What is your back up for elec outeges?
- Thread starter lil.guppy
- Start date
scsinet
Active Member
First, water movement is just as important as a heater. You need to expect to keep at least a powerhead or two operating if not your main pump. This is easily accomplished with a generator or a power inverter. Powerheads dont' require much current.
Lots of people swear by UPS units used to back up computers. I do not recommend them, but larger ones can keep a powerhead going for a short while.
Heaters, on the other hand, are generally only needed if the power outage is extended, and a UPS will not last nearly long enough to operate a heater.
What's worse, if your house heat is not working, a heater is going to really struggle to keep an aquarium heated to temperature when the house temperature drops. So, you really need an extra heater or two as part of your backup arsenal.
Heaters draw a quite a bit of current, and need to run for long periods. In this case, there are really only two options: A generator, or a power inverter that is hooked up to a car, where the engine can keep the battery recharged and the inverter running.
I myself have 3 extra heaters standing by, and a large enough generator to run my entire tank. Backing that up, I also have a very large 1500w power inverter standing by should the generator fail.
Lots of people swear by UPS units used to back up computers. I do not recommend them, but larger ones can keep a powerhead going for a short while.
Heaters, on the other hand, are generally only needed if the power outage is extended, and a UPS will not last nearly long enough to operate a heater.
What's worse, if your house heat is not working, a heater is going to really struggle to keep an aquarium heated to temperature when the house temperature drops. So, you really need an extra heater or two as part of your backup arsenal.
Heaters draw a quite a bit of current, and need to run for long periods. In this case, there are really only two options: A generator, or a power inverter that is hooked up to a car, where the engine can keep the battery recharged and the inverter running.
I myself have 3 extra heaters standing by, and a large enough generator to run my entire tank. Backing that up, I also have a very large 1500w power inverter standing by should the generator fail.
waterworld
Member
The best of plans need to verified and tested. It does no good to have the generator, UPS, Invertor or whatever your choice is if you do not pull the power on your tank and test it for a few hours to make sure it will work. Make sure your extension cords are long enough to go to the car in the garage. ( do not run the car with the door closed!). Make sure the generator you keep in the box in the garage has cables to connect to your house and you know how to use hook up the cables. The key is to have a "mock: outage to see what will happen when you have the ability to turn back on the power to save the day if there is an issue.
Much like the practice of backing up a computer, it does no good to make back-ups if you do not test that the back-ups are usable when you need them.
3 months ago my power was out for 14 hours when typically it would only be out for 1-3 hours Max. 1st thing I did was lay heavy towels across the tank to retain heat. Fortunatly it was fairly warm out. Then plugged a powerhead and a 2 heaters in the DT into my car and ran this 1/2 an hour every hour. Run time may need extended if it is colder. Had no probelms and all survived. May even want to watch your water parameters after the power is back on to make sure having limited circulation did not impact those.
Good Luck,
WW
Much like the practice of backing up a computer, it does no good to make back-ups if you do not test that the back-ups are usable when you need them.
3 months ago my power was out for 14 hours when typically it would only be out for 1-3 hours Max. 1st thing I did was lay heavy towels across the tank to retain heat. Fortunatly it was fairly warm out. Then plugged a powerhead and a 2 heaters in the DT into my car and ran this 1/2 an hour every hour. Run time may need extended if it is colder. Had no probelms and all survived. May even want to watch your water parameters after the power is back on to make sure having limited circulation did not impact those.
Good Luck,
WW
lighteningthes
Member
I have an APC 1000 battery backup hooked up to my tank. Its a 75 with an ehiem ecco canister, three aquaclear powerheads, 300 watt heater, standard flourscent lights and hospital tank which is a rena 60 and two small heaters. I register 40% load when everything is sucking power. This provdes me more than ample time to walk outside and pull start my generator that is connected to my transfer switch. I then walk to the basement and switch my whole house to generator.
jayking232003
Member
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