GF Hurricane Survival

[marx404]

Oh what fun, forst Frances, now it looks like we are getting Jean visiting
us. With Frances we lost power for almost a week. I have a small battery
supply with a power inverter that I used to power my tank filter pump so as
to get some air circulating in the tank for my Goldfish.

The battery will only last if I use it for an hour or so a day. Is an hour a
day enough to keep my GF alive for a week like that? Thanx.

--
marx404

[Donald K]

marx404 wrote:

> Oh what fun, forst Frances, now it looks like we are getting Jean
> visiting us. With Frances we lost power for almost a week. I have a
> small battery supply with a power inverter that I used to power my
> tank filter pump so as to get some air circulating in the tank for my
> Goldfish.
>
> The battery will only last if I use it for an hour or so a day. Is an
> hour a day enough to keep my GF alive for a week like that? Thanx.

The most telling point is how large your tank is... If you've got at
least 10 gallons and you're up on your water changes it will probably
ok.

If we want to be engineers about it, I'll go look at one of my air
pumps...

OK, my Rena Air 100 says it takes 3W at 120V (and I'm too tired to
actually try to measure it).

P=IV power in watts is equal to current in amps times potential in
volts.
I = P/V solve for current.
I = 3/120 = 0.025A or 25mA. (Or roughly 40 hours on a 1 amp-hour
battery)

So, the next question becomes what is your "small battery supply" rated
at? The number is usually in Amp-hours or milliamp-hours. A typical car
battery probably runs about 80 A-hrs.

So assuming a 100% efficient inverter that 80 A-hr car battery would run
my Rena roughly 3200 hours.

I've been very loose throwing the numbers around... But even if you had
an 18 A-hr alarm battery, it should run an air pump... well... just
about forever.

If a filter pump takes say 10 times that, you get 4 hours out of a 1 amp
hour battery, the 18 A-hr alarm battery would cover about 3 days
constantly.

Me? Well... I've got 5000W worth of Honda generator and several deep
cycle batteries for such instances...

-D

(I'm too tired to go into less than 100% efficient inverters or not
discharging the battery lower than 20% or the rest of that drill.
Please give me a pass on it for the moment, eh?)

--
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem,
see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable
words." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[Donald K]

marx404 wrote:

> Oh what fun, forst Frances, now it looks like we are getting Jean
> visiting us. With Frances we lost power for almost a week. I have a
> small battery supply with a power inverter that I used to power my
> tank filter pump so as to get some air circulating in the tank for my
> Goldfish.
>
> The battery will only last if I use it for an hour or so a day. Is an
> hour a day enough to keep my GF alive for a week like that? Thanx.
>

Just for kicks, how about you cross post this to misc.survival and see
what sort of response you get...

-D
--
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem,
see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable
words." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[[email protected]]

dont feed for a couple days before the hurricane hits and not while power is gone.
then draw down the water when you lose electricity to about 1/2 way so there is more
surface to volume. it is really good to have tanks in north windows so the algae
gets light and uses up ammonia.
of course, the more water per fish the better, the cooler the temp the better. be
sure to save up some water for the fish.
Ingrid

"marx404" > wrote:

>Oh what fun, forst Frances, now it looks like we are getting Jean visiting
>us. With Frances we lost power for almost a week. I have a small battery
>supply with a power inverter that I used to power my tank filter pump so as
>to get some air circulating in the tank for my Goldfish.
>
>The battery will only last if I use it for an hour or so a day. Is an hour a
>day enough to keep my GF alive for a week like that? Thanx.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

[marx404]

Thanks Ingrid and everyone. Per your advice, I did a partial chenge of water
prior to the storm and then fed him only 1/2 portions every other day. I ran
the filter for a timed 30 min 2x a day on the battery supply, (leaving it
power to spare) and he is fine and so are we. The power just went on after 3
days without. Sheesh, enough with the hurricanes already though! :-) What a
great group, thanks again!

marx404