How do you deal with power failures?

[guitarfish]

I'm sunk right now. I've been planning a 75g project, hoping to do it next year. It's easily going to be a grand, and that's before adding anymore live rock or livestock.

It happens to be pouring rain right now, and I noticed the lights dim a few times, and then it hits me - power failures. I live in NE PA, we usually get several 1'+ snow storms a year. Last winter we lost power for about 18 hours during a winter storm. I had a 5g betta tank, a 10g FW, and a 28g salt tank, all which dropped to 70 degrees by the time I woke up.

Once I fired up a couple kerosene heaters, I spent most of the day warming up tank water in pots and pouring it back in. It was a struggle to keep the water in the mide 70s. I can't see myself doing this with a 75g (+30g sump). The thought of having a nice tank with some corals, etc., and then losing the power...ughh.

A portable generator seems like the only real solution, the cheapest one at Sears is $500, which makes it impossible. If anyone can recommend an economical solution, I'd appreciate it.

[guitarfish]

Hmmm, maybe this isn't so bad afterall. Check this out:

Generator (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3610124045&category=16039)

[Hemmie]

We live in WNY and have same problem with the power ourtages. I think our generator cost around $300 and has been indispensible. Just look at it as an important part of the reef system and it won't seem so bad money wise. I've thrown more down the drain on stuff I didn't use.

[Red Sea Purple Tang]

This maybe too simple of a solution, so please correct my thinking. I was going to use a car battery with an inverver. The goal is to keep the circulation and heating sections of the system running. I didn't do the lighting, thinking it's cloudy on the reef for days on end.

On another note, is there something that can be plugged in to a regular outlet and make a noise when the power is cut out?

[Entropy]

Originally posted by Red Sea Purple Tang

On another note, is there something that can be plugged in to a regular outlet and make a noise when the power is cut out?

Yes there is several different items that will do this. Just go down to radio shack or home depot and ask around. We have a baby monitor here at the house so we can hear my daughter if she wakes up. The main unit is AC, but the remote we listen too is AC and battery. If the power goes out the main unit goes off and this makes the remote freak out and go to loud static. Needless to say it wakes you up :) We have several plugged in flash lights that come on if the power goes out as well to light our path out of the house.

I am sure they make a device with a loud beeping or siren as well.

I would go for the generator if you can swing it some how. At $500 it is tough, but think of it as a insurance policy you don't want to be without. If you can just stash $50 a month towards it you will have enough when you are ready to get the tank going. Or you can open a Home Depot card and pay $10 a month for the rest of your life :)

Besides the second you buy the generator you will never lose power again (Murphy's law :) ).

[BiG_KiD]

how about a very large battery backup like the ones for computers.. Or you could use a couple of car batteries and keep them on a trickle charger with a power inverter.. try www.bestbuy.com sorry it's were i work and i know we carry one that would work..

[Randa]

we're newbies w/ a 110 and about 6 weeks in- we had a power outage! so, we stumbled into our back up plan...:)

1st- we have a carbon monoxide detector that plugs into a power outlet- if and when the power goes out it makes a noise that probably wakes the neighbors!

so we were awake, checked on the kid-dog, set the alarm on the cell phone, then remembered- the TANK...

2nd- I have huge fully automated telescope (my hobby, the tank is my husbands) we use a big car battery on wheels to power the scope at remote locations. Quick thinking lead us to plug a pump and heater into the battery. The battery has both ac/dc outlets.

everything worked out, Luckily- since it was about 15 hours before we got electricity back. the battery lasted all that time. we're still trying to decide if the one pump is enough? any thoughts on that? we used one, because we couldn't remember the last time we fully charged the external battery...

[Masoch]

My el cheapo APC ups system beeps when the power goes out. It has enough juice, I figure, to power my HOB skimmer for four or 5 hours. The other day, power was out for 45 minutes -- no sweat at all.

For a 20 gallon tank, I figured that this is all I needed -- the skimmer moves about 75 gallons / hour and is venturi-driven so it should aerate the jeebus out of the water.

[MalHavoc]

Generators are cheap compared to what the cost of your tank is. Once you put a 100lbs of live rock, serveral hundred dollars worth of fish, and hundreds of dollars worth of corals and coral frags into a tank, the price tag on a reasonable generator seems like a small price to pay. My coleman powermate 1850 ran me about $700 CDN and I've had to use it twice so far in the last year. One of those times was an outage that lasted 16 hours in the beginning of November. As far as I am concerned, the generator has already paid for itself.

[guitarfish]

I've decided to go for the generator. I have a "fund" set aside for electric & propane, and it's grown rather nicely over the last couple winters, so I decided to use some of it for a generator, which is electric after all :lol:

I told my wife "I'm going to buy a generator for when the power goes out." She says, "It's for the fish tank, right?" Yeah, like I'm gonna pull one over on her !! I can power the DirecTV with it too, so I guess that'll make her happy :rollface:

[petedoc]

If you just need short term coverage, I just bought a UPS at home depot for 18$, it beeps when the power goes out, and will run my pump for the sump system for about 1 hour.

[guitarfish]

12-18 hr failures are common here, unfortunately.

[warren thomas]

i got the wheel house generator from home depot made by generac i thimk it was 600$ or so 5500 continious and 8000 surge watts it comes built with wheels on it and a fold up handle . im in the process of getting it hooked up to a quick connect to my breaker box on a a or b switching system so i dont feed the power line when i run it . i ran my tank off of a 750 watt inverter of of my ford festiva for `12 hours straight last winter used a 1/4 tank of gas lol . car purred like a kitten the whole time. well i hope this helps

[liv4speed1]

you know...that large tank will cool a LOT SLOWER than a 29 gallon tank......There are about 1/4 the joules of energy in air compared to water, so it'd be a lot slower process and I doubt that your tank would drop as rapidly as your last power failure would.....just something to keep in mind I guess, but it seems to late :(

[MalHavoc]

Originally posted by warren thomas
i got the wheel house generator from home depot made by generac i thimk it was 600$ or so 5500 continious and 8000 surge watts it comes built with wheels on it and a fold up handle . im in the process of getting it hooked up to a quick connect to my breaker box on a a or b switching system so i dont feed the power line when i run it . i ran my tank off of a 750 watt inverter of of my ford festiva for `12 hours straight last winter used a 1/4 tank of gas lol . car purred like a kitten the whole time. well i hope this helps

Warren, make sure you follow the directions for your Generac generator with respect to periodic maintenance to ensure that the magnetic field on the magnets is still intact. Generac generators can lose this field over time if not periodically used, which can make your generator useless when you need it.

[SeanT]

In the Charlotte-Raleigh area last winter the snow storms hit.
Lots of reefers lost EVERYTHINg due to lack of power.
A generator is a GREAT idea.

[sanitz2]

I work for APC ( American Power Conversion) and we make UPS's, I see that you have a generator that you are currently using for battery protection and that works fine but you must also consider that if you are suffering form power outage there is a great chance that your power may have lags or brown outs which could very quickly destroy your pumps and other electronics. There are several cheap solutions that can monitor your power and keep clean power running to your pumps and electronics. One of them being the BK600's or BK350 that are readily available at most electronic store and start at under 60.00 dollars. I personally use 2 SmartUPS 2200' s and they can last up to 8 hours with out power and even then I can select which devices I choose to keep running for an even longer run time. You have to keep in mind that there is no computer and or brain to a generator and it must be turned on when you sense the power is out, a UPS can handle that for you, suppose you are out of town or asleep? Another great thing is most UPS companies will give you an amount that the UPS is insured for so if the UPS does not work and something is ruined they pay for damages!

[sanitz2]

Im not saying the generator is a bad idea it woudl just be more efficient being used with UPS's because you will need the generated power for really long outages.

[guitarfish]

I'm a big APC customer, as an IT Admin, I've got them all over our enterprise. We use the SmartUPS 1500s on the servers. I'm looking at a gen because I can also power some other stuff in the house. A cheap UPS can be a viable solution in some cases though.

[Scuba_Dave]

I picked up a APC BACKUP or SMART UPS 350, free after rebate from Circuit City. (Iahve another 700 on my Computer. I also have a generator as full backup - not connected, would have to be a manual process. We have short power outages all the time. Haven't had a long one --- YET.

[sanitz2]

There are several diffrent steps you can take to putting an auto switch on your generators as well. You can set it up on a power trip box that will sense the power through a ground loop and when the power goes out the generator will begin the process of starting up and the UPS will float you by until the generator is producing power so it will be safe even for long periods of time with out you needing to be there. The switch will even turn of the generator like a kill switch.

[guitarfish]

I came home from work tonight to find my brand new Porter Cable 5500 watt generator had arrived, all 165 lbs. of her! This thing is MASSIVE. I had to wait a few weeks because ever since the power blackout in August, no one can keep them in stock. Next I plan to install a transfer switch.

I will be able to power my heat, water, entertaiment center, and of course, my 75g reef tank and two small fresh tanks.

[guitarfish]

I came home from work tonight to find my brand new Porter Cable 5500 watt generator had arrived, all 165 lbs. of her! This thing is MASSIVE. I had to wait a few weeks because ever since the power blackout in August, no one can keep them in stock. Next I plan to install a transfer switch.

I will be able to power my heat, water, entertaiment center, and of course, my 75g reef tank and two small fresh tanks.