Michael7979 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Now that the weather is turning nasty and power outages might be a more common thing. I was wondering about invertors? Who has one and exactly how do you use it? How long does it work? What are you running off it? Where did you get it? How much do they cost? Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 I have a 400watt power inverter that I use while camping in the summer and for power outages durring the winter. Mine was like $40, it comes with aligator clips or a cig lighter power supply. I use a extention cord to the tank from my car, all ya need is a small heater in the tank, mines a 75watt, a power head or two K-#3's only like 25 watts total, then a air stone dosnt need to be big! air pumps are like 25 watts. The inverter I have will shut off if the supply gets below 10 volts, so if that happens ( it hasnt yet ) then ya go start the car for 20 min or so, Ya I would turn off the inverter while the car is charging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael7979 Posted November 22, 2009 Author Share Posted November 22, 2009 So just having a spare car battery is all you would need then, huh? $40.00 isn't bad for piece of mind either. Hey Reef165 where did you get your invertor at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 No, I dont rely on having a extra car battery charged up, I just use the cig lighter in the car, and run an extention cord to the tank. I got mine at Joe's but Ive seen them at most car patr stors like Thriftys n such. Ya it dose relax me a little! Im sure though there is a way that ya could automate it like a backup geny for your hause, when the power gose out the geny automaticaly kicks in.that would be cool to have something like that with your tank, a batery charger, battery, inverter, controler. I wonder if as a group we design something like this and eather market it ourselves or sell it to sunlight, kent or? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byrd Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Great little idea an inverter (or a second one) I have a 400watt power inverter that I use while camping in the summer and for power outages durring the winter..... The inverter I have will shut off if the supply gets below 10 watts.... Ya I would turn off the inverter while the car is charging. So you have an inverter that holds a charge??? I have something similar for camping etc, I think it also is 400 watt, but it merely converts to AC from DC-does not hold any charge???? I did a google and founds this one, I am sure there are many similar, I like the USB idea, not sure why but... http://www.google.com/products/catalog?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS340US340&q=inverter&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=13474537007632061747&ei=LXEJS9TuGJL8sgP5laHBCQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDQQ8wIwBg#ps-sellers I really need to buy a generator, with 2 freezers load with deer, elk, beef, pork, salmon, sturgeon, duck, geese, pheasant-Hmm what else do I shoot/catch/buy-LOL A new inverter is for sure on my list-always should have at least one back up!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Right! It dosnt hold any charge, it run's off the car battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byrd Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 So just having a spare car battery is all you would need then, huh? $40.00 isn't bad for piece of mind either. Hey Reef165 where did you get your invertor at? Frys Electronics in Wilsonville, has a grip and they are always on sale. I ended up getting my 400 watt one for free. 20.00 dollars with a 20 dollar mail in rebate (and I have been using it nearly 4 years). Look in Fridays paper they always do a 4 page add. If that does not work Ebay has tons, caution with over seas sellers!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byrd Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Right! It dosnt hold any charge' date=' it run's off the car battery.[/quote'] gotcha I saw the shuts off at less than 10 watts- you are saying once the car is putting out less than 10 watts to the inverter- understood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Right, once the car battery goes below 10 volts the inverter will shut off and then ya know to go start the car for a while to charge it back up. The car battery will last quite a while, While camping I run a bug zapper and string of x-mas lights around the picnic table for 5 to 8 hours a night and I have never had to start the car to charge it, sure I run the car the next day, but never has it shut off do to low volts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 gotcha I saw the shuts off at less than 10 watts- you are saying once the car is putting out less than 10 watts to the inverter- understood Sorry, ment to say volts. I edited my post to say volts now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciao Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Is there any inverters out there that I could hook up a spare car battery to with alligator clips? How long would the battery last if I was use two 250W heaters and two K4 powerheads? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Is there any inverters out there that I could hook up a spare car battery to with alligator clips? How long would the battery last if I was use two 250W heaters and two K4 powerheads? Yes, any powre inverter will/should come with a power cord with alligator clips and a cord with a cig. lighter plug. If the battery had a full charge, without knowing for sure I'd say about 3 to 5 hours, the heater wouldnt be on all the time and the K4's dont take up many watts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barelycuda Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 You can always go to a store like best buy and buy a computer ups. plug in a powerhead or pump into it. If the power goes out the ups will continue to run the powerhead. The size of the ups would depend on the wattage consumption of the stuff plugged into it. The piece of mind comes from knowing that if the power goes out while you're gone or sleeping the water will continue to flow.... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 You can always go to a store like best buy and buy a computer ups. plug in a powerhead or pump into it. If the power goes out the ups will continue to run the powerhead. The size of the ups would depend on the wattage consumption of the stuff plugged into it. The piece of mind comes from knowing that if the power goes out while you're gone or sleeping the water will continue to flow.... Dave So it automaticaly goes to battery power when the power goes out? can ya mount in in the stand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePremiumAquarium Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 They are great. I had two of them that I picked up for $20 a piece on black friday a couple of years ago. They worked awesome and ran for about 4-6 hours with two K3's plugged in each. I ended up selling them a while back and kind of wish I hadn't now lol. I will end up buying some heavier duty versions so that I can run a few powerhead and mayber a small heater for 24 hours or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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