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power outage plan

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 6:57 pm
by xrayjeeper83
What is yalls plan if you have a power outage? There is a nasty storm outside and it got me thinking that I have no backup plan if my power was to go out.

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 7:06 pm
by Bcgirl304
get a straw and blow...

no mini generator ?

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 7:24 pm
by xrayjeeper83
haha

oh and for any suggestions I live in an apartment

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 7:49 pm
by purplecandle
My hubby often forgets to pay the power bill, so when I see the power guy coming to turn things of I ask for 5 minutes..

I use large plastic storage containers with lids (the kind that comes in different colors at walmart)..and I fill them with water..

Once the power was off for an extended period..so for my brackish tanks I just mixed the salt by stirring it over several hours (I started the salt mixing as soon as the power was out)..not the best way to mix salt but it worked..

You could also fill your bath tub with water if you knew an outage was imminent..(clean and rinse your bath tub!!)

Also in the winter time a well placed small space heater could keep the temperature warm..

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 9:00 pm
by J-P
a gas driven generator is a must. If your apartment has a balcony that is a bonus :) Keep the noise outside.

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 12:02 am
by Pufferpunk
2 minutes ago, I was saying to Hubby that I want to use my $$$ for some cellulite treatments. He says he thinks i should spend it on a generator.

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 12:22 am
by ironbone
ive been thinking about the same thing.i dont know how far fetched it would be to do a wind turbine as back up have battery cells charged,always wind or a breeze in storms?most equipment is low voltage.never looked into it 100 %

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 12:29 am
by Pufferpunk
And when the storm is over & your electric company tells you it'll be a couple days before they get your power back on?

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:44 am
by Mezzovex
If you have a bbq, use it to heat up some rocks, then put them in your tank to keep it warm. You can also heat up water that way.

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 6:48 am
by pufferpuggirl
I've often thought about this .... and it's my worst nightmare. I have so many tanks that I don't think I could accommodate them all even if I did have a generator. But realistically, we've no space to store a generator and over here one would cost an arm and a leg too.
The last time the electric went off it was for about an hour or so ... but thankfully that was during the warm months.

Like I said, my worst nightmare. :scared:

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:13 am
by Pufferpunk
Heat is the least of our problems--it's flow we need to worry about.

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:37 am
by RTR
We had a big generator, but it fried a couple of years back and we have not replaced it. As we are in a single-family home, I can make do with a couple of smaller generators - one for the tank room (the tanks out in the house are okay without power for days, I just dump the external bio-only canister's biomedia into shallow Pyrex baking dishes for the duration). and the other for the kitchen.

My tanks are never over-stocked, so if I can keep the pumps/filters going, I am good for days.

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 3:57 pm
by CarmenH
We have a battery backup unit (technically for the computer, but the tanks would take priority), and a power inverter that plugs into the car lighter. I always figured that if we do have a power outage long enough to worry, I can run the filters on a rotation basis with them. We were affected by the big NE power outage in 2003 but luckily, I only had a couple tanks then, and no SW. I just poured water through the filters often and everything was fine. Luckily it was warm so no issues there...

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 4:38 pm
by Mezzovex
oh for flow i have one of those UPS battery backups.

Re: power outage plan

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 5:08 pm
by xrayjeeper83
ya heat isnt a problem for me, I live in florida. I can just open a window and over heat the tank in a couple of hours LOL.

My concern was more toward water movement.