just dodged a bullet

[jpchin]

hey everybody just wanted to say how important it is to have a back-up plan when you lose electricity. we had a huge snow storm (i live near harrisburg, pa) and our electricity went off for 7 hours! my aquarium lost 3 degrees in about 1/2 hour until i got the generator working! i really don't know what i would have done without it. we had no heat in the house and the inside temp went down to 63 degrees before our power was restored it's supposed to go down to 27 tonight so i'm glad we have power although our lights have flickered twice since then. more bad weather is possible throughout the winter so if you can i'd recommend a generator if at all possible. i know it saved my fish.

 

[Convict2161]

Very true. There's another thread going on about this guy in a terrible situation with no power. I got a surge protector with battery backup. You can get them at Staples, homeDepot or online. Worth the money.

 

[eco23]

I picked up a 5000 watt a couple weeks ago . I get to keep the fish alive, the basement dry, my body warm and maybe even watch some movies while the rest of the neighborhood sits in the dark

 

[jpchin]

yeah our generator is large enough to run my whole aquarium set up plus a light, the refrigerator, and the tv but it's still a pain in the a** because the house gets so cold. we went down to 63 degrees and that was before the really cold weather we're getting tonight. just so happy that my fish made it through. i also had my japanese chins to keep me warm. oh yeah and my husband too.

 

[librarygirl]

I was thinking about this too. Luckily I have gas heat so at least I"ll be warm. I'll just have to get more batteries for my battery powered air stone and hopefully that'll be enough to get through any power outages. Glad you got through it OK.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I was going to say... gas heat or a wood burning fireplace is a great thing to have regardless of whether you have aquariums or not... but an even bigger plus if you do.

 

[jpchin]

well we have a natural gas furnace and it doesn't work when the electricity goes out. the furnace has a chamber and there is a fan that has to come on to clear it before the burner goes on. the furnace also has an ignition switch that needs electricity to ignite the burner. just wanted you to know that your furnace won't work during a power outage unless you know of a way to rig it up but that's too dangerous for me to mess with. now a wood burning fireplace sounds wonderful! guess what? we have a gas fireplace.:-(

 

[librarygirl]

Oh geez. You may be right, it might not work then. Oh well. Hm, I guess I"ll have to hope blankets on the tank will be enough to keep it warm if the heat doesn't work. Hopefully we won't get any power outages here this winter!

 

[jpchin]

fingers crossed!

 

[mfdrookie516]

Oh, I was thinking of the gas heat my grandparents have... they don't have fans, they are the kind you mount on the wall. I didn't even consider the furnace though... yeah, that wouldn't work.

 

[Phranque]

There is another alternative to emergency power for your tank....

Buy a cheap-end car battery and keep it hooked up to a float charger, and have an appropriate power inverter to run "life support", i.e. - filter & heater.
I have a 150W heater & Fluval 404 filter on my 29g, which pulls 25W, for a total of 175W of power draw.... a $29 400W 2-plug inverter from Wal-Mart will easily handle this load. If you have, say, a 300 Amp car battery, 175W of pull is 1.46A (W/V=A), so that battery will run my filter & heater for apprx. 205hrs (8 1/2 days) on a full charge.
And, bonus.....this leaves an outlet on the generator to run something else, like the power strip for the modem, router, & laptop.... (as long as the phone line isn't out, too)

 

[jpchin]

wow! that's a thinking man's set up. i just went and bought a generator. and if the power goes out there's no modem, router or internet surfing going on. with a charged battery, i can play bejeweled for about an hour. the land line doesn't work either. it's brutal.