UPS battery backup question

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Coasting

I have no issue spending $150 on a backup.
•1325 VA/810 W capacity
•Half/full 10 minute / 2 minute runtime

Part of my brain wants to say that a 5w power head would use 5w an hour, so a 810w UPS should power a single 5w powerhead for days.... But obviously that's not how it works lol.

No, that's not quite how it works... haha. It goes by the battery capacity not the UPS output power capacity. With this UPS, it will give 10 min running at 400 watts (1/2 power), so at 10 watts should give 400 min or 6+ hours.

But if you don't have a desktop, agree that this is overkill and paying for additional capabilities you don't need. Also note, that surge protection is not UPS power backup.

What you really need is a battery inverter power pack like these. I have two that I use at our lake cabin with solar power and take them home for the winter to back up my tanks during an outage. They have much higher battery capacity (more like a car battery) and can run my tank pumps for a day or more (have had to do that in the past).
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mo...l#.VoBDrVKLDak

I bought mine (older versions) about 10 years ago (and they are still good) during fall clearance time for less than a 100 bucks (way cheaper than this one).

And a cheaper alternative might be to get a booster pack (on sale now) and just leave it plugged in (auto trickle charge) all the time.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mo...l#.VoBFDVKLDak
And use it with this inverter.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ca...l#.VoBFmVKLDak
Should be able to find these cheaper elsewhere, too.