Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Preparing for the unthinkable breakdowns

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Preparing for the unthinkable breakdowns

    Hi Folks!!

    One of our members (htown) came home and found that a circuit breaker to his garage had blown and lost power... All of his fish had died due to the cold temperatures. He had built up his collection over a period of time and needless to say, is pretty bummed to the point of getting rid of his garage fish equipment.

    So on this note, its a good time to get ourselves ready for potential problems. Winter time seems to bring out those problems in a myriad of ways. So lets make a checklist.... If anybody sees additions, add them to this post...

    #1; Circuit breakers do wear out and will go bad. Older homes may have fuses, under rated circuits and wiring. An example is usually one circuit breaker will be used for a garage outlets, lights and garage door opener. That circuit may be only 15 to 20 amps Newer homes may have the higher ratings but still on one circuit. Places that experience a lot of power surges or lighting strikes will have higher incidences of circuit breakers blowing. Replacing circuit breakers are good and if you know what your doing, check and make sure you do - go and consider replacing. Also check to upgrading old wiring in places, using a certified electrician is fantastic.. We have one on this forum who can greatly advise in this area!!

    #2 Fault breakers, safety breakers or otherwise known as GFCI breakers are usually used around water sources. Many bathrooms, kitchens, basements with washing machines and even garages have these on one circuit. These GFCI also break down over a period of time and when a heater seems to have cracked the tube and let water in... The GFCI will trip many times... and then there goes the whole circuit. While this may not be recommended, but do consider having the electrician (unless you are a very knowledgeable do it yourselfer) have a separate circuit installed for just the fish room.

    #3 Some home alarm systems can be set up to alert you when the power goes off, you have to search out for these devices and in some cases will send a text to your phone. Then you can go and find out how long and what the problem will be for the power issue.

    #4 Having a back up plan and alternatives are always a good thing... Especially for those who live in areas prone to blackouts, failures and other non predictable but usually happening events. Last year Greg of Little Africa and others on the East Coast lost power due to ice storms and bad winter weather. Greg was able to get some generators to keep most of his fish alive... Other people were not so fortunate. Bad weather does not have to be winter. Hurricanes, tornadoes, unforseen events can cause issues with survival.

    #5 Back up plans for electrical usually can be thought of in several different ways.

    #1 Using battery operated air pumps from WallMart that are found in the fishing section will work very nicely. It will meet the needs for a short duration but the drawbacks are if there are more than a few fish tanks and longer than 2 to 4 hours in a very cold house... There will be issues with heating and issues of potential too many fish for the little aeration that will be possible with the battery powered air pumps..... Also the batteries are limited and a pain.... Usually the two D batteries will run the air pump for up to 6 to 8 hours... but that is not a hard given rule..

    #2 There are what is called DC converters from small wattages (250 watts) up to large heavy duty and high current wattages (2500 watts and then some) The neat things about these are that they can be used to power heaters and air pumps. The problem or downside is that they do pull a considerable amount of current from the car battery. A person would need to have a minimum of three car batteries... one in the car to charge up... The other two to hook in parallel to provide a longer use time for running the equipment. To give an idea of how many watts you are using.... take the number of heaters, their wattage values and add them up for a total of wattage usage. The air pumps will be usually a minimum but do include that if you have a larger pro type air pump. Then determine your needs and buy accordingly.

    #3 Generators are a good way to go but there are things you need to do and understand. Generators are between 500 watts for the smaller ones and up to 5500 watts for the larger ones (usually used in Motor homes or RV's) These are usually portable gasoline run generators and on a tank of gas will last between 6 to 9 hours... Depending upon the load.
    The generators also use a timer and when you have run for 10 to 30 hours, you will need to change the oil and every other time, change the filter. Generators do need to be started up and run for at least 20 minutes to 30 minutes at the bare minimum of once per month.
    Supply of gas is needed as well as the oil and filter. Long extension cords unless heavier rated will not pass the electricity and the generator should be hooked up to a separate circuit panel if possible to provide the bare basics of circuits to run refrigerator, freezer and of course the fish tanks.

    #4 Having a back up plan that others understand is great and essential. In some cases power may go out in only certain areas, having some way to transport your fisn to a place until power comes back on is certainly a wise precaution and if you have friends who can help out, then be sure to prepare ahead of time. Someday, you may have the opportunity to return the favor.........


    Hope this helps someone and for thinking how to prepare for the unpleasant facts of interruptions and catastrophic events that occur....

    Bill
    Last edited by billansor; 01-11-2010, 02:12 AM. Reason: wrong word usage watt instead of amps

  • #2
    Bill, I used two types of battery-powered air pumps, purchased from Walmart, during Ike. The difference was the motor voltage. Both kinds used two D cells. In one type the two batteries were wired in series for 3VDC, in the other the batteries were in parallel for 1.5VDC. Both types lasted a minimum of 24 hours continuous running. The type with the 1.5VDC motor tended to run longer, up to 8 more hours. I ran both types of pumps in tanks of up to 125 gallons for almost two weeks during Ike. Battery cost was right around $100. During the whole ordeal I lost one tetra. I had no filters running, just the pumps and daily water changes.

    Incidentally, we have more than one electrician on the forum who have helped folks out with their issues.

    Mark
    What are the facts? Again and again and again--what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore devine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell", avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history"--what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your only clue.

    Robert Anson Heinlein

    Comment


    • #3
      Thank you for the input Mark.

      I was going by the information on the htown post in which someone had said about one electrician and that you mentioned that there are others on this forum is all to the better. Perhaps a list could be made up of those who are specialists (certified or skilled) in a particular area that would benefit those on this forum...... It would be invaluable.

      The air pump that I used only lasted about six hours at a high enough bubbling rate to keep the fish going. After the six to nine hour it was significantly reduced...It is good to know that you were able to have the battery unit last as long!!!!

      The other thing is that fortunate for those who live in areas where no heat is needed or little needed, it becomes a two tiered problem that the Walmart airpump deals with 1/2 the problem.

      and

      The fascinating thing is that you were prepared and had the batteries available either through picking them up before hand or finding them during the power outage. In Minnesota, D batteries are the first thing to disappear when onset of winter storms, or tornadoes. Also during the Hurricane Isabella in NewPort News, Virginia and its surrounding Hampton Roads area, batteries were a rare rare rare commodity. Not that they were not available but because of the no power, no stores, no cash registers, no people all led to NO SALES.... Dumb huh??? Of course a lot of those business lost their refrigerated foods.... which is more dumb to me. Why not open up, use manual methods to make sales, sell the refrigerated stuff and cut your losses???? Go figure

      It was not my intent to slight anyone, but rather to get some preparing going on. Remember the fireman at school telling us to prepare on how to get out of a burning house... To have an escape plan and to practice that plan........ Same thing here..

      Bill
      Last edited by billansor; 01-11-2010, 12:05 PM. Reason: additional statements

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by billansor View Post
        Thank you for the input Mark...

        ...It was not my intent to slight anyone, but rather to get some preparing going on. Remember the fireman at school telling us to prepare on how to get out of a burning house... To have an escape plan and to practice that plan........ Same thing here..

        Bill
        You're very welcome, Bill. I didn't feel slighted in the least, just pointing out that there was more than one. I'm a master electrician with 35 yrs experience.

        I was a boy scout and try to follow the motto, "Be prepared", whenever I can think ahead. I'd bought the batteries at the onset of hurricane season. I do that every year, along with water, propane and canned food. If I don't use the batteries during hurricane season I give them to family for Christmas.

        Mark
        Last edited by wesleydnunder; 01-11-2010, 12:19 PM.
        What are the facts? Again and again and again--what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore devine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell", avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history"--what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your only clue.

        Robert Anson Heinlein

        Comment


        • #5
          For a battery air pump, get the Silent Air B11 Aquarium Air Pump by Penn Plax. It runs off of 2 D-cells, but it can run off of just 1. I used these during Ike, and they ran for over 5 days on 1 set of batteries! I had two of them at the time. One stopped after 5 full days while the other one was still going. Definitely a good value for the money.

          Another nice thing about these particular air pumps is that you plug them into the electricity. As long as there is electricity, they do not run. If the electricity goes off, they automatically start running. Great for power outages when you aren't home. I won't have a tank without them now.
          Vicki

          • 90g Planted - Journal - New Pics Mar23
          • 75g Planted - Journal (on PT)
          • 29g Planted - Journal
          • 29g Planted
          • 5g Planted RCS

          Comment


          • #6
            Much Thanks to Mark for adding to the list of electrician and a Master Electrician at that. More info for the data pool.

            Vicki Thank you for that new information. This link shows the unit to be on sale at the moment http://www.petdiscounters.com/c15/Au...ump-p3295.html

            People keep coming with your ideas!!!!

            Again.. Thank you both for your input!!

            Bill

            Comment

            Working...