Disaster Hit when Sandi Came Along

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Salutation abbeysdad:
Like you I used ups for my aquarium but only lost power for about 6 hours. I was prepared had the kerosene heater ready and the propane tanks filled. I remember about 12 years ago a cat 3 or 4 storm hit us in the sandhills we survived hunker down with a propane heater for two or three weeks without power. All the fish in the aquarium lived I had to use a plastic 2 liter bottles to pump air into the water.

Sandy was a small big storm it was barely a category 1 I think the reason so much damage is due to a belief that hurricanes only happen in the south and the dense population of the northeast. Believe me in a cat 3 storm you are on your knees ready to pray.
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nickt30

people up here in north nj were amazed at the storm. 60-90 mph gust is what we had in our area with very little rain fall (almost 2 inches over 24hrs)....all the water was down south. If we got hit with the rain in addition to the winds this area would be toast. Think about it .......do you see any ocean side amusement parks built on piers over the ocean in the south. The jersey shore will never be the same.

I have plenty of heat(wood stove) and running cold water. What i did not have was a small power supply for my tank. That would have made this more bearable. Day 9 here with out power.

Has any one used a solar generator. I am considering a small portable unit, maybe a $200-$500.
It will not work for the whole house but i am hoping to get a few laptops/cell phones charged, run the tank heater, and the cycle the filter a bit. I like the solar option as i am not dependent on gas/lp/propane in a real emergency. Maybe a smaller one for my store location and just cycle the three heaters until i can get there to do damage control. I think my home tank i would want on more of a reliable system.

Other then whole house generators (gas) has any one used any other types of protable battery supplies for just your tanks?

pop

Hello:
Have you considered using an inverter for power it converts dc to ac current so you can use a car battery to power your tank. Another thought is using a hand crank generator for short term use. I have used an inverter before to run a tv when the power was out.
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nickt30

Actaully since i owna bike store my idea was to hook up a generator motor to my indoor trainer and pedal my ass off......it would keep me warm....

Great idea....i have hear of people using marine batteries..........you say just a converter needed....and if i wanted one at my store location i am guessing some sort of power interup switch that knows power went out....i definitly needed to research this one further....have to do something

Geomancer

An inverter would be more of a manual solution for 1 or 2 things, not something you could hook up to a house or business.

It's just like plugging something into the cigarette lighter in a car, but in this case using cables similar to jumper cables connecting to the car battery (any 12V battery). The wattage is usually fairly low so you'd have to make sure it was powerful enough to do both a heater and the filter. Large ones do exist, but remember the more power you draw the faster the battery dies.

boxercrazy156

We bought a new generator a few weeks ago and had it ready to roll but never lost our power we also heat with wood
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twocents

To nickt30 (and anyone else)
Crank-A-Watt Video

this can be hooked up to a bicycle on a stand.

twocents

p.s.: we also have managed (most of us) to weather the latest nor'easter. all this did was pile misery on a lot of people. Some who had just gotten their power back watched as they went out again... (50,000 more I think, according to reports.)
gas rationing now in nys

AbbeysDad

With a heater of 200w or the other one at 250w and a filter of 8w, I'm thinking about getting this inexpensive 400w / 800w peak inverter:

Thoughts?

Edit: I Probably should have mentioned that I keep two 12v marine batteries (plus the lawn tractor battery) charged in the basement over winter. During a power outage, I could use those to keep my tank going.

twocents

recharge?