RE: My support for NY member

[Andy Miller <amiller@Covad.COM>]

</lurk>

Last time we had a blackout here in sunny California, it
lasted quite a few hours (Storm damage rather than the
infamous rolling blackouts).

After hour 1 with no end in sight, I went to an auto parts
store, and picked up a cheap 300 watt inverter, fairly large
marine battery, and cheap battery charger.

A few extention cords later and I had all of my tanks up and
running.  The little inverter was enough to run 2 canister
filters, a backpack filter, a small air pump, and even a 55W
CF light fixture for my planted tank.  I think that most
filters/pumps are rated only a very few watts.  It ran this
way for approximately 6 hours before the lights came back on
and I switched back to mains power.

I didn't have a way to measure the remaining capacity of the
battery after power was restored but based on the estimated
current draw (Maybe 110 W @110VAC) and the amp hour rating
of the battery, it should have run a good while longer.

A hint for those extended outages, also, batteries come
(mostly) fully charged from the store. :-)

I think that a UPS for computer equipment would do great as
well, however, they usually have much smaller batteries and
therefore short runtimes.  (And you can't go buy more
batteries at Kragen when the first one runs out).  Of course
they have the huge advantage of kicking on automatically
when the lights go out.

The total for the above items was about $140 IIRC.  It was
worth more than that just for not having to look at dark
tanks biting my fingernails and feeling helpless.

<lurk>

-Andy

On Fri, 15 Aug 2003, Salvatore Silvestri wrote:

> Thanks guys
> My power didn't come back till 2 AM this morning. But, fortunately I
> didn't have any casualties!
> Sal
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-apisto@v2.listbox.com [mailto:owner-apisto@v2.listbox.com]
> On Behalf Of Patrick 'ZapZap' Lin
> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 10:45 PM
> To: apisto@v2.listbox.com
> Subject: My support for NY member
>
> Hi
> I hope all New-york state member of this list are OK
> I know personally john , and hope everything is Ok for him and his fish
> Don't know if other state have problem.
>
> So they get my support.
> Regards,
> ZapZap
>
>
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