Poor Man's Generator

[Brian Prestwood]

Don't forget, if your power goes out and you have a relatively small tank you can power critical equipment with your car.

An 1KW 110V inverter (car 12V DC to 110V AC) costs around $70. You might have to leave your car running in your drive way but you won't loose everything.

 

[Reefugee]

Re: Poor Man's Generator

Until someone steals your unattended running car. :bum:

Another good option is a battery operated air pump with airstone. There's one where it plugs into the wall. When you lose power, the air pump comes on. When the power returns, the air pump turns off.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7819581#post7819581 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Brian Prestwood

An 1KW 110V inverter (car 12V DC to 110V AC) costs around $70. You might have to leave your car running in your drive way but you won't loose everything.

 

[MandM]

I need to get one of those Minh, do you have a local source?

I did get a little inverter at Costco that I connect to a marine battery but I have to be home to do the hookup.

 

[Reefugee]

The product is called a Silent Air B11 by Penn Plax. I can't recall if it came with an airstone. Cost was only $11.

http://www.petsolutions.com/Silent+Air+B11+Battery+Back+up+Pump-I-30129045-I-C-10-C-.aspx

 

[duec22]

Those are great little air powered air pumps...The case holds two batteries, but it will run fine with just one in there...and they last for ever...I bought two of them over a year ago, and have put a ton of hours on them (typically at leat 6 hrs a week durring water changes) and I still haven't gone though the original 4 batties I bought..

 

[boviac]

I've got some made in china and yes they bubble with 2D size batteries but they are damn loud. I imangine they transmit that noise into the tank via the bubbles but being able to breath is better than an annoying noise.

Are your's actually silent or at least quieter than mine?

 

[RobbyG]

Re: Poor Man's Generator

A 1000 watt Inverter will consume about 90 - 100 Amps of DC power. Most car Alternators would have a hard time keeping up with that sort of consumption, in the best case scenario you would have to keep your engine revving very high and doing that will overheat you car very fast. This is one of those ideas that sounds very good on paper but in reality is not so good.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7819581#post7819581 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Brian Prestwood
Don't forget, if your power goes out and you have a relatively small tank you can power critical equipment with your car.

An 1KW 110V inverter (car 12V DC to 110V AC) costs around $70. You might have to leave your car running in your drive way but you won't loose everything.

 

[MandM]

I would think you would be OK if you were just pulling the amps needed for an air pump, not 1000watts.
I wouldn't try keeping the halides or Sequence pumps going on it.
I'm lucky to have marine batteries for a boat and camper that I can grab.

 

[duec22]

So one of those inverters and a couple of seio 620 drawing 8watts each would last quite a while?

 

[MandM]

My last outage only lasted about 45 minutes so I didn't get to test but we run PC lights and the water pump as needed in the camper for a weekend without going dead on two marine batteries. We hook up to the truck and recharge now and then if the batter meter shows low. I'm sure I would be good for a day or so on my batteries. We have a 500w or so generater as a backup, only needed that once when we were out for 2 days last summer.

 

[Sparkss]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7820588#post7820588 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MandM
I would think you would be OK if you were just pulling the amps needed for an air pump, not 1000watts.
I wouldn't try keeping the halides or Sequence pumps going on it.
I'm lucky to have marine batteries for a boat and camper that I can grab.

I ran our sequence pump and chiller on a 750 W inverter for over 4 hours, and by my calculations had about 3 hours left on the Marine Battery we were using. Also had a sweetwater air pump if we wanted to add a ton of air for 10 watts of power consumption.

Just bought 2 D-8 batteries that will run the same setup for 4 days straight.

Don't underestimate those inverters, when coupled with the correct batteries. And don't over estimate the power draw of a sequence up against the flow capabilities

 

[Underwaterparadise]

If you can afford this hobby it's worth the $300-500 to buy a generator, but the car trick works well for an emergency!

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Yes, you couldn't power 1KW worth of equipment. I have about 200W worth I'd need to run if the power went out for more than an hour.

I baught the 1KW inverter to deal with the startup spike of the circ pump.

I considered getting a generator but didn't because of storage space issues. I already have enough stuff I never use in my garage.

 

[Nu2SW]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7823777#post7823777 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Brian Prestwood


I considered getting a generator but didn't because of storage space issues. I already have enough stuff I never use in my garage.

GARAGE SALE TIME..... DIBS ON THE Extra FISH STUFF

 

[RobbyG]

Solution

Its the size of a car battery and makes very little noise