what to do if you loose power

thanks for all of your sugestions...i did not have to do anything thankfully we did not loose power

I am in Wheaton IL and I got smashed LOL! Don't forget your water heater. Power goes out the tank is still hot. A Styro cooler and a couple ziplocks with WARM water not hot lol and they should be happy. Tank of hot lasts for a while, check and change water.

Keep in mind with generators that some controllers (herpstats for example) can fail if the power is not pure seine wave. Check the specks on any you look at most are modified seine wave and it isn't the same at all. I know Hondas are, others... no idea. The inverter that does pure seine wave is über expensive so most 'bargain' generators are very unlikely to be. Something to keep in mind, it would be awful to have the power go out and run a generator that caused the snakes in the collection to overheat!

from the spyder robotics web site...

"All proportional thermsotats use a Triac to control the AC output. This component gets triggered and turns off on its own once the AC voltage reachs zero volts. Common UPS systems or power inverters using "modified" sinewaves do not recreate the smooth curve sinewave that comes from your home outlet. Instead they spike the voltage 120vac positive, then drop to zero, then spike to 120vac negative. Because of this there is no way to dim the power. Also in my testing the triac typically will not turn off properly and stays stuck ON once its triggered. In order to have a proportional thermostat work properly off a battery powered (or gas generator for that matter) device it has to output a "True" or "Pure" sine wave. These systems recreate the correct smooth arced sinewave just like your home power. Because of the extra components and technology they are usually double the price.

Dion Brewington
Owner, Spyder Robotics "

ref. http://www.spyderrobotics.com/support/ups.html

Luckily we haven't had any lost power here this winter. I use heat packs for short term outages, but once we were out for a week. I packed them in small boxes wired with the thermometers from their tubs and sat them around the kerosene heater an appropriate distance to maintain the proper temps. Must invest in a generator now that my cash flow has improved a bit. Glad your power stayed on.