Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Don't forget to add in the 15 different taxes and surcharges!

Been down to Bunnings today. They have a groovy light that is solar powered and can be activated by remote control . Only $29. I have it positioned near fish tank and can activate it from laundry door so when I need to check fish in eve I can turn light on to go up the back. You can also take it away with you when you go camping . 8hrs of sunlight will give you 4 hrs of light apparently. Have only just got it.

Not solar, but a good read on wind...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 184753.htm

Does anyone have their air and water pumps run by small solar system? If so, has it been successful?.
I was talking to a bloke at BatteryWorld who says he can rig up a system for about $400! It would save worrying
about power failure.!
Any advice?

What if the power goes out at midnight?

If your talking about a battery solar system, then yes it could be successful, however your looking at a bit more than $400 for a system that can handle decent power outs. Decent panels alone would cost $400.

OBO, Yep it would have battery. He recons that the battery would probably last 2 years and costs about $200. Says that he will
make up system that will store enough power to get system through night depending on wattage. Otto is 4.5W and Pump is 60W but only runs 15/60mins so guess that would be 19.5W per hour usage.
Yep you are right OBO, will cost more because he was initially only working on Otto until I decided that the pump may as well be on same system.
I only went there to buy rechargeables for the Otto but $50 for 4 and I figured they probably wouldnt give much of a backup.

Thats around 1.5 amps at 12v via an inverter.

To run your system reliably, via solar only you'd need:

panels and regulator: http://www.energymatters.com.au/folding-60watt-12volt-solar-panel-with-reg-wiring-kit-p-814.html $900.
A deep cycle 150AH 12v battery: http://www.energymatters.com.au/trojan-flooded-lead-acid-battery-12v-145ah-p-193.html $435
and an inverter.

It adds up pretty quickly.

Thanks for that OBO. Sounds like I might have been given a bum steer, what do you think?
I dont want to buy a system that isnt gonna do the job but I have to come up with something better than the Otto backup, I think.
Hmm. Back to the drawing board! I dont want any deaths just because Synergy cant supply the goods!

Replace the solar panel part with a mains battery charger and your set. Solar panels - $800, battery charger = $80. Solar is not cheap enough yet.

I'd run the main pump from the mains, and the air pump from the battery.

So battery charger plus 12v battery and some piece of equipment to plug Otto into battery. Is that right? Or do I purchase a 12v air pump? Yes OBO I see the bubble above your head( It says "Dumb sheila" doesnt it) Yes my main concern is definately air so could just forget about pump going on backup system

My backup systems all run a mains powered 12v battery charger, that charges a big normal 4wd battery, that runs the inverter 24/7 that runs the air pump / s.

The speach bubble would say dumb if you were not asking the questions and killed all your fish

Aha! So an inverter is the thing that will have a plug for Otto and a clamp I guess for battery. So how many hours does the 4wd battery last if power goes out? This sounds like a cheaper way to backup ,as you say the panels arent so cheap.

Most N70ZZ 4wd batteries run at around 100AH, the otto draws around 0.5 amps at 12v. 100AH / 0.5A = 200 hours of backup, but with losses and low voltage you'd probably get 120 -140 hours or so.

Thanks OBO, that sounds great. Certainly not expecting that sort of outage but peace of mind. Thanks for the advice and look forward to seeing your commercial system up and running. Great work

I think Joel said they about 6hours out of the Otto itself on it's internal batteries...