I lost power in my house last Thursday along with a million other people in the Puget Sound area. The question had come up in my head as to what I would do with my 40 gallon TBS tank if the power ever went out. I guess I dismissed those thoughts with "I'll figure something out if the time comes".
I am happy to report that, after 156 hours without power or heat in my house, my TBS tank is alive and well! I did figure a few things out; most of them the hard way.
We lost power at around midnight - a tree fell across the line just up from my house. In the morning, the house had cooled to the 60's and the tank was at 70.
I went to Best Buy, bought an inverter, and hooked up a car battery to run one of the heaters (50w) and the pumps. A generator was out of the question at the point. I patted myself on the back for the next hour or so until the battery went dead.
Then I ran a cord down to my pickup and plugged into that battery. That bought me another 3 hours before it went dead. I used the car to jump the truck and ran the tank off of the car for the rest of the day until 1am, starting the car every once in a while (and jumping it off of the truck frequently). This got old real fast and by morning the tank was at 60 degrees and the house was at 50.
I continued running the heater and pumps off of the car for most of the next day, keeping the tank at 60 while the house continued to get into the 40's. During the second day, I did what I should have done the first night - I wrapped the tank in inch and a half styrofoam that I had bought for another purpose. This really helped but I knew that I couldn't continue to run the tank off of the damn Subaru.
As luck would have it, the power came on in an apartment complex across the street. I tapped into one of their yard lights and ran 150' of extension cord over to my place and plugged in the tank and another 50w heater. Horray! The apartment manager pointed me to an outside outlet the next morning - one that wouldn't go off during the day.
That was it! The temperature in the house dropped to the low 40's for the next several days but my tank remained a toasty 70 thanks to a generous neighbor (who also let my wife and 9 month old daughter sleep in his rec room).
I really recommend buying some of the 2' X 4' sheets of styrofoam at Home Depot to make a 'cooler' for your tank. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to keep the heat up with the house being as cold as it was.
After that experience, I think I'll be in the market for a small generator!
John
I am happy to report that, after 156 hours without power or heat in my house, my TBS tank is alive and well! I did figure a few things out; most of them the hard way.
We lost power at around midnight - a tree fell across the line just up from my house. In the morning, the house had cooled to the 60's and the tank was at 70.
I went to Best Buy, bought an inverter, and hooked up a car battery to run one of the heaters (50w) and the pumps. A generator was out of the question at the point. I patted myself on the back for the next hour or so until the battery went dead.
Then I ran a cord down to my pickup and plugged into that battery. That bought me another 3 hours before it went dead. I used the car to jump the truck and ran the tank off of the car for the rest of the day until 1am, starting the car every once in a while (and jumping it off of the truck frequently). This got old real fast and by morning the tank was at 60 degrees and the house was at 50.
I continued running the heater and pumps off of the car for most of the next day, keeping the tank at 60 while the house continued to get into the 40's. During the second day, I did what I should have done the first night - I wrapped the tank in inch and a half styrofoam that I had bought for another purpose. This really helped but I knew that I couldn't continue to run the tank off of the damn Subaru.
As luck would have it, the power came on in an apartment complex across the street. I tapped into one of their yard lights and ran 150' of extension cord over to my place and plugged in the tank and another 50w heater. Horray! The apartment manager pointed me to an outside outlet the next morning - one that wouldn't go off during the day.
That was it! The temperature in the house dropped to the low 40's for the next several days but my tank remained a toasty 70 thanks to a generous neighbor (who also let my wife and 9 month old daughter sleep in his rec room).
I really recommend buying some of the 2' X 4' sheets of styrofoam at Home Depot to make a 'cooler' for your tank. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to keep the heat up with the house being as cold as it was.
After that experience, I think I'll be in the market for a small generator!
John
