Battery powered pumps...Am I kidding myself?

[Brenden]

I purchased 2 battery power pumps the other day. "just in case" am I wasting my time with them if I have a power failure? I am debating buying a generator that will power the house but they are very expensive. We never lose power more than a few hours. I live in a private neighborhood and the guy 3 houses down is a "big wheel" at the power company so we always have power before anyone else when there is a outage.

 

[ellisz]

I bought a 3500 watt generator for around $300. Should run my most of my tank and fridge/freezer. Cheap investment for what I have to lose.

I have not used it yet.

 

[seaham358]

I got a 5000 watt in 2000 for 500 and it has been a great investment. Its nice being the only house on the block with lights when the power goes out.
Not sure how much a generator costs in you area.

 

[JPloman]

I have a generator as well. I would not keep my tank without one. I think the battery powered pumps are great to have, but I would also invest in a generator. Then again, I live on the Gulf Coast, so I am faced with Hurricanes annually.

 

[Brenden]

I have been looking at several. Anyone have experience with the lp or natural gas ones? They seem nice and you do not have to worry about gas sitting in them forever and separating etc.

 

[IndyReefMan]

I bought a 3500 watt generator for around $300. Should run my most of my tank and fridge/freezer. Cheap investment for what I have to lose.

I'm sure glad that I ran across this thread... I too have been thinking about getting one. Not as bad of prices as I was expecting. How many watts would you recommend for a four bedroom 2-story (3,800sqft)? My reef lighting will be the biggest consumer (560 watts). I have 5 powerheds, skimmer, etc... the usual reef stuff. Where do I hook it up, the panel box? Can I do it myself or would you recommend an electrician? (I have little electrical experience, but am a fairly handy do-it-yourselfer). Any other recommendations? Thanks in advance for the assistance.

 

[AndyH5512]

I have a 5600 watt generator. I bought it before I got back into this hobby. Now, my wife is always teasing me that I will need a second generator for my tank and accessories, LOL. If I had the extra money sitting around, I would invest in the permanently mounted (outside the home) generator that will activate should you lose power for more than 30 seconds. That way, if youre not at home when the power goes out, you will still have power. A regular generator is uselss if youre not there to fire it up.

 

[mp3z24]

for those of you with generators... make sure you test them often, and make sure you use a fuel stabilizer when you store them. the last thing you want is to have varished gasoline in your generator (or any engine for that matter)

this public service announcement has been brought to you by....

~mike

 

[Bhunsucker]

I have a 8500 watt Generator that I have had for a few years. I had an electrican come and wire our house so all I have to do is fire up the generator and plug it in to the house and flip a couple of breakers and we are un and running.

The only down side I see now is the cost of gas for the thing. We had a major Ice Storm a few years ago so the generator ran for about about 3 days almost none stop except to refule. Well the generator takes about 15 gallons of gas a day to run so 3 years ago when gas was 1.25- 1.50 a gallon that was not that bad but today with gas being 3.00 a gallon I'm not sure just how long we could run it.

I do agree its nice being able to look out and be the only one with power.

 

[JPloman]

Mine runs on fuel, not unleaded gas, and I use it regularly to make sure the fuel has not turned. I agree that you should use the stablizer in it, it will however make the gas or fuel pink, that doesnt mean it has gone bad.

 

[mykpoz]

the natural gas/LP generators are not that expensive...

you can find a 15kw LP/NG for @4k just have to have someone plumb the NG line and wire it up.

they are awesome

 

[melosu58]

You guys got me thinking about a generator. Good Thread

 

[seaham358]

I run my raised ranch with the 5000 watt generator. The only things I do not run all the times are the freezer and my VHO tank lights . If I am running those I turn something else off for a while. Again i will say the best $500 I have spent in a long time. You should have an electrician hook up the junction box. I back feed my house through the breaker box.... I know a few guys who do this and it was told to them by an electrician. Agian when I get some extra $$ i will be having an electrician hook it up right.
I take the generator and snow blower out every other month and run it for 10 min to keep them ready to go. I also shut off the gas so the carborator is run dry so if the gas does go bad it does not gum up the carb.. And stable is a must...
Right now I would guess I have 4000-5000 invested in my tanks so whats another $500 to keep it healthy. I also enjoy the lights and TV when all my neighbors are sitting in the dark

 

[ellisz]

I have not tried mine yet but I figure 3500 watts won't run a whole lot. Pumps, heaters and/or fans and keeping the food cool was my only concern. A little TV or something PC time would be cool but who knows.

 

[greenmaji]

Hmm.. I havn't seen a power outage in a very long time in this area, in the past 5 years.. the weather really isnt all that bad here (central KY doesnt get much in the way of snow, not enough to knock out power anyway) the most we get are blips in bad storms, a couple of seconds.. I remember outages when I lived further north.. maybe I should contact the local utillity to get a better idea of what the downtime has been on average around here.. this thread has got me thinking..

 

[ellisz]

Some parts of the Louisville area lost power for almost 2 weeks from a wind storm last year or the year before. Kind of crazy. The IN side of the river had power back up a lot quicker.