power outage, what size generator?

hawk1

New member
Im looking to get a generator before the winter sets in. I had a scare the other day when they were working on the power lines, and our power was off for about 4 hours. Thankfully nothing died, but I wouldnt want it to happen in the winter or for longer. Do you think a 1200 watt portable generator would be enough to run the things in my tank? Not really sure how to add up the wattage, like does a 200 watt heater really use 200 watt, or does it use more? Id want to power my powerhead rw-4 it says 10W depending on the mode, skimmer the pump is reef octopus otp-1000 pump says 13W, and heater is a Aqueon pro 200 watt. This is the generator I was looking at. http://www.ebay.com/itm/POWERLAND-PD2000-PORTABLE-1500-Watt-2-4-HP-GAS-ELECTRIC-GENERATOR-Best-Deal-/111392717348?hash=item19ef85fa24:g:nnMAAOSw3xJVXVvB
 
Get a digital UPS. Can get one for about 130 on amazon for 1000 watts or so. Plus side to that is, you can hook it to a computer, and it will tell you what your wattage draw is, and how long it will last at that wattage. This is what I use on my gaming desktop and its great. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBK3QK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00 The wattage thing just depends as it's always changing. A heater that has to run at max power because the temp in the tank is way off, will draw more watts, than if its only off a degree. Powerhead should be fairly consistent, unless your running it on Else mode for that rw-4. Same for the skimmer, should stay consistent.
 
A 200w heater does indeed use 200w when it is on. Maybe more maybe less, but all in all, close.

I would just add up what you have, and round it up. 1200 watts should be plenty in my mind. You only have about 300w listed.



I definitely would not get an off brand generator. Get one by a company that's made engines for years like Honda, Suzuki, etc.
 
For what it is worth, I would have a hard time convincing my wife during a power outage that the fish tank has priority over the refrigerator and furnace if the outage was in the winter. I would get a generator large enough to handle at least the basic household items along with the tank.
 
UPS may not cut it for 12 hours, without separate battery backs. I tried to do some calculating, but without knowing the amp hour draw of all equipment involved, its hard to calculate.
 
For what it is worth, I would have a hard time convincing my wife during a power outage that the fish tank has priority over the refrigerator and furnace if the outage was in the winter. I would get a generator large enough to handle at least the basic household items along with the tank.

Ahh the op has the worries of an obvious bachelor.

Lol.
 
LOL yeah I dont have the worries of a wife. I dont care about the fridge or any of that, I just dont want my fish and corals to die.

Lol.

Here's my suggestion.

Buy the biggest generator you can afford and a transfer switch. Plug the transfer switch into the fuse box and load up all the circuits that you want to keep on. Fish tank, fridge and A/C would be my choice. Just make sure you have the proper sized generator for the circuits you want to operate.

Boom. Power goes out, transfer switch cuts the main and automatically switches power to your selected circuits. You just have to hop over and start the generator. No fuss and no running a bunch of cables or scrambling to set it up. If you get a generator with electric start, then some of the switches will actually turn the generator on for you.

But the cheapest way would be to get the pull start and a simple transfer switch.

-Mount the transfer switch next to the fuse box.
-Run the transfer switch to the fuse box. The destructions will show you how.
-Get your generator and fuel it up, set it somewhere outside out of sight. (Might want to lock it up somehow, theives are everywhere.)
-run your output cable from the genny to the Tx switch.

Then when the power goes out, like I said, the transfer switch will detect the loss of line power. So when you go out and start the genny, the transfer switch will feed the circuits you have set up. When the power comes back on, the transfer switch will detect it and cut the generator power off. You'll still have to go out and turn the generator off obviously, but the Tx switch will prevent you from back feeding power to the power lines.

Transfer switch:
Reliance Controls TF151W Easy/Tran Single-Circuit 15 Amp Furnace Generator Transfer Switch For Up To 1875 Watt Generators https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HRWG8U/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_.FYiwbB4Q39WF

Generator:
WEN 56180 1800-Watt Portable Generator, CARB Compliant https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T7VT450/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_LKYiwbM1VKPTF

15A and 1800W should be plenty for what your trying to do.
 
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Funny I was gonna start a thread about this very topic. I live in upstate NY. Rural town where the power tends to go out pretty frequently during storms. I have a generator that is tapped into the house via a transfer switch. Its a 6500w unit made by Generac and it does a good job of keeping the fridge running along with some lights, microwave and the well pump and a tv. I would still like to get the 10,000w unit that Honda sells just so that I can add the furnace to that if need be.

My aquarium isn't up and running yet but I've been giving lots of thought into what to do in the event of an outage. I figured that having a small unit such as http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu2000i would come in handy. I'm no electrician but provided that you don't have a monster system, this oughta get you through a jam with no problem.

I will second what another poster stated, don't go buying these crappy brand generators. These no name units will do nothing but give you headaches. Think of it this way, you probably have thousands of dollars invested in your tank, not to mention all the time and energy you've put into it. Do you really wanna see it go down the drain because of some bootleg generator? Probably not. Get yourself a quality unit (Honda, Suzuki, Briggs and Stratton, Generac) and don't leave things to chance.
 
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