Weather impacts?

ultimatemj

ultimatemj

Active member
My sump is in my basement and either I am having a heater failure or found the capacity limit of my 300w heater!

My Apex controls my heater/temp to be between 78 & 79, and this morning it was 77.2 and dropping :eek1:
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I've known it would be prudent to run 2 heaters, but in the summer it seems to heat the tank "too fast"...meaning from 78 to 79 in just a couple of minutes. Even in December it was heating that degree in less than 30min.

Good news Apex told me and I had another heater...so instead of putting it on the same circuit I programmed a second outlet for 77.5 to 78.5. This way I can find out if/when the main heater fails (tank doesn't reach 79 during normal weather). Then I'll move the 77.5 heater to the main circuit and get a new one for the "back up circuit".
 
Nice solution and it gives you a fail safe. In case one outlet fails to come on, you have a backup heater to cover you. That is a crazy looking graph, solidly steady up to Jan 5th and the cold snap.
 
I had a heater failure last year and was lucky to catch it. I bought a second heating tube after the incident and never installed it. I guess this is a good reminder to do it tonight.
 
I had the same thing last 2 days luckily I had an extra finex temp controller and finex heater laying and immediately installed it. I ignored installing the backup for quite a few months but waking up to my temp at 75 degrees 2 days ago almost made me pee my pants. Apex sent me 2 notifications in the middle of the night nut my phone was on silent. Never again. It was a close call.

Mai - did adding that extra amp work for you?
 
Knock on wood, mine has been keeping up just fine. In fact, the heat hasn't even been running all that much, makes me wonder how summer is going to be --- new set up, 210.

The blue is for "Amp3" , the spike is from from 2.1 amps to 3.4 -- the 250 watt heater must have kicked on. Also have an 150 watter.

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ToddR, wow! It looks like your heater only comes on every 8 hours or so!

I moved my sump to the basement (last spring) to avoid needing a chiller in the summer. So I'm just now finding out how many heater watts I really need to maintain temp when the basement is at its coolest.

Where is your tank located? Does that room get climate controlled 24/7? I ask because in the winter we kick our house temp back to 60 when not there, and in the summer let it go up to 85.

Seeing your lower amp draw reminds me I need to complete my return pump's manifold and get the notoriously inefficient Chinese made mj1200 (running a reactor) off line!
 
ultimatemj said:
ToddR, wow! It looks like your heater only comes on every 8 hours or so!

I moved my sump to the basement (last spring) to avoid needing a chiller in the summer. So I'm just now finding out how many heater watts I really need to maintain temp when the basement is at its coolest.

Where is your tank located? Does that room get climate controlled 24/7? I ask because in the winter we kick our house temp back to 60 when not there, and in the summer let it go up to 85.

Seeing your lower amp draw reminds me I need to complete my return pump's manifold and get the notoriously inefficient Chinese made mj1200 (running a reactor) off line!
Click to expand...

I need to "enable" the log for my heaters, to see how much they are truly coming on/off.

The tank is located in the living room/dinning room, so climate controlled all the time. We don't get that cold (( not my choice )), but it does go down to 65* overnight. Summer, if it is above 80, the A/C is on, I hate warmth. Ha.

That amp draw was for only one of the EB8s, have three. But, the total max so far has been 10.5, guess I didn't need 2 20 amp circuits for this tank.
 
Well, the back up heater was the right thing to do!

During the latest cold snap the primary heater is on pretty much 24/7 and the back up had to kick in to help!

The "amp bump" yesterday morning was from hitting 77.5 and kicking in the second heater!
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The "change" to the pattern the last 2 days is from moving the temp sensor to a different chamber in the sump. It used to be in the same chamber as the heater. Now it is in the camber receiving the drain from the DT. Not totally sure that is the right place...because the drain comes through 25 to 30 feet of plumbing to the basement and likely cools. Where it was before was measuring the temp of the water being returned to the tank.

I need two or more temp sensors!
 
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ultimatemj said:
Well, the back up heater was the right thing to do!

The "change" to the pattern the last 2 days is from moving the temp sensor to a different chamber in the sump. It used to be in the same chamber as the heater. Now it is in the camber receiving the drain from the DT. Not totally sure that is the right place...because the drain comes through 25 to 30 feet of plumbing to the basement and likely cools. Where it was before was measuring the temp of the water being returned to the tank.

I need two or more temp sensors!
Click to expand...

Good to hear it's working as planned :D

For heating purposes, I prefer to have the temp sensor in the same chamber as the heater. If for some reason the flow stops, this will keep the sump heater section from getting too hot. Setting the jager (in my case) built in heater thermostat just above where the apex shuts off heaters should do the same, but it's added insurance. Having a second temp probe in the DT drain chamber may be the best choice. This could more accurately let you know what the temp of the tank is compared to your sump heater section.
 
Good point, since I'm using finnex titanium's without their own controller, I think I'll move it back into the chamber with the heater and return pump...and get another for the drain :)
 
Check it...it took a 300w heater 6 hours to raise the temp 1 degree...and 40min to drop 1 degree!
View attachment 9089

The house thermostat is programmed to be lower while we are gone, but this is purely basement and crawlspace temp being WAY cooler than normal~
 
For the last few days I've had to stop the furnace thermostat from dropping down to the night time temp. If it does, the basement fish room drops even further. Both the primary and secondary tank heaters stay on all night using more expensive electricity than the furnace would use in cheap NG to heat the entire house.
 
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