Prepping for and Surviving power outtages
- Thread starter ChileRelleno
- Start date
Update: my tanks were able to survive 9 days without power at the end of July due to wildfire. A local Animal rescue let me in on the 5th day to refill the gas tank which had about 40 gallons left.
I have since switched to a tri-fuel generator and buried two 250 gallon gas tanks 5' underground.
I have since switched to a tri-fuel generator and buried two 250 gallon gas tanks 5' underground.
That's intense. Which tri-fuel generator do you use?
What about airstones with neodymium magnets epoxied to one side attached to a magnetic bar - which is an electromagnet: it's a coil of wire around an iron rod and the magnetic force can be turned on by applying current through the coil, and off. When the power's on, the magnetic bar holds all the airstones above every tank because it's attached to the power bar and a few hundred milliamps are energizing the magnet (NC). When/if the power goes off, the bar get's denergized, and drop the magnet which drops the stone into the tank. At the exact same time, an NO solenoid valve attached to a line to a 50 gallon tank of liquid oxygen and the valve opens. Pure O2 passes through the airlines at a rate so the 50 gal tank is depleted in two weeks, and into the airstones. The airstones could also be the same stones used inside custom sponge filter, and a check -Y-valve flips over to let the O2 in if pressure from the air compressor ever stops.
I guess I started that as a question? I heard of something like this somewhere.
Just ran across this thread ...just survived a recent 3 day outage nightmare. Wanna add a couple of things. 1st of all if you live in crowded neighborhood and are planning a generator...get a inverter generator ..they are alot quieter to run and will not bother your neighbors when running at night and also output clean power especially for electronic devices. 2nd i suggest for those who have already bought the generator in preparation for an outage...do run and test the output as well as there is a break in period on new generators if you want them to last. And 3rd...for those who wanna go the battery charger/inverter route ...air pumps dont use much power ...heat loss for cold climates is your enemy. An easy way to determine how much wattage and amp hour time your particular system will require is to buy a cheap device called a killawatt meter. For 20 bucks or less you can plug this device in line with your tanks power strip and view how much wattage you are using as well as how much you are comsuming per hour. This will help you determine how big of an inverter to buy as well as how many batteries you will need. And yes a pure sine wave inverter will definitely be needed if you are planning on running heat...they can generate alot more power than a traditional inverter that is alot bigger ( size wise)..hope this helps
I use a rigid 10000 starting /8000 running watt generator .....when the power goes out it runs my house with 17 tanks all with heaters and filters....i would definitely do a test to see what the maximum wattage u need then surpass that by 25% in my opinion....hope this helped a bit..good luck to everyone that deals with outages