emergency power

[justDIY]

well, thanks to our local power company being bought out by a huge conglomerate, the quality of service has decreased and the length and frequency of outages has increased

therefore, I went to walmart and purchased a 75Ah marine deep cycle battery.

last night our power went out at 9:30 pm... by 9:45 pm I assumed the power would not be coming back on for some time, so I implemented emergency power.

connecting my marine deep cycle to a 10 year old Radio Shack [acronym:23a7264318="Activated Carbon"]AC[/acronym:23a7264318] inverter, I was able to run the filters on my 29 and 30 gallon tanks from 9:45 pm untill 10:30 am the next morning (approx 13 hours). I also occasionlly ran a radio and a small television to check on the news.

the inverter is only rated at 100 watts, so running heaters was out of the question - luckily tank temps only dropped into the mid 70's

seeing how well this system worked, I'll be on the lookout for a more powerfull inverter as well as additional batteries.

A generator would be more efficient and possibly cheaper, but when it's very cold and windy outside, having a door or window open for an extension cord is really out of the question....

the batteries produce no noise and no exhaust, and can be tucked away in my utility room nice and neat

*pictures forthcoming...*

[justDIY]

here's some pictures of the components

I've got the battery on a fast charger right now, out of fear that my power be going out again tonight

I'll post a pic of the system put together once I'm done charging the battery

75 Amp-Hour Deep Cycle Battery (walmart $49.95)


140 watt [acronym:298a9be455="Direct current"]DC[/acronym:298a9be455]-[acronym:298a9be455="Alternating Current"]AC[/acronym:298a9be455] Inverter (radio shack circa 1989, $199.99)


Multi strip and extension cords used to distrubte the [acronym:298a9be455="Alternating Current"]AC[/acronym:298a9be455] to various tanks

[loganj]

You can get the stuff at Home Depot to connect a generator right into the house electrical system. I have a 5500w Coleman generator and I just plug it into the plug in the wall outside the house. I kill the breakers for the water heater and [acronym:f1daf29913="Activated Carbon"]AC[/acronym:f1daf29913] units and shut off the main to isolate from the power co lines. It'll run pretty much everything else in the house with no problem. Works great.

[justDIY]

I don't have a main breaker ... my panel is just a subpanel off the building main panel, so I'd have to have a genny big enough to run everyone's junk, or run a cable through the window... I guess there's duck-tape


I do have a outdoor outlet, but it's on it's own circuit breaker, so couldn't use it as a "jumper" to get indoors

[dustybrannum]

that is a very good idea justdiy, my only problem is that when our power goes out i live so far out in the country it normally takes 3-7 days to get it back up. so im gonna have to just get a generator whence i get my tank up and running, im shooting for late summer on that.

[justDIY]

well, having a house, a nice diesel fueled wired in generator with an autostart option would be my choice

[justDIY]

well, having a house, a nice diesel fueled wired in generator with an autostart option would be my choice

[loganj]

My goal, since I also live 22 miles north of nowhere, is to get one of the LP powered stationary generators with auto start. We use LP gas to heat and cook so it would be easy to tap into the gas line. Someday.....