Heater Power/Relay

Hailepo · Dec 20, 2022

I‘ve been searching on this for a while with no luck. I run 2 heaters on an Inkbird. The Inkbird is plugged into my Apex, which is plugged into a UPS. The challenge I have is the power draw from the heaters. When it is on, the UPS starts to complain and the Apex lights flash because of the draw. My goal was to have the Apex as the backup to the Inkbird so that if it died the Apex would prevent a runaway heater.

So what I am looking for… but haven’t been able to find, is some sort of relay that would allow me to plug into the Apex for control of power but the main power draw would come from the other input to the relay. Cars have these, but I haven’t been able to find a 120v one….

So the relay would have 2 inputs and 1 output. One input plugged into the Apex to turn power on/off to the relay. The other input plugged into the wall outlet. The controlled output to the Inkbird turning it on/off.

I hope that makes sense, and I appreciate any help.

Thanks
Michael

blaxsun · Dec 20, 2022

It sounds like you're overtaxing your UPS. Most battery backups will provide power directly from the outlet they're plugged into unless they detect a power outage. What's the capacity of your UPS and what is the power draw for what you have plugged into it? Also, what's the wattage for the two heaters you run on your Inkbird (there is a limit on how much you can draw from each Apex power bar outlet as well).

Hailepo · Dec 20, 2022

blaxsun said:
It sounds like you're overtaxing your UPS. Most battery backups will provide power directly from the outlet they're plugged into unless they detect a power outage. What's the capacity of your UPS and what is the power draw for what you have plugged into it? Also, what's the wattage for the two heaters you run on your Inkbird (there is a limit on how much you can draw from each Apex power bar outlet as well).

You are 100% correct. I’m overtaxing the UPS and the Apex…. Which is what I’m trying to solve. I have 2 800 watt heaters on a 220 gallon tank. What I’m looking for is control of the Inkbird from the Apex without the power draw…. I could probably go lower watt heaters but thought getting a relay of some sort would be a better solution…. Maybe not.
I appreciate your reply.

Michael

blaxsun · Dec 20, 2022

Hailepo said:
You are 100% correct. I’m overtaxing the UPS and the Apex…. Which is what I’m trying to solve. I have 2 800 watt heaters on a 220 gallon tank. What I’m looking for is control of the Inkbird from the Apex without the power draw…. I could probably go lower watt heaters but thought getting a relay of some sort would be a better solution…. Maybe not.
I appreciate your reply.

Michael

You either need a second Inkbird for one of the 800-watt heaters or you need to move one of the heaters off the Inkbird to be controlled by the Apex directly through one of the outlets. There's a 800-watt limit on the EB832 ports, and if you exceed that you could damage them.

On my 200-gallon system I run a 700-watt (2x 350-watt) heater setup, so I'd think a single 800-watt would be more than enough for your tank. I assume you're running the entire EB832 off the UPS?

On my system the only thing I run on backup power is a pair of Maxspect XF330 gyres on an IceCap battery. It has the power/relay that you're talking about, but the downside is that if I turn off the EB832 outlet it still runs off the power to the wall (unless I also unplug that).