your pump pulls 95 watts. 1200/95 gives you about roughly 12 1/2 hours of run time.

The step up converter might work if your pump is running at low power but I've never tried anything like that. Personally I'd rather go the route of redundancy and have multiple and seperate pumps.

If you haven't already you might look online for info on "Ohm's Law" to better understand the realtionship between voltage, power and wattage.

There are excellent sites for DIY backup battery stuff. One I would recommend is https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/

That's awesome information thank you!

 

[Tavero]

I have posted about this module a few days ago.
Ebay
You don't need to splice your pump cables. I would also check the start up voltage. Some pumps can also run at 12v even if they are rated 24v

 

[Phantom7]

I have posted about this module a few days ago.
Ebay

the only difference I see is that one will automatically turn on/off the charger, right? The charger I purchased claims to turn itself off

 

[Tavero]

the only difference I see is that one will automatically turn on/off the charger, right? The charger I purchased claims to turn itself off

Your link doesn't work for me. It is transferring me to the german amazon site which doesn't have the products you are talking about

 

[Phantom7]

To figure out how long your pump will run you can use wattage. The 200ah battery gives you about 1200 watts. Your pump pulls 95 watts. 1200/95 gives you about roughly 12 1/2 hours of run time.

The step up converter might work if your pump is running at low power but I've never tried anything like that. Personally I'd rather go the route of redundancy and have multiple and seperate pumps.

If you haven't already you might look online for info on "Ohm's Law" to better understand the realtionship between voltage, power and wattage.

There are excellent sites for DIY backup battery stuff. One I would recommend is https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/

see this is why I never trust my math, thank you. while 12 hours is definitely enough for us to get our generators going, it’s not how much runtime I thought I had. Assuming my pump does 3600 gph (which is likely over kill anyways on a 120 6ft), how many gph should my redundant 12vdc pump be? And is there a way you can think of to not have it running while the Jebao is?

 

[Phantom7]

Your link doesn't work for me. It is transferring me to the german amazon site which doesn't have the products you are talking about

 

[Timfish]

I'd be happy with 120 gallons per hour as long as it's creating some surface turbulance to help with gas exchange. I would go with leaving it running continuously. Then if anything happens to power OR to your main pump you already have the pump running.

 

[Phantom7]

I'd be happy with 120 gallons per hour as long as it's creating some surface turbulance to help with gas exchange. I would go with leaving it running continuously. Then if anything happens to power OR to your main pump you already have the pump running.

That’s all? I mean I guess it is only an emergency sorta thing, and my tank isn’t really stocked to the max. I’d really get some runtime outta that little thing!!

 

[Tavero]

And is there a way you can think of to not have it running while the Jebao is?

You can just use the alternative switch of a regular relais for that, but i don't think there is a commercial product for that.
Maybe look for 120v Relais modules

I see, the module I have posted only has a seperate charging circuit. You are right

Btw, you can keep animals alive for a long time by only using air stones in the display tank.

 

[Timfish]

You could probably run even longer with just a couple air pumps bubbling. But that would be the minimum I would use. What's important is fro the short term having some turbulance to maximise gas exchange and some current to keep water moving. You'll have to decide how long you may need it to run to decide the size pump you want to use.