7 Saltwater Tanks, 2 Reptile Tanks, and 32 Hours with no power.

Raf · #1 12-17-2006, 04:58 PM

Thanks for the comments guys

andresont,

the coil idea may work but Diana thought of a rather simple idea(works best if your have a gas powered hot water tank) is to fill 2L pop bottles with HOT water and float them in the tanks. It helped one of our clients tanks bringing it up from a frigid 55F!

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #2 12-17-2006, 05:06 PM

Good job you two.

For Albertans, the huge difference is that we have soooo many trees around here that when a huge windstorms kicks up, many of them get knocked down. Just in Stanley Park, in downtown Vancouver, they estimate THOUSANDS of trees are down, the park is closed & they expect to still be cleaning up & repairing all the damage months, even a year from now. We live in a Coastal Rainforest type region & our trees get very tall, but when developers only leave one or two standing here & there, it creates the perfect situation for the wind to knock them down onto powerlines, homes & cars.

Anthony

sumpfinfishe · #3 12-17-2006, 05:52 PM

Nice work guy's!
Great little story too

trilinearmipmap · #4 12-17-2006, 06:21 PM

A question about portable generators.

Do you hook it up to your house electric panel and run your whole house from it?

Or does it just have one power bar outlet to run a few things from?

Squiddy · #5 12-17-2006, 07:05 PM

I was over on the mainland yesterday and couldn't believe that the power was still out in Burnaby. J&L was out for 36 hours and the power had just come back online when we got there mid afternoon. The wind hit 170KM/H here! We live next to a large hospital here in Vic. and I'm pretty sure that is main reason that our power didn't go out once the whole time. When I left for work Friday morning, the power was out all around us but we were fine

.

As for connecting your generator to your house panel... DON'T! You are NOT allowed to backfeed your home with a generator if the power is out. I would hate to be a BC hydro linesman working on downed lines and hoping that no one is backfeeding their home. Just think.. you fire up the generator, plug it in to the house wiring, you forget to shut off the mains or don't connect something up correctly and all of sudden you've got 120VAC going out of your house. This voltage hits the transformer on the pole and BAM!... you've got something like 25,000VAC on the downed lines which some BC Hydro guy has in his hands. SCARY!

You can have a generator connected up to your house as a backup, but it has to be properly installed with a transfer switch that will guarantee complete isolation from the grid.

Diana · #6 12-17-2006, 11:48 PM

Agreed,

The generator runs outside the house. To it you hook up heavy gauge extension cords and run them into your house into a powerbar. Then run multiple items off that powerbar.

We had each of our main tanks hooked up. We were able to run the lights, heat, pumps and skimmers no problem, even hooked up the freezer and made a pot of coffee. *kisses generator*

woodcarver · #7 12-19-2006, 06:04 AM

Thanks Diana for the link to generator thread

Looks like we will go for the Honda EU 3000is that Ruth recommends ( electric start and quiet as well as reliable)
Need to shop around for a supplier.
....................Dave

justinl · #8 12-17-2006, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

Good job you two.

For Albertans, the huge difference is that we have soooo many trees around here that when a huge windstorms kicks up, many of them get knocked down. Just in Stanley Park, in downtown Vancouver, they estimate THOUSANDS of trees are down, the park is closed & they expect to still be cleaning up & repairing all the damage months, even a year from now. We live in a Coastal Rainforest type region & our trees get very tall, but when developers only leave one or two standing here & there, it creates the perfect situation for the wind to knock them down onto powerlines, homes & cars.

Anthony

ditto. On my way to the vancouver aquarium I had to walk from Georgia street because the buses weren't going into the park. I didnt even know parks closed! anyways, on the 10 minute walk I counted three trees that they had cut down just in case, but nine more that had just been blown right over; huge holes in the ground with roots sticking up all over. I didnt even bother counting the big branches that had been ripped off.

hahaha anyones on the east coast must be having a good laugh at us.