Power Outage?!? What to do!

sde1500

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First major outage with my tank lasted 4 days in late October. Covered the tank in blankets and ran an extension cord to my car to run a small inverter powering an air pump and small heater. Tank was very cold by the end, but no losses. Picked up a big 12/9.5 portable dual fuel generator after that. Can run off gasoline or my house propane tank. Now only worry is if it happens when I’m not around. Whole house upgrade likely in the future.
 

DDenny

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First major outage with my tank lasted 4 days in late October. Covered the tank in blankets and ran an extension cord to my car to run a small inverter powering an air pump and small heater. Tank was very cold by the end, but no losses. Picked up a big 12/9.5 portable dual fuel generator after that. Can run off gasoline or my house propane tank. Now only worry is if it happens when I’m not around. Whole house upgrade likely in the future.
I agree working on my wife about that very thing. We are working on hour 38 of no power have the portable going right now for the fridge and coffee pot and some lights. Good thing is I have not setup my new little tank yet. But we are in a hurricane area not as bad as Florida but still South Texas 50 miles off the coast is close enough. Mine will have to be diesel or gasoline no gas lines running to my neighborhood unfortunately.
 

sde1500

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I agree working on my wife about that very thing. We are working on hour 38 of no power have the portable going right now for the fridge and coffee pot and some lights. Good thing is I have not setup my new little tank yet. But we are in a hurricane area not as bad as Florida but still South Texas 50 miles off the coast is close enough. Mine will have to be diesel or gasoline no gas lines running to my neighborhood unfortunately.
you can get them hooked up to propane tanks too. The portable one I run came with a picnic tank connection, had my propane company come in and build a permanent connection outside, and repipe the gene to connect to my 100 lb tank. That way in case of a prolonged outage, don't have to go swap tanks, got the big tank already connected and I can just give them a ring to send a truck out for a refill when needed.
 

Malcontent

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I have a carbon fiber flywheel on magnetic bearings spinning in a vacuum.
 

ccole

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We’re over 72 hours of no power and currently have our portable generator running. I have five fish tanks (not all salt) and am not sure battery pumps would have kept everything alive. It is so cold in our house that I have 2 200 watt heaters running on a 125 gallon to keep it above 70 degrees. Hoping it ends soon, but glad we found the generator as it was one of the last ones in stock the day of the ice storm. This is by far the longest power outage I’ve ever experienced and we’re in a fairly densely populated area.
 

Kclizzy

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+1 power inverters are great. I have a big deep cycle marine battery I run my inverter off of in an emergency. And my car battery is the back up for that.
This right here!!!. Generators are good just pour some stabil gas treatment in her and she’ll be good

but this battery idea is killer

get a generator! get a generator!
Realize that people come to this thread in an emergency and being told that over and over is ridiculous and annoying.
 

FishTruck

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Whole house generator here.

Funny story, when we were kids in the early 1980s... we had these ICE storms in Kansas City, and the power would be out for weeks. One neighbor, super cool couple with no kids, always had power. One year... the kids on the block (me included) actually asked if we could bring our fish bowls and aquariums to their house and they baby sat our fish for a week until the power came back on. Once the word was out... there were lines of kids walking through the snow with fish bowls and 20 gallon fish tanks - 1/2 full... with fish. I think they had like 10 bowls and 10 tanks on the living room floor, dining room table, it was hilarious. Kids tramping in every day to feed the fish and make themselves at home. What great people they were!

Now, go do something nice for somebody.
 

Malcontent

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I have a hybrid with the 12V battery in the trunk. This was fortuitous because the engine compartment isn't weatherproof and wires would have to be routed through the firewall. I've connected a 1000W pure sine wave inverter to the 12V battery as the cigarette lighter circuit can't handle much current.

This has been my setup for power outages, moving, and trips to the vet.

I thought about getting a generator in the past but that would entail extra maintenance which for the car is already done. The gas engine only fires up periodically to recharge the hybrid battery which charges the 12V battery via a DC-DC inverter. This allows the car to idle a lot longer than a conventional vehicle.

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FishTruck

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We’re over 72 hours of no power and currently have our portable generator running. I have five fish tanks (not all salt) and am not sure battery pumps would have kept everything alive. It is so cold in our house that I have 2 200 watt heaters running on a 125 gallon to keep it above 70 degrees. Hoping it ends soon, but glad we found the generator as it was one of the last ones in stock the day of the ice storm. This is by far the longest power outage I’ve ever experienced and we’re in a fairly densely populated area.
Just watch you extension cords that they aren't getting hot and keep the exhaust away from your home air intakes.
 

revenant

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I’m running this computer UPS system, dont recall the specs but I got the biggest one I could while keeping it around 150$ or so. At a certain size the price jumped drastically so I went just shy of that point. so far this thing has been great. Its obviously not a long term solution but bridges the gap to get you through the night. I intentionally run only the gyre pump on the backed up outlets to get the max run time.
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I have two of these for power outages. I get about 3.5 hours on my return pump per UPS.. not ideal but better than nothing.
 

Razorp

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Ive been without power for 6 days now here in Texas. I have a generator, but its barely enough to power my tanks and has been kicking off randomly. Of course my house is 42 degrees at the moment so too cold for the wife and 2 year old. Tank has been down to 62 degrees multiple times over the past few days. Let me just say it is very disheartening to watch a years worth of work melt away slowly. Today i got my hand on a much bigger generator to save what i could. Soon i will have a whole home generator running on natural gas. Nothing else compares or will last the amount of down time that i have experienced.
 

FishTruck

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Ive been without power for 6 days now here in Texas. I have a generator, but its barely enough to power my tanks and has been kicking off randomly. Of course my house is 42 degrees at the moment so too cold for the wife and 2 year old. Tank has been down to 62 degrees multiple times over the past few days. Let me just say it is very disheartening to watch a years worth of work melt away slowly. Today i got my hand on a much bigger generator to save what i could. Soon i will have a whole home generator running on natural gas. Nothing else compares or will last the amount of down time that i have experienced.
I went through something like that... but summer time. Hang in there and I see a whole house generator in your future. Good luck and stay safe.
 

((FORDTECH))

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That’s why you start it once or twice a month and run it for 10 mins...
All you have to do is just like your lawnmower drain the gas out after using it and run it till it turns off it could sit for years all you need to do is put gas in it and fire back up
 
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A-Reef

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Actually, the circuitry inside the inverter kicks up the wattage from what is fed into it.
I do not pretend to start a war, but there isnt a 100 % efficient inverter. There are high efficiency inverters on the market but there is always a power loss. So how the wattage is going to be higher ?
 

A-Reef

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I have a hybrid with the 12V battery in the trunk. This was fortuitous because the engine compartment isn't weatherproof and wires would have to be routed through the firewall. I've connected a 1000W pure sine wave inverter to the 12V battery as the cigarette lighter circuit can't handle much current.

This has been my setup for power outages, moving, and trips to the vet.

I thought about getting a generator in the past but that would entail extra maintenance which for the car is already done. The gas engine only fires up periodically to recharge the hybrid battery which charges the 12V battery via a DC-DC inverter. This allows the car to idle a lot longer than a conventional vehicle.

J0KgnkI.jpg


iCDwfoc.jpg


5Eiwirg.jpg
Hey!! You have to do the best with what you have! Cool.
 
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