Jan,

Sounds like a REALLY inexpensive and very effective solution to
the problem. The small UPSs available for under $50 only put out
rated power for about 10 minutes, and there is no way to recharge
their batteries until the power comes back on!!!

PlainBill

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 10:28:56 -0700, ~ jan JJsPond.us
wrote:

Jan tried something interesting,
kathy :-)

George, I really feel for you, but I think if I lived anywhere around or
especially east of the Mississippi, we'd have a generator. As is, as K30
menitoned, last winter we did have a power outage of 6.5 hours at negative
19 (I think it was -10 in my micro-climate). Luckily my set up in winter
self drains and we had snow cover, so the ponds were insulated and I had no
problems.

Now yesterday's power outage was more scary, with temps hitting that 100+
mark. After the outage of winter, DH purchased a simple 2 plug-in inverter
to run off a car's battery. Cost around $20. When he bought it I thought it
was silly and a car's battery wouldn't last that long. Well was I
surprised.

Son, who just couldn't wait to try out this new toy, got it hooked up and
extension cord out to the pond within minutes. The 2nd plug-in he ran
extension cords to my aquariums rotating between them to keep the filters
aerated. Due to most of the fish being outside, he just wanted to keep the
filters refreshed, since cleaning them is his chore. ;o)

Like you, he ran his tropical tanks off his computer's UPS.

With the inverter the van's battery ran the pond for 90 minutes before the
inverter signaled that the battery was getting low. Per the directions we
started up the van and let it idle for 10-15 minutes, with the inverter
connected. We then turned off the van, and the battery lasted another hour
before the signal went off again, just as our power came back on.

That $20 invested really made a big difference in my life, my only worry
was the frozen foods, any idea how long an opened freezer will keep things
frozen?

The other big difference is that when the power is off more than 20 minutes
in that kind of heat, depending on your filter, you either have to flush it
or clean it. So I would have had to be out in the dark putting a pump in
the pump chamber and running it for 30 minutes on the lawn, restarting the
filter, adding water/dechlor. and putting everything away, etc.. Instead, I
was able to get on my computer as soon as power came on. ;o) ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression, for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
-Thomas Paine