Back up power supplys?

[Terrain_pull up]

I recently had an issue with my local hydro company shutting my elec down for 4 hours to do maintenance or what not. As many can imagine during this time of the year I have some valuable eggs in incubators that I didn't want to be temperature shocked..lol I immediately ran out to home depot and rented a generator to get through the 4 hours. The $50 for the genny rental was well work it in my opinion but none the less this raised some thoughts that I really hadn't taken seriously up to this year now that I've invested in some higher end geckos..lol

So I'm now curious to what methods other people may be using as power backup. Right now a gas generator isn't practical for me because I'm in a condo unit thing with no outside shed to store a generator in. I have kids so I'm not going to store a gas powered genny in my basement, not that it would be a good idea any way.

I was thinking then of a battery powered back up system of some sort. Has anyone tried running thermostats on those APC-UPS computer backup battery systems? They sound good. I like the idea of the uninterrupted power supply if the hydro goes out in case I'm not home. The only downside is that they might only be good for maybe 1-2 hours depending on the amount of watts.

Anyone have any other ideas?

 

[Herbiebug]

I have looked in to a number of possibilities for this. For emergencies, I have elected to just keep a few reusable heat packs. The style that you boil to "re-charge" after each use. They quickly achieve 100 F and can be used a number of times before their effectiveness diminishes. Also, i have a plain old hot water bottle in the case of power going out but water heating still working.

For higher tech solution, you can get battery power backup units for a couple different applications. The ones you mentioned to keep computer servers online during outage, others come in the form of mobile booster packs for car batteries that also have a couple regular power outlets to be used for emergency power or camping convenience. In both cases, these are a couple hundred dollars minimum. In terms of cost, it's almost more economical to just buy a gas generator (provided you can run one in your living situation).

Curious to hear what others use. Especially breeders. They must have generators on hand for such occurrences, i bet.

 

[Terrain_pull up]

I have looked in to a number of possibilities for this. For emergencies, I have elected to just keep a few reusable heat packs. The style that you boil to "re-charge" after each use. They quickly achieve 100 F and can be used a number of times before their effectiveness diminishes. Also, i have a plain old hot water bottle in the case of power going out but water heating still working.

For higher tech solution, you can get battery power backup units for a couple different applications. The ones you mentioned to keep computer servers online during outage, others come in the form of mobile booster packs for car batteries that also have a couple regular power outlets to be used for emergency power or camping convenience. In both cases, these are a couple hundred dollars minimum. In terms of cost, it's almost more economical to just buy a gas generator (provided you can run one in your living situation).

Curious to hear what others use. Especially breeders. They must have generators on hand for such occurrences, i bet.

I'm likely just to get a generator once my current housing situation changes in the future. I'm guessing most of the serious breeders would be using generators because they'd be more economical like you mentioned.

I was doing some "youtube" research last night and it looks like the battery backup system might be a reasonable option with some slight hacking to add say an extra deep charge marine battery or two...lol Although again, with kids in my house I'm not too keen on having a bank of large batteries on my floor :main_no:

 

[acpart]

I'm using the computer backup battery power system which is good for a few hours. Fortunately I haven't been tested recently.

Aliza

 

[Terrain_pull up]

I'm using the computer backup battery power system which is good for a few hours. Fortunately I haven't been tested recently.

Aliza

Thanks for the post! How many watts would you say your computer battery backup system is supporting? I was thinking that they might be able to support for a little longer than advertised because the thermostats are pulsing rather than running continuously. Even if I just had one to support the incubators I'd imagine I should be able to get at least a 2-3 hours hopefully. It would likely be less if I had my racks hooked up to it as well. I have about 56' of 4" flexwatt on 3 thermostats. I'd guesstimate about 600 watts total for my racks and bators if they were all running full out.

Which type of thermostats are you using with your battery system? Obviously they don't seem to mind battery power. I'm using VE's

 

[Superior Reptiles]

I have APC-UPS batteries for my desktops and they only last for like 6 minutes when power goes out but then again computers take more wattage than an incubator... And also you can wrap towels or something like that around the incubator and it helps retain heat in there!