I currently have two battery back ups on hand in case of anything happening, but I found out they only lasted me a maximum of an hour and a half this past summer. Granted I was running my chiller for a bit after my pre-made ice & cooler packs ran out, so I'm sure it plays a role. It took them a day and a half to get the power back on here that particular evening.

Apartment living isn't all that condusive to tank back up options. I'm sure my next house will have a generator to combat this potential situation.

I bought this generator in the summer

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/pr...romSearch=true

Has a true sine wave inverter on it so I can run absolutely anything from powerheads to heaters to halides.

hey J, i picked up the 2500w version of that generator from the same guy today! seems like an honest fella...

I talked to my electrician buddy. Motors usually draw 125% of the wattage to get them started and if a generators is rated for say 1000 watts, 80% should be usable. So I would say a 1000 watt would get you by with out any trouble, it would allow you a heater or something else possibly.

That problem I was taking about starting my pumps (in another thread) was because I was using them through my DJ power switches not because of lack of wattage. I knew I didn’t have any problem last year.:rolleyes:

And generators are normally spec'd with their continuous rating and there's a allowed peak load (not that I would run one though at it's maximum continuous rating).

I got mine at Costco last summer on sale for $300. Tank of gas lasts 8hrs, I had half the house running off it.

http://oceanv.net/zld/reef/gen01.jpg

http://oceanv.net/zld/reef/gen02.jpg

gen
 

I am using this bad boy, under $600 delivered (including Fedex bogus duties):

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Super-Quiet-Power...QQcmdZViewItem

And I got a cool knife! I am very happy with it, my electrician has hooked it up to a 240 line, so when power goes out, I turn off the main breaker, plug the gen into a dryer outlet, start the gen, and everything works in the house. Of course I do not run the all mh's, baseboard heaters, stove, or the water heater (only at night for 60 mins, I hate cold showers!). And it is only 69 dBa! Still loud, but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Cheers,
Phil

Since it's always windy when the power goes out how about one of these? :mrgreen:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/pr...romSearch=true

Swags, I'm surprised a electrician would set you up like than. Be careful for yourself and be really careful that the main is off during an outage so you don't kill a Linesman that might be out there trying to restore power.

I was thinking about this today, and I am not prepared I would loose everything if we had a major outage unfortunately.