UPS or Generator

[Gone West]

My sewage treatment plant runs off it's own supply from the shed. When there's a power cut we have to limit the amount of waste water used because it's pumped up to the soakaway. I would like an automatic system the keeps powering the sewage treatment plant for around two hours when there is a power cut. The airpump uses 80W continuously and the submersible pump uses 240W, when it runs, which is around half a dozen times a day. I've looked at UPS systems which seem to be mainly for computer type systems and automatic transfer switch generators which seem over the top for a total of 320W. Has anyone got a backup system like this and what type is it?

[joe90]

How often do you have a power cut?, I considered a genny but frankly outages are far and few between so (fir me) not worth it.

[Wil]

And how long for on average? a 1500W computer UPS should hold 320W for half an hour or so?

 

 Is the sewage treatment the only critical item you'd like to keep on? If you went down the critical route you could split some other supplies like fridge/freezer or possibly just put a 5*kVA genset in to cover all house loads (obviously it would need to be sized for actual load).

 

I think most people find it's rarely worth it for the genset, but depends on how often you have the issue.

[Gone West]

51 minutes ago, joe90 said:

How often do you have a power cut?, I considered a genny but frankly outages are far and few between so (fir me) not worth it.

We shouldn't get power cuts very often because they've replaced all the poles, transformers and cables recently in our area, but we had one the other day for an hour or so. I guess it's just one of those things that isn't a serious problem.

[Gone West]

31 minutes ago, Wil said:

And how long for on average? a 1500W computer UPS should hold 320W for half an hour or so?

 

 Is the sewage treatment the only critical item you'd like to keep on? If you went down the critical route you could split some other supplies like fridge/freezer or possibly just put a 5*kVA genset in to cover all house loads (obviously it would need to be sized for actual load).

 

I think most people find it's rarely worth it for the genset, but depends on how often you have the issue.

It's only the sewage treatment plant that causes a problem when there's a long power cut and I'm not worried about other things. We do get cuts lasting from one to three hours occasionally but I guess it's part of living out in the sticks. With the current gales we'll probably get one this weekend.

[Vijay]

A genny may come in handy for other things too remember. Are you a costco member as they do a site one for reasonable money IIRC