What do you guys do for power outages?

[ShaneOMac]

Hey guys, I just moved to the Springs from california a few months ago. Winter coming and I'm wondering how often you guys loose power out here? Had an outage last year and lost 75% of my livestock, some of which i had had for almsot 5 years. Really want to avoid that again this year! At my old house I would loose it 10-15 times a year and i had a gas generator that would sit on the porch and power the tank but it was really loud. Wasn't much of a problem at my last house cuz i was out in the woods but im in a residential area now. Running a loud generator throughout the night would be much more of a pain at my new house.

WHat other options are there? Im thinking of getting the ecotech battery backups just for my mp's to keep water movement when it goes out and im not home, but i'd ideally like something i could plug the whole system into that would automatically kick on if the power to go out. The other thing is that I do go out of town at least once a month which is another reason I really want to find something automated.

Anybody have anything like what I'm hoping for? If not, what are the best options for dealing with this problem? Just for the sake of conversation, consider that money is not a factor. I lost over 5k in livestock last year..almsot quit but didnt. I've spent a lot of money building my system back up and as long as it doesn't require something being built into the house (I'm renting) I'm not opposed to investing in some piece of mind.

Thanks guys!

 

[jda123]

The generator is the best bet. If you are worried about it being loud, then just buy a quieter one, but they are a lot more money.

 

[static reef]

Battery back ups on 1 powerhead per tank and one battery backup per heater per tank. In the springs if we loose power it is normally no more than a few hours at a time. Not sure about the denver crowd.

Following along to see what other are doing.

 

[ShaneOMac]

they need to make generators with a power cord going to the wall that you can plug your power strips into to power the tank while you have electricity, and then as soon as the power goes out all equipment is still plugged into the generator which should kick on and power should come back within 15 seconds or so? Is there anything like that? I know my grandparents had something like this that turned on automatically and powered the entire house when the power went out, but it wad like 12k. I would imagine they could make something smaller using the same idea but big enough to power a tank for maybe 2-4k? I dont know i could be way off here just my line of thinking

 

[jahmic]

How large is the tank and hows the ambient temp in the room if the power goes out in winter? The biggest threat is the lack of circulation...I have a battery backup hooked up to both MP10s on my cube and run a battery operated air pump that goes to the fuge to keep that live as well (pump kicks on when power is cut).

Heating the tank with a battery backup once the ambient temp drops won't last very long...maybe a few hours. If you're very concerned a generator is your best bet. That being said...I lost power for 2 days a couple winters ago and just wrapped a comforter and sleeping bag around my tank. The house is old, and poorly insulated...so with no heat It was quickly down to mid 50s in the house and the tank did just fine.

 

[sethsolomon]

I have a back up generator for my house. Just wire it into your power box and flip the power to the out side off and fire up the generator. I have a Predator 6000w from Harbor Freight and it has been very reliable.

 

[static reef]

I have a back up generator for my house. Just wire it into your power box and flip the power to the out side off and fire up the generator. I have a Predator 6000w from Harbor Freight and it has been very reliable.

Is this capable of powering your whole house during an outage?

I am assuming that this will take a permit to hook up correctly?

Easy install or complicated?

 

[LeviK]

they need to make generators with a power cord going to the wall that you can plug your power strips into to power the tank while you have electricity, and then as soon as the power goes out all equipment is still plugged into the generator which should kick on and power should come back within 15 seconds or so? Is there anything like that? I know my grandparents had something like this that turned on automatically and powered the entire house when the power went out, but it wad like 12k. I would imagine they could make something smaller using the same idea but big enough to power a tank for maybe 2-4k? I dont know i could be way off here just my line of thinking

You can have a small gas powered generator do the same thing hooked to one breaker. About 500 in labor and 500 for generator. Need to have an electric start generator and exhaust piped to outside. In Ohio I had mine setup in the garage and muffler to outside of garage.

 

[deboy69]

Around here most power lines are run underground so power failures more then a few seconds are uncommon. I've lived in the same house and haven't had one that lasted more then a few min or seconds. Others may have a different experience. The cheap way would just buy a car DC ac converter that plugs into your cigarette lighter.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

I got a generator from harbor freight. $80 bucks for the weird incident. We hadn't had a power outage for over 15 min in 12 years. Last fall we were out for 14 hours!

 

[Shaunv]

My current house has a generator that has natural gas plumbed in and it kicks on once the power goes out, powers the whole house, and will never run out of gas. It was installed before I started renting so no idea on price. The thing is framing awesome though! I would recommend getting at least battery backups for a power head and heater. When I lived in Tahoe, I had my power go out in winter for 3 days. I wrapped a blanket around my tank and had a battery powered air pump and my heater hooked up to a battery backup that was originally for a computer. I had to recharge the backup every 8 hours by taking it to my neighbor who had power. Everything survived.

 

[sethsolomon]

Is this capable of powering your whole house during an outage?

I am assuming that this will take a permit to hook up correctly?

Easy install or complicated?

yup It runs all 3 tanks, my server and desktop, and the appliances. Never tried the microwave though.

no clue on permits. you just wire it into a breaker that matches the load of your generator.

 

[sethsolomon]

I got a generator from harbor freight. $80 bucks for the weird incident. We hadn't had a power outage for over 15 min in 12 years. Last fall we were out for 14 hours!

that was the first time I fired up my generator.

 

[static reef]

yup It runs all 3 tanks, my server and desktop, and the appliances. Never tried the microwave though.

no clue on permits. you just wire it into a breaker that matches the load of your generator.

what if my tanks run on 4 different breakers?

 

[Walter White]

You can get a power transfer switch that allows you to cut over multiple specific breakers. Here is one i installed that allowed for indipendsnt cut over of 6 breakers. View attachment 21176

 

[static reef]

Just spoke ti my electrician. He is looking into the specs for my place. He said that an "auto turn on" would cost ballpark of 4-10,000 just to run the 4 breakers that my system uses.

He is going to research the details for a manual turn on for me.

The apex sends me a text and email if it notices a power outtage. 5his will be the notice I need if I am out of town and I beed someone to turn the generator on. I am looking for all 4 fish breakers and the kitchen breaker to be run by generator.

I will post his findings on this thread when he gets back to me.

 

[static reef]

You can get a power transfer switch that allows you to cut over multiple specific breakers. Here is one i installed that allowed for indipendsnt cut over of 6 breakers. View attachment 21176

Pm sent. Thanks

 

[sethsolomon]

what if my tanks run on 4 different breakers?

The breaker from the generator runs to your main line.... Won't matter if they are on separate breakers assuming you wire it into the main breaker box of your house.

 

[sethsolomon]

You can get a power transfer switch that allows you to cut over multiple specific breakers. Here is one i installed that allowed for indipendsnt cut over of 6 breakers. View attachment 21176

Looks like that even has the port for a generator cable just need to wire in the plug.

 

[jda123]

Auto transfer switch and capable generator is going to be a lot of cash. We had a 25KW genny in Missouri with a auto transfer switch that would actually run the whole house (like everything) that ran on propane and it was about $8K a good number of years ago. We had ice and wind storms and even tornados that would take power lines down a town away and it would kill the grid (and the natural gas).

A 1000W generator and some extension cords can get it done for a long time with a return pump and some heaters... you can probably get this done for under $200 at harbor freight. Put some stabil in your gas and you can keep the can around for years.... or just put in one of your cars and refill it every 6 months, or so.

Natural gas can get shut off in disaster time. I might suggest that any genny that you get is dual fuel so that you can at least use BBQ grill propane if the gas gets shut off. ...ask the guys with tanks in Lyons or up in the mountains about last winter. I only knew of one, but he had a 7.5KW honda that ran on propane bottles for like 13 weeks.