In case of power outage

[Shaar]

The ice is building up gradually on all the power lines in town, and they're saying there's a possibility of some power loss in some areas if lines break, etc etc.

So i picked up a gel car battery, a charger/maintainer, and a 400w inverter. I hooked the maintainer to the battery and the battery to the inverter. I plugged my heater and return pump into the inverter just in case of power loss.

If the power happens to go out, everything will be off except the heater and return pump, and those will run off of the gel battery hopefully long enough until power is back. I think i'll be fine without the lights temporarily, as they will suck up a lot of power from the battery if i use them.

Thought i'd post as it might be a good idea to try and avoid livestock loss like during last year's ice storm. I didn't lose power last year, but now I live in Springfield, so i'm not going to take any chances.

 

[HumbleLobster]

If its at all possible, I'd get a cheapo generator for a situation like this. It'll give you a little more flexibility in the long term, and the cant be had fairly cheaply through craigslist and the like.

 

[fishworm]

did any of y'all lose power yesterday? I talked to my mom and she lost power for a while. she lives at campbell and battlefield. everything stayed on at my house out in the sticks.

 

[Jah2707]

My lights flickered a couple of times but they didn't go out. My parents bought me an early anniversary present. It was a generator. I just started it up for the first time yesterday. Wow is it loud.

I do have a question though. What is the easiest way to attach it to my furnace? I only really need to power the blower (natural gas), tank pumps and tank heaters. I know I am not supposed to go through the fuse panel but how else is it done?

 

[mako417]

My power went out last night from midnight until about 5 this morning. Everything is ok.

 

[Shaar]

Power went out at Ria's parents. Its back on though. No power loss here, just lights flickering.

Josh as far as the generator goes, i dont know anything about hooking them up... sorry

 

[mako417]

My power went out last night from midnight until about 5 this morning. Everything is ok.

 

[hambandit]

to hook that thing up josh just get a plug and a breaker from lowes and wire it straight into the breaker box. pretty simple, i can show you how to do it sometime if you want.

 

[triggerjay]

I can help ya out too Josh... Just let me know when..

Jason

 

[OzarksReef]

We lost power for about 12 hours yesterday. I made a dash for a power inverter - found an 800-watt inverter at O'Reilly's and hooked it up. I was able to power two 250-watt heaters, two Koralia-4 pumps, my moonlights, and a lamp to keep track of things in my fish room. Temp is normally around 78.5 in my tank - it got down to 76.1 before I was able to get things hooked up and running. Everything seems like it faired pretty well today!

 

[hambandit]

thats not too much of a flux you should be fine

 

[Shaar]

Glad to hear to got ahold of things and everythings doing well!