I have a large air pump that is piped to both ponds and it is hooked to an
inverter at all times. The inverter is connected to the largest capacity
automotive battery that I could find which is connected to a battery charger
set on trickle charge. If the power goes out, the battery is then supplying
power to the air pump, and based on my calculations of ampacity of the
battery and current draw of the pump, it should last up to 18 hours. If I
am home, the generator is started about 2 hours into any outage, but if I am
not home, the fish are safe for most of a day.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html
"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
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
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