The number you want to put some importance on when looking at any battery backup unit is the Ah rating (ampere/hours), not just the wattage. This is because that number will tell you more about how long you'll be able to run a given number of life support appliances more so than simply watts. You really need both numbers to make the best call, but too many units out there have the wattage stamped on them and no Ah data, which is vital. Many of the APC units have smaller sealed cell batteries in them that are not serviceable, hence the difficulty in getting them replaced when the time comes. A marine or deep cycle battery on the other hand, has clearly marked Ah rating and is servicable/replaceable fairly easily. The drawback is bulk and the requirement for adequate ventilation. This is why you won't see one of these bad boys inside the APC backup units. All you need to do is look at the relatively small size of most APC backup power supplies to figure out that it's not going to run a sizeable pump, heater or lights for very long. It's physically impossible with current battery technology to get high power for a reasonably long time in a small package. Best backup if you can afford it is a whole house backup generator (Generac) that will start up automatically when power fails. I don't have one, so my backup as mentioned in my previous post, is at the other end of the spectrum, two PennPlax D cell powered air pumps. They're cheap but for the price also have a sensing relay that allows them to fire up when power loss happens. I count on them to keep stuff alive until I get home if away and then pull one of the batteries out of my car & hook up an inverter to keep the vitals going. So far I've only needed to do this once, thanks to the foresight of politicians in the past who blessed BC with a crapload of big dams & reservoirs so that we can still enjoy relatively cheap, uninterrupted hydro power.
Edit: Winters eh? In Chilliwack? Surely you jest.
