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Power Cuts

Aqua sobriquet said:
With talks of possible or even probable power cuts in the UK this coming winter, is anyone thinking of investing in something like this?
www.t3.com

Best portable power stations 2024 for camping, road trips, and power cuts

The best portable power station will allow you to recharge your gadgets and power your daily life without mains electricity
www.t3.com www.t3.com
Click to expand...
Absolute waste of time. Far too small for anything fish wise. Handy to recharge phone(s) & tablet(s).....err and that's about it.

Only 576Wh. :rolleyes:. This energy is only equivalent to 1/16 of a litre of petrol !!!. (9.7kWh/l / 0.576kWh -> 16'th'ish).

So @ 40W for a filter this battery will last 14hours, a 200W heater on 50% of the time 6 hours on this battery pack. So b*gger all.

If you really insist on backup, petrol is the way to go, though starting at £200 odd (see machine mart) is suitable, but is manual start and manual switch over, oh and obviously has to be operated outside. Auto switch over and auto start are not cheap, say £1500+ odd, but again need to be "professionally installed" outside and electrics modified to cope. All possible but not cheap. I know someone who had a generator installed, auto start and auto switchover of some lights and some sockets (fridge, freezer and TV), a couple of years ago, and was over £3500.
 
It was just an example. That’s why I said “something like this”.
I have two Nano’s, both have 40W under tank heaters. One filter is 18W and the other 6W. On that basis I could get up to maybe 9 hours of backup power from the unit linked.
I’d actually like to run an LED table lamp as well so I’d be looking to get something with a bit more capacity if I can afford it.
 
I’ve now looked at some 1000W inverters and with a suitable battery I could run both of my Aquariums for about 18 Hours. It’s anyones guess if we’ll be getting power cuts this winter and how long they’ll last. Can I justify £300 for a “just in case” is the question?
 
Aqua sobriquet said:
I’ve now looked at some 1000W inverters and with a suitable battery I could run both of my Aquariums for about 18 Hours. It’s anyones guess if we’ll be getting power cuts this winter and how long they’ll last. Can I justify £300 for a “just in case” is the question?
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Depends on how you look at it. I doubt there will be complete power cuts in the UK, the energy companies will just keep increasing the price and buy what they need. A battery backup could buffer any brown-outs though if things get that bad.

If you are an economy 7 system though, having the battery back up could be a smart option - charge it overnight, and use the battery during the day?! (or visa-versa if you have a solar system!) - it might not cover the complete purchase cost, but it could help contribute to the cost.
 
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Aqua sobriquet said:
I’ve now looked at some 1000W inverters and with a suitable battery I could run both of my Aquariums for about 18 Hours. It’s anyones guess if we’ll be getting power cuts this winter and how long they’ll last. Can I justify £300 for a “just in case” is the question?
Click to expand...

That similar to what we did some years ago for our nano tank.
You only need to power the filter/powerhead and heaters, not lights, so something like a 250w to 400w inverter is all you need and from our actual trials /calculations a 80AH Leisure battery should last us around 18 hours.
You could simply add more batteries for a longer time.
We have made it automatic switch over, but assuming you are likey to be in ? you just need to unplug from the mains and plug the tank into the Inverter when a power cut happens.
Make a simple insulation jacket for the tank to conserve as much heat as possible.

eg RS 300w Inverter £50, reasonable 80AH Leisure battery -£70 -£100
 
We had a few of power cuts many years ago when I had a 50 gallon community tank. Each one lasted several hours. It’s a bit of a concern when you see articles like this.
www.energylivenews.com

Fears grow for UK winter blackouts - Energy Live News

There is reportedly a "one in ten chance of four to five days" this winter in which some consumers will lose power for a short period of time
www.energylivenews.com www.energylivenews.com
 
As mentioned on todays news, the UK did not import any gas or oil from Russia last month so seems we are in a lot better position than many eu countries.
With the G&E prices rising many uk folk are already cutting back on energy use, things like tumble dryers seem to be the first thing to be left off.
So with consumption going down generally, it would seems less likely we would be running out of power, plus think the goverment will divert power away from the really big energy users like Steel plants before cutting off domestic users.

As for backup, your choice, an expensive ready made unit or somthing diy if thats your thing, diy for us, though the battery and inverter are on a bare concrete floor for avoid any risk of fire .
 
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