PG&E PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff) Prepardness

[skywurz]

Hello All

I'm relatively new here but am not really finding a good thread regarding surviving the CA PG&E (or other power companies) PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff) or just long term power outages in general. I know fire season is a ways off but it's better to start prepping now than last minute when people are mobbing for supplies.

It seems like here in CA a lot of people lost their reefs last summer. I want to hear success and fail stories so that us in the community can be prepared this fire season. I know everyone in all of the power outage threads says (oh just buy a generator) well some people live in apartments, or have generators that are too loud to run 24x7. Plus some people are forced to evacuate and can't return to maintain fuel.

I'm going to start out with some random questions I have. please chip in with ideas stories or thoughts or your own questions.

what success did some of you have with battery bubblers?

Where did you place them?

How many did you have for x number of gallons?

Did you move some of your more prized specimens to a smaller QT tank?

Where you able to run a generator full time or only part time?

What do you think you could have done better?

 

[DylanE]

We’re in the Sierra foothills an hour out of Sac. Pretty rural, so we’re not on the top of the fix list. This last summer we had a whole week without power. Thankfully we have a whole house generator and I couldn’t recommend it enough. It’s not cheap, but all indications are it’ll get worse before it gets better with pg&e. The peace of mind is worth it.

 

[Ryan Turner]

I live not to far from @DylanE it sounds like... I lost power for a week and used car battery's and inverters to run air stones and a heater in my 25 lagoon. no light for a week. I ran the pumps as long as i could and charged the car battery's on the way to work (50 miles each way) in a ghetto fashion. other than the bristle worm madness I only lost a few frags and didnt loose any fish surprisingly. tank temp was about 72ish all week. I figured i was going to loose the whole tank. Im buying a huge generator this year. the stress isnt worth it. I choose keeping the tank over the fridge.The GF was far from stoked about the whole thing so it didnt take much to approve a generator for this year. Its only suppose to get worse as the years go on so its a good time to figure out a forever backup for the summer months.

 

[Technewb]

The 1st outage I lost power for a few days and it was super cold. I had to use 3 of the 1 gallon jugs and fill with hot water every hr and in the middle of the night to keep my 750xxl from going under 70f. After the 2nd outage I finally bought me a 2000watt generator just for my tank and fridge. I now keep 20g of gas ready for a power outage. No way im getting up every hr in the middle of night to do that again. My main worries is when im not home. Need to to get some sort of backup power battery.

 

[skywurz]

The 1st outage I lost power for a few days and it was super cold. I had to use 3 of the 1 gallon jugs and fill with hot water every hr and in the middle of the night to keep my 750xxl from going under 70f.

Did you just float the gallon jugs or did you add the water to the system?

Asking because I read of a gallon or 2 liter bottle trick for cooling where you freeze the bottle then float it.

 

[Technewb]

Did you just float the gallon jugs or did you add the water to the system?

Asking because I read of a gallon or 2 liter bottle trick for cooling where you freeze the bottle then float it.

Lol i had to tie the heated water jugs to anything outside the tank (flipper max/powerhead) and dropped them inside the top of the tank floating.

 

[skywurz]

Anyone have experience with mylar ? they use them as emergency blankets i wonder if wrapping a tank in it would help keep in heat.

 

[GlassMunky]

I have quite a few friends in NorCal who are just straight moving out of state and going up to Oregon to get away from PG&E.

 

[skywurz]

So I have been running specs on battery backups. A small 750va unit can run a 100watt pump for around 1 hour 30min. A medium 1500va unit can run a 100 watt pump for about 3 hours. A large 3000va unit can run the 100 watt pump for 6 hours. Given these are specs with brand new battery and such so over a while this will degrade.

But to me this is looking more like a ( keep it running until I get the generator running) also clean and stabilize the power from the generator while it's running. Finally keep the system up while I refuel the generator. 6 hours for around $350 is not going to get you through a PSPS.

 

[RwP]

I think if I lived in a apartment I would look into a decent sized solar panel the kind they put on RV's running to a couple of deep cycle batteries with a power inverter to keep the essentials running. I know that on my toy hauler the panel doesn't have to face the sun to charge the battery it helps but not a necessity. And I would think if one had to a person could put it out on a deck or in a window that gets the most sun..

 

[TerraFerma]

Generator isn't an option for me - ended up getting an inverter w/ auto switch and a 90AH deep cycle battery. $500 bucks later and I'm pretty well covered now.

The battery powered air pumps were fine in the day for me. But in October, without any heat in the house at all, it gets pretty cold at night inside and I lost a few sensitive fish before I got the inverter and could run the aquarium heater at night.