Power loss emergency plans?

[theyangman]

Never really thought of this very much, especially cause I live in the city and all, but what sort of contingency plans do you guys have in place in the event there is a power outage? Minor blips in power are not what I am talking about, but I mean extended periods of power outage. (Several hours or more).

Is there even a need to worry? I can't recall the last time London was struck with anything major for any extended time period (Other than the brownout we had like 10 years ago that lasted what seemed like forever)

 

[Duke]

depending on where you live, you might want to worry, for me, i cant recall a time in the last 8 years the power went out for more than an hour.. london is probably similar.. if you lived in the country tho.. a plan would be needed.. as a last resort worst case for us guys with no plans you could use hot water in pop bottles from the sink to keep the heat up.. and you can oxygenate the water by dumping some water in the tank with a pitcher or a cup or something.. or go get a power inverter for your car.. and a long enough extension cord to run your return pump for a few minutes each hour if it goes out.

 

[Poseidon]

Generator is a must IMO, if you live in the country.
What's a 500$ generator if it's going to save the 1000$s you have into your tank

 

[Salty Cracker]

I think most of us have generators just in case.

 

[Neopimp]

Nope no plans here.  Except running stuff from the vehicle inverters lol

 

[DerekL]

The only plan I have is my ecotech battery back ups for my MP40 and MP10. I think they say about 36 hrs at half speed. They have kicked on during the summer when we had storms knock out power for an hour. I do plan on getting a generator at some point though

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

nothing here ..live on the 10th floor. so no generator or car inveter. ..

 

[theyangman]

Me too. I live in an apartment.... Am I just SOL? Or I guess I could have a generator running on my balcony....

 

[DerekL]

Could you not use a UPS battery back up for a computer to run the important things? I bet this would work but wouldn't last for long period power outages.

 

[theyangman]

Of course this is all theoretical.

Downtown London doesn't seem prone to extended periods of blackouts. Heck in the past two years my building has only had maybe one or two blips in power that were long enough to shut my tv or computer off....

 

[spyd]

UPS battery back-ups here and they would work great in an apartment as well. Get the biggest one you can and run as little items as possible. I have a UPS dedicated to my return pump and a seperate UPS to run some of my powerheads in case of a power outage. They are good for about 2 hrs of down time. The great thing about a UPS is even a power blip will not affect your return pump from stopping and starting. It is a seemless transition from power to battery.

I also do have a generator in case of an extreme black-out but have never needed it yet. I can tell you though that my UPS units have saved my tank in the past. We had that massive ice storm back in April. Took out power in my town for 4-6 hours or so. I left on holidays the day of the storm for a week. Without those 2 plus hours of run time, I would have been in big trouble!

 

[Jewel]

I don't live in London but I know you get a lot of storms there, especially in the winter. A Generator is no good for me, I'm in an Apt as well. Battery back up is great to have and having the Ecotech pumps with battery back up is certainly the way to go.

 

[Neopimp]

Related topic.... Who had their tank during the black out 7 years ish ago.  The one that wipes out the eastern seaboard

 

[Salty Cracker]

Related topic.... Who had their tank during the black out 7 years ish ago.  The one that wipes out the eastern seaboard

That was 10 years ago. 

 

[Neopimp]

Only to old people I just took a guess

 

[theyangman]

Only to old people I just took a guess

HA! You are old Glen!

 

[Salty Cracker]

Because I can remember dates? 

 

[theyangman]

No, because when you fart, dust comes out.

Bazinga!

That's for the "Asian Beef" comment.

 

[Reef Hero]

Man i gotta get out of lucan..... a 4-6 hour power outage happens often for me.....i dont even bother firing up the generator until about 4 hours into outage.....
Anyways, anyone who thinks they are immune to a long term power outage is wrong. I find it funny actually how people think that just because they live in the city and have not had any outages before will never get one.....ever heard of a tornadoe or flood? Im not telling you to run out and buy a backup power source but just be warned that in the event of a major long term outage good luck finding a generator...

 

[theyangman]

Man i gotta get out of lucan..... a 4-6 hour power outage happens often for me.....i dont even bother firing up the generator until about 4 hours into outage.....
Anyways, anyone who thinks they are immune to a long term power outage is wrong. I find it funny actually how people think that just because they live in the city and have not had any outages before will never get one.....ever heard of a tornadoe or flood? Im not telling you to run out and buy a backup power source but just be warned that in the event of a major long term outage good luck finding a generator...

It isn't about believing I am immune, but you gotta look at previous history and track records to see if these are 5% chance things or 40% chance sorta things right?

Power outages are also the same thing. How often does it happen and for how long? You yourself are a prime example Ben. You are so used too it that you don't blink an eye until hour number 4. I can count on one hand how many times in my entire lifetime that I have been without power for longer than 1 hour. So is it worth it to get a generator for the 1 time it might happen in the next 10 years? Probably not. Considering my tank would have to be without power for at least a few hours to begin to have any real detrimental effects.

Plus the way my tank is right now, a power outage aint gonna do dick all to kill what already is dying in there! ha ha ha ha!