A most appropriate thread for this time of year. Yesterday we lost power at 3pm just as I was reading GIRS. After an hour, I was starting to get frantic. My husband tried to tell me there wasn't anything we could really do and that the tank survived the 12 hour power outage last Feb (when he was home and I was stranded in a hotel room trying to get home from the Rockford Frag Fest.) I told him that I was very lucky that the tank had survived that 12 hour outage and that I couldn't just sit and do nothing. There was at least a 1/2" ice covering everything outside and the whole town of Galva was down. Last Feb the whole town was not affected. Against my hubby's advice, I got in the car and drove to Kewanee (12 miles away) and bought a 750 watt inverter from Wallyworld.
When we got it hooked up, the power was down for 5 hours. I ran my car for 20 mins every hour and was running my 3 powerheads and the return pump and heater. We had a propane heater in the living room too (for us, not the fish!) Last time I checked, the tank was holding about 68. We got our power back at 10 pm. I was one happy camper (literally ha!)
Everything seems fine today. I am counting my blessings and feel safer now that I have some form of backup. It worked pretty well and cost about $65.00. The smaller units plug into your cig lighter and can be bought for 35 and 50 I think.¼/FONT>