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How prepared are you for snowmageddon?


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I ordered a 1500 watt generator for delivery tomorrow. Figured i just needed something to run a few heaters and a wavemaker in my 90 gallon. Probably wont need it but id rather have it and not worry

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I cross my fingers real tight. That's about as prepared as I'll get.

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I am gonna charge up my marine deep cycle battery and dust off the power inverter. Should get me at least 10 hrs. Plus i have a backup for my mp40 and some good ol D-cell battery for my air pump.

Hope this will be enough, for now

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With a small nano 34gal, I just have a simple large UPS. My Jabao and heater is hooked into this. Should last ~48hrs. Interested in other setups.

I'd be curious to see if the UPS lasts 48 hours with the heater. Granted it's probably a 150W heater and would only run for a few hours over 2 days but seems like a pretty high load for a typical UPS, even a large one.

 

In my head I use the Ecotech backup as a reference. It has two 9 Amp hour batteries and that is supposed to drive an MP40 for 36 hours. The common APC ups units have a single 7 AH battery. Maybe your large ups is like thier rack mount units that have four batteries.

 

Hopefully you won't need to test things out but if you do, let us now how long things lasted. It may help those who are contemplating a generator.

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I have a 6,500W generator, an outdoor hook up and an interlock switch on one of my electrical panels. It takes me about 15 minutes to set things up to get my fish room, and some lights and appliances (including the coffee maker) on backup power.

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Plenty of batteries for the air pumps that come on as soon as the power goes, blankets to wrap around the tanks, plenty of salt for water mixing if necessary. Going to try and get more Prime because I think my bottle from 3 years ago probably has expired, just in case I need to make a lot of water quickly. Also have a power converter to use one of the vehicles as a power source if necessary.

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My Jebao wp4 pulls 10 watts. The heater 150, but is only on for a faction of the time. Let's say 10% ??? Then my system is pulling 25 watts an hour. With my 840 watt UPS, I should get a little over 30hrs.

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My Jebao wp4 pulls 10 watts. The heater 150, but is only on for a faction of the time. Let's say 10% ??? Then my system is pulling 25 watts an hour. With my 840 watt UPS, I should get a little over 30hrs.

It'll run on amp hour not watts. Also with your central heat off heater will work more

 

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UPS is a 1400VA / 840 watts backup supply. Did I miss something in my calculation?

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Ok take this battery. It's 10AH meaning at a discharge rate of 10 amps it'll take 1 hour to fully discarge. Or at 1 amp 10 hours to discarge. For about every 110 watts of ac power it's about 1 amp of current. So theoretically 110 watts worth of stuff will discarge this battery in 10 hours regardless of how many watts it's rated for.

 

Granted this is at constant load meaning 110 watts on for the whole time.

 

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Edited by khh27
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I got my generator ready and plenty of gas for a couple of days (hopefully I won't need it), my biggest challenge will be my wife starting the generator and hooking up the tank because I will be out plowing hopefully for a couple of days.

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full saltwater can and full di water can.  3500W generator ran this morning and fully gassed up with the cord plugged and coming inside the house near the sump.  

 

I worry more about the child care center tank because I've been manually checking on it every day to clear any nuisance GFCI trips.  Super annoying.

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UPS is a 1400VA / 840 watts backup supply. Did I miss something in my calculation?

khh is giving you an accurate, analytical way of calculating energy capacity in a battery. "Watts" are a measure of power. For example, a 100W light bulb consumes 100 Watts. Energy is a measure of power over time. To help make this more clear, that same 100W light bulb will consume twice the energy in 2 hours of operation than in 1 hour of operation. So what you're looking for, on the surface, is the energy capacity of the battery, or Watt-hours (you've probably seen kWhr - same thing, but in 1000's of hours) Take the Amp-Hour capacity of your battery, multiply by the battery voltage and divide by the number of Watts that your load will draw and you'll get the number of hours that the load should be powered. For example, a 12V car battery with a capacity of 10 AH has a theoretical capacity of 12V * 10 AH = 120 VAH or 120 Watt-hours. Neglecting efficiency losses, it can power a 100W light bulb (or heater) for 1.2 hours, or a 50W pump for 2.4 hours. 

 

This is just a simplified, theoretical calculation, though. Batteries can be more complex. Power capacity (that is, the ability to deliver a high amperage over time) can change depending upon the chemistry, physical construction of the battery, and the rate of discharge. With an UPS, the additional complexity of battery age, circuit efficiency and design cutoff complicate the problem. You should be able to find run-time curves for your UPS from the manufacturer. Calculate the expected draw from the UPS and use that curve to determine the nominal run time before cutoff.

 

BTW, most home computer UPS units will not typically supply a lot of power to a computer for a long time. 

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With no UPS or generator I'm with Isaac and just hoping that nothing bad happens. Ive been told I'm on the same grid as the fire station and the police station so I should be good. If the power does go out I'll probably be frantic trying to find ways to keep stuff alive. That would most likely fail and then I would be a sad reefer with a have a tank setup for sale.

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With no UPS or generator I'm with Isaac and just hoping that nothing bad happens. Ive been told I'm on the same grid as the fire station and the police station so I should be good. If the power does go out I'll probably be frantic trying to find ways to keep stuff alive. That would most likely fail and then I would be a sad reefer with a have a tank setup for sale.

 

Pro tip:  Use and egg beater every 10 min  and vigorously agitate the water will help.

 

But I am in the same boat.  Going to wrap my tanks in blankets/towels and pray the power comes back on.

 

 

Edit:   I just bought a car battery inverter and same day shipped it just now.  The thought of loosing my coral just scared me the ^*&* out of me.  Just hope and pray my car battery will run an RW-8 and a 150w heater long enough.

Edited by sethsolomon
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With no UPS or generator I'm with Isaac and just hoping that nothing bad happens. Ive been told I'm on the same grid as the fire station and the police station so I should be good. If the power does go out I'll probably be frantic trying to find ways to keep stuff alive. That would most likely fail and then I would be a sad reefer with a have a tank setup for sale.

You guys still have time to prepare and get ready

 

 

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Pro tip: Use and egg beater every 10 min and vigorously agitate the water will help.

 

But I am in the same boat. Going to wrap my tanks in blankets/towels and pray the power comes back on.

 

 

Edit: I just bought a car battery inverter and same day shipped it just now. The thought of loosing my coral just scared me the ^*&* out of me. Just hope and pray my car battery will run an RW-8 and a 150w heater long enough.

With the inverter you can hook it up to your vehicle and run an extension cord to your tank this way your car will keep your battery from dying. Gas is cheaper than refilling your tank with livestock

 

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With the inverter you can hook it up to your vehicle and run an extension cord to your tank this way your car will keep your battery from dying. Gas is cheaper than refilling your tank with livestock

 

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Oh good call!  Time to same day some extension cords.  Man I love the Amazon Prime free same day shipping today  :P

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With the inverter you can hook it up to your vehicle and run an extension cord to your tank this way your car will keep your battery from dying. Gas is cheaper than refilling your tank with livestock

 

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What do you think for extension cord guage?  16 or 12?  It will be about a 300 ft run.

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What do you think for extension cord guage? 16 or 12? It will be about a 300 ft run.

At 300 ft 16 guage may not be feasible 14 probably is a minimum and 12 would be definintly best. Also you can use 12 Guage for other heavy duty tasks in the future. ( circular saws, air compressor, leafblowers... any high amp items.)

 

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Edited by khh27
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