12ish Hours without power - lessons learned

MondoBongo

Obligate Feeder Obsessed
It's been a fun couple of days, wall of text incoming. :)

After Sandy rolled through our area, I decided it was time to buy a backup generator. Thankfully we were spared most of Sandy's wrath, but it certainly drove the point home. I purchased a 6500W Briggs & Stratton, based off what I had learned from Sandy. It was winter, so it was cold. I assumed I would need to run a few space heaters, as well as tank heaters, pumps, and other odds and ends around the house in the event of an extended power outage, so I went big.

Now, thankfully, I've never needed to use that generator. It never even got filled with fuel, and sat, tucked away in a corner of my garage, nearly forgotten.

Nearly forgotten until Tuesday night, that is.

At about 7:45PM our power went out after a small thunderstorm had rolled through the area. By the time the power died, the storm had already moved on and the sun was back out. This typically isn't a big deal. We've had a handful of outages at our current place, most are usually fixied within an hour or two, the longest being just under 4 hours. So I waited. When things didn't come back on in an hour, I started getting worried. Two hours in and I was begining to sweat. I called the power company and their ETA for a fix wasn't until 3am, almost 5 more hours! So crap. Looks like it was time to do something.

Pulled the generator out, read the manual (always RTFM!), ran my extension cords in to the tank, went and got fuel. Plugged system critical components of the tank in (I skipped the heaters and instead decided to run my powerheads, return pump, and skimmer. More than absolutely required, but I figured I had plenty of generating capacity, why not?). So at about 11pm, I yanked that cord and hoped for the best. Mercifully it started on the second pull, and ran like a top. Flipped on the tank, and all was right in the world.

Except HOLY HELL was that thing loud. We have a detached garage about halfway back on our property, I had the door open and generator in just enough that I knew it wouldn't get wet. It sounded like it was sitting in my dining room. We live in the city, so lot sizes are small, and our neighbors are close. Keep in mind when I chose it, I was assuming winter operation, and considerably more load.

Since the air temperature was only in the mid 60's, I wasn't concerned about the tank cooling too much, just the oxygenation in the water. So I ran the generator for about 90 minutes, then at about 12:30AM killed it. I figured that if the power company was correct in their estimate, the tank would be fine for about another 3 hours or so until the power came back on. Set an alarm for 4AM, and tried to get some sleep.

I wake up at 4AM, and the power is still off. Oh hell.

Back out to the garage, and yank that generator cord. At this point I'm fully expecting half the neighborhood to turn out with torches and pitch forks, but thankfully no one did. Called the power company back, the new ETA is 7AM. yikes. So I run the generator for about another hour, at just after 5AM, I shut it off again. I figure it can coast another two hours no problem.

6:55AM. Power is finally back on. HOORAY!

Check the tank, everything is working. I conduct a partial cencus, and satisifed I had done all I could, I was finally able to get some sleep.

The next day, everyone looked fine. I apologized profusely to our neighbors for the noise in the middle of the night, and let them know that if we're without power and they hear that generator running, feel free to drop an extension cord over the fence for some juice. It's the least i can do for making such a racket.

So what now?

I overprepared. Don't get me wrong, I am glad beyond measure that I had that generator. However, I think I could have kept the tank stable for the required amount of time with some strategically deployed battery backups, and a smaller (and MUCH quieter generator). If I don't need to worry about heating the rooms and the tank, which is probably not a concern for at least 2/3 of the year here (Western PA), then I'm confident I could get away with a lot less juice. So I ordered a battery backup for my MP40, some battery powetred air pumps, and I am going to see about a few small UPS backups, and eventually purchasing a smaller generator that I can use without making all my neighbors hate me.

That's it. Thankfully everyone in the tank survived and looks great. I used a sledge hammer to put in a thumbtack, and my neighbors are wonderful forgiving people that I adore.

The next time, and make no mistake there will eventually be a next time, I will have a better plan in place to make life easier on me, and everyone around me.

Thanks for reading.
 
Nothing like being over prepared. Huntin chipmunks with a 50 cal. prepared. A small inverter generator could run the tank. They are very quiet too.
 
Honda makes some very quiet generators, glad all was well.

This.

and a back-up battery, or battery powered bubblers (Penn Plax B11 is my favorite) will usually last you up to 24 hours.

Kevin
 
Honda makes some very quiet generators, glad all was well.

This.

and a back-up battery, or battery powered bubblers (Penn Plax B11 is my favorite) will usually last you up to 24 hours.

Kevin

:thumbsup:

i will check them out. my hope is to get to a point where i can run off battery power for 24 hours, barring the need to heat. i think that should be attainable for a reasonable budget.
 
I did the same thing last storm we had, kinda panicked a bit. Tank has been doing really well and I didn't wanna risk anything. I live in northern PA, about a stone's throw away from NY. Luckily we have some country and the neighbors have genny's to so not much worry there. After the massive storm we had last year that wiped out power for a couple days I wasn't having any of that. Soon as power went out this time I ran right to Lowe's and picked up a 5500w continuous Generac. I ran my entire tank plus a few other appliances around the house. After all that the power came back on in about an hr. However I regret nothing lol I feel much more at ease and don't worry about it when they call for severe weather. For me having that peace of mind makes it all worth it. Glad to hear everything survived and made it through.
 
I think the most amazing thing about this thread is that the generator started after sitting for all that time. I guess the key was that there was no gas in it. I found from personal experience that not running my generator for years means it isn't likely to start when you need it to.
 
I survived Irma thanks to my Gen. I had it for several years but only used it for a couple of hours once or twice. I do start it up every year, run the tank dry and shut off the gas. When Irma hit we were out of power for 7 days and the gen ran 24/7 without a problem. I went through 50 gallons of gas, the first few days there was no gas to be had but I had stocked up, I even filled our second vehicle and used that as a storage tank. They are loud, mine is deafening. We live on an island and all of my immediate neighbors evacuated so noise was not an issue. One thing I did when I purchased my gen was to install a transfer switch which allows me to run one cord from the gen to the switch and the switch controls 6 pre-set circuits. So much easier than extension cords, but I can run things like recessed lights and ceiling fans that are hard wired. It also makes it easier to run the refrigerator and microwave that would otherwise need to be pulled out to plug in. I highly recommend it and if you are not afraid to work inside of your electric service panel is is pretty easy to install.

Keeping the pumps running was easy, the hard part was keeping the water cool with an indoor temp of 90 degrees. The solution was to use frozen water bottles, lots of them. It would have been nice to have a chiller.
 
I've had a generator for 15+ years and it always starts. Key is to "winterize" it when the power comes back on. That means:
Check the oil.
Drain or run out the gas.
Coat the cylinder with oil - pull the spark plug, squirt in some oil, and pull the starter cord once or twice before re-installing the spark plug.

Store a five gallon container of gas and use stabil for storage.

Also find a way to use the generator to run your furnace if you live in cold climes.
 
Our service department has using this model for years
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200623983_200623983
Your neighbors will thank you

thank you! i will check that out.

I think the most amazing thing about this thread is that the generator started after sitting for all that time. I guess the key was that there was no gas in it. I found from personal experience that not running my generator for years means it isn't likely to start when you need it to.

i was amazed, and yes, i think you're right. it was brand new, had never had gas in it, and had never been run.

i still have some gas in it now. i'm planning on draining it and running it dry this weekend to prepare for (hopefully) long term storage.
 
I keep at least one of those battery-operated air pumps on each of my personal aquariums. Two on the reef tank. All my customer tanks had them as well - of course!

You'd be surprised how long an air stone can keep fish alive and lively.

But the No.1 rule is: DO NOT FEED THE FISH during an outage. I pounded this into my customers until I'm sure they got tired of hearing it. Too bad - at least they remembered it.

Fishguy anecdote #1 (I have a million of them!):

A woman had a disabled son (Sam) who kept an aquarium in his room - this really came in handy on days when he was bedridden - he had a beautiful planted aquarium chock full of multi-colored barbs. Sam was disabled with mental and physical ailments (he had health care around the clock) but that little SOB had the best Barb tank I'd ever seen. I set it up, but it really took off. Sam never lost a fish and the plants were awesome.

During construction on his apartment building, the power was turned off for several days. He lived with his parents until the power was back on.
I had a battery air pump running the tank. It made an audible vibrating sound.

"Mom" corners me and complains about the noise. "Sam can't sleep with all that noise."

ME: "Don't worry ma'am. He's not coming back until the power comes back, and when the electric comes on, the pump goes off automatically."

MOM: "But it's making a lot of noise."

ME: "Yes, but the noise will stop when the electricity is turned back on."

MOM: "But Sam can't sleep with all that noise."

ME: (remaining cool): "He won't come back until the electric is on. When the electric comes on, the pump will shut off."

MOM: "How is Sam supposed to sleep with all that noise?"

ME: "????? Look - Sam's not coming back to his apartment until the electric is back on. The pump runs on batteries and it's plugged into the power outlet. It's designed to operate ONLY when the electric is off. When the electric comes back on, the pump will shut off, and the noise will stop. Sam will only come back here when the electric is back on. At that time, the pump will shut off and there will be no more sound. Sam will not hear anything."

MOM: "But there's simply too much noise. It will disturb Sam. He needs his sleep."

This continued for several minutes. She NEVER understood that the pump would shut off when the electric came on. I finally gave up and turned off the pump, and then cleaned the aquarium. As soon as MOM left, I turned the pump back on.

A few months later, MOM moved Sam into another apartment. Stupid witch would not let Sam take his aquarium with him - the one thing Sam could do well and gave him a lot of pleasure in his miserable life. I should have killed her.

This the sort of crap you contend with if you take care of aquariums for a living. BTW - MOM was a college-educated wife of a big-name local doctor.

When I told "Sam" about it, he laughed. Sam understood immediately that the pump would shut off when the power came on.
 
Every generator manufacturer will tell you to run it for 10-15 minutes at least once a month. Even the big, standby units will run on a periodic schedule.
 
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