Heating and Husbandry During A Power Outage

So I moved back from sunny California to my rainy, overcast hometown of Seattle. Sometimes I forget how wild the weather can be here in the Pacific Northwest.

I was out shopping around noon yesterday and in between this shop and that shop, there were periods of heavy rain and wind. Trees were bending, branches falling, etc. with periods of blue sunny sky. Crazy weather. Anyway when I got home around 3pm, my lights and electricity were out. I immediately went to check my BP's. Temps were in the mid-70's and they were in their hides. I wanted to grab some spare camping handwarmers and throw it in with my snakes but thought it might not be a good idea until I knew these were safe. So I waited. My neighbors said the power had been out for over 2 hours. :( Power was restored around 4:30pm and I immediately checked their thermostats and temps. I also used heat lamps to help bump up temps quickly.

Even though we are at the tail end of summer, I was surprised by the gale force winds and heavy rain yesterday. I knew I would have to ask the forum about this at some point, but did not realize it would be so soon. We usually have 3-4 major power outages a year, namely in late fall through winter with the worse being 12 hours long and/or overnight.

I want to keep my snakes warm and comfortable during these situations. So I just want to know what are your heating and husbandry plans for electrical power outages? What do you do or what would you do?

ok the HotHands hardwarmers i have says they have an average temp of 135 degrees. they look like these.

https://eaglesabound.files.wordpress.../01/image.jpeg

so i guess don't use them. would the heat packs used for shipping reptiles work?

also as a last resort - would handling your snake on your body be ok? am i a 98 degree heatmat?

We've had power go out here in SoCal a few times. Really not too bad with the insulated snake room. My biggest concern is when I have eggs in the bator. That's usually the most stressful for me. In the wild, they will have some fluctuations in temps from time to time. So a little cool weather for a short period shouldn't be too bad. One thought that I have and I don't know how if it would work for you is a portable generator.

During the winter it can get pretty cold, we have a gas heater we use to heat the room if we loose power. Ideally we'd have a generator and then nothing changes.


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Originally Posted by Bigfish1975

We've had power go out here in SoCal a few times. Really not too bad with the insulated snake room. My biggest concern is when I have eggs in the bator. That's usually the most stressful for me. In the wild, they will have some fluctuations in temps from time to time. So a little cool weather for a short period shouldn't be too bad. One thought that I have and I don't know how if it would work for you is a portable generator.

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i can't run a gasoline generator; hmmm maybe another power source generator exists.

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Originally Posted by creatism

During the winter it can get pretty cold, we have a gas heater we use to heat the room if we loose power. Ideally we'd have a generator and then nothing changes.

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gas as in gasoline? i'll assume u meant natural gas/propane. I'll look into that too.

DO NOT USE THOSE HOT HANDS.... those things get very very hot and can very easily burn, i know from expierence because i used to throw them in between my gloves when i rode my motorcycle into winter, gotten burned a few times with them and i had a layer of material between my skin and the hot hand...

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Originally Posted by M.P.C

DO NOT USE THOSE HOT HANDS.... those things get very very hot and can very easily burn, i know from expierence because i used to throw them in between my gloves when i rode my motorcycle into winter, gotten burned a few times with them and i had a layer of material between my skin and the hot hand...

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nope. not gonna use them.

what about those reptile shipping heat packs? Uniheats when in a pinch?

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Originally Posted by Ax01

I want to keep my snakes warm and comfortable during these situations. So I just want to know what are your heating and husbandry plans for electrical power outages? What do you do or what would you do?

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You are on to the right idea but the wrong product. In an emergency, you can use a shipping warmer pack and tape it onto the side but don't put it inside the tub with the bp. Ideally, the best situation is a backup generator. You can get a cheap one at Harbor Freight for $80 that will run your fridge/freezer and all of your animal heat during an outage (for the 2 snakes).

I had all of our animals in their own outdoor building that's insulated and has a more than capable 5K watt heater. We had a freak cold snap last winter and it got down to negative 15 degrees overnight and the interior of the building dropped to 38 degrees! I added multiple space heaters directly in front of our snake racks and threw multiple shipping warmers into the dubia colonies. This was in addition to the 5k watt heater running full blast.

All of the animals pulled through fine with absolutely no ill effects from the cold night. I attribute this to also using high quality, enclosed racks and high quality heat tape that kept the tubs well heated even though the building got cold. It was a major lesson though. What if we had lost power? I have a whole house generator but it's not powerful enough to run the 12k+ watts continuously that the animal building drew that night... we could have lost everyone. By this Fall, I'll have moved all of the bps into the basement where it stays a fairly constant temperature year round. During the cold snap, it dropped down to 50 in our house but walking down into the basement felt actually felt warm. Our generator will have no problem powering their heat now during an outage no matter how cold it gets. As a bonus, the humidity down there is awesomely high for them.

So that's my advice for your situation (shipping warmers and a small, cheap generator) and then also my plan for ours based on recent events. Great thread and foresight!

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Originally Posted by Ax01

i can't run a gasoline generator; hmmm maybe another power source generator exists.



gas as in gasoline? i'll assume u meant natural gas/propane. I'll look into that too.

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I run a propane generator and highly prefer them over gasoline. You can't get one for the $80 I mentioned earlier though... you'll probably need to spend at least $300-400 but it will be able to power a lot more. Propane is much safer to store, has a basically unlimited shelf life, and I think runs cleaner.

Depending on how many animals people have, anything from hot water bottle, to heat packs (the ones used for shipping) to generator can be used.

I have a generator for the house and for the incubator and for the snake room I have Buddy Heater http://www.walmart.com/ip/16622306?reviews_limit=7& (there are 2 sizes available and the can be connected to a large propane cylinder)

During power outage the priority is to provide a hot spot but to provide an acceptable ambient temp of 75 or above.

I also have a generator. If I had to all of the snakes would go into one room, some would just be in bags/tubs for the duration, and that room would be heated using an electric heater. The wood stove would heat the rest of the house so it wouldn't freeze up, and the refrigerator/freezers can run off of the generator so I wouldn't lose any f/t rodents or people food.

thanks all. good tips, good practice.


looks like a generator and space heater are all necessary.


also would it be ok to throw a blanket over a tub or rack for insulation?

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Originally Posted by Ax01

also would it be ok to throw a blanket over a tub or rack for insulation?

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I have some open-sided racks downstairs. During the winter the daytime ambient temp drops to 70-72*F so I cover 3 sides with blankets at all times, and I cover the fronts at night since the air temp can go even lower.

Keeping the racks covered won't do much during a power outage. You're better off just heating a small room for all of your snakes rather than trying to run thermostats and heat tape off of a generator. Generator power is pretty "dirty" and a lot of sensitive electronics like digital t-stats won't like it much. A space heater should be fine though.

They have solar powered generators. I've not used one before but I imagine they would put out enough energy to power a small space heater for some time and if there is a window in the room that gets good sunlight then it would be easy to keep charged

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Originally Posted by aLittleLessButter

They have solar powered generators. I've not used one before but I imagine they would put out enough energy to power a small space heater for some time and if there is a window in the room that gets good sunlight then it would be easy to keep charged

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The OP lives in Seattle, WA. It rains. A lot. Not much sunlight, and what little there is has to fight its way through a lot of atmosphere before it hits the ground, unlike areas in the south where it's much more direct (and the heat much more brutal).

An electric space heater typically has two settings: low (800W) and high (1500W).

The cheapest solar panels right now are running $.70/Watt. So that's $560 just in panels if you get the low-end stuff to run a heater on low.

Add batteries because you need to keep that heater running overnight. Oops, now you need more panels to charge the batteries when the sun is shining. You also need a shelf/rack for the batteries.

Add an inverter, cables/wire, connectors, and installation. It all adds up.

OTOH my $500 generator and some extension cords can heat the snake room, keep my refrigerator/freezer cool, charge my cell phone batteries and rechargeable LED lights, and run the blower on my wood stove for heat, or fans to keep air moving in the house to keep it cool.

I know friends who use their solar generators to run heaters for their chinchillas during the rainy season in Florida. They had no such issues. This was done with a generator that cost less then $200. A gas powered generator is not practical for everyone, I was merely offing an alternative

I used the hot hand last winter when we lost power for three days in the South Sound area. I wrapped them in paper towels and then put them under another layer. I only had a Leopard Gecko then though, and she didn't try to burrow down to them.
My plan for my BPs and Corns is to stock up on water bottles and heat the water on my camp stoves. I make a lot of candy, so I have plenty of candy thermometers and can get the water to precise temperatures.
For long term outages, I kept a few fish shipping boxes from work, they're styrofoam shipping boxes. I'll cut some air holes, put the water bottles in the bottom and then put the snakes either in bags or kritter keepers on top of the water bottles. I haven't tried it yet, but as long as the water temperature is controlled, it should work, and not burn them. Luckily I didn't lose power this storm, but my lights were flickering for hours.
http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-1773-5.../dp/B000SP3BIU

Man did you miss a crazy one yesterday. I live about 30 minutes north of Seattle and it was crazy. Some folks are still without power. We were moving this weekend and the new house had power and old house didn't. We didn't wait....we did a quick evac of our bp and her entire set up. Thank goodness I have a strong wife as her tank is heavy heavy heavy. Needless to say she got moved, settled in overnight, and ate just fine for us yesterday.

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Originally Posted by Ax01

ok the HotHands hardwarmers i have says they have an average temp of 135 degrees. they look like these.

https://eaglesabound.files.wordpress.../01/image.jpeg

so i guess don't use them. would the heat packs used for shipping reptiles work?

also as a last resort - would handling your snake on your body be ok? am i a 98 degree heatmat?

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I used these when my power went out 2 days ago for 8 hours I wasn't too worried about my ball pythons but my baby bearded dragon I was worried about and these helped keep him warm

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Depending on how many animals people have, anything from hot water bottle, to heat packs (the ones used for shipping) to generator can be used.

I have a generator for the house and for the incubator and for the snake room I have Buddy Heater http://www.walmart.com/ip/16622306?reviews_limit=7& (there are 2 sizes available and the can be connected to a large propane cylinder)

During power outage the priority is to provide a hot spot but to provide an acceptable ambient temp of 75 or above.

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so i'm assuming Buddy Heaters are safe for indoor use? i know, dumb question but i just wanna make sure that me or my snakes won't die. it's already snowed a few times and blackouts are imminent this winter.

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Originally Posted by Ax01

so i'm assuming Buddy Heaters are safe for indoor use? i know, dumb question but i just wanna make sure that me or my snakes won't die. it's already snowed a few times and blackouts are imminent this winter.

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Theoretically, yes.

Practically I would never run a heat source that burns propane in an indoor space. I have used them while camping and they don't put out a ton of heat anyway. IMO a better alternative is a kerosene heater.

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Originally Posted by Ax01

so i'm assuming Buddy Heaters are safe for indoor use? i know, dumb question but i just wanna make sure that me or my snakes won't die. it's already snowed a few times and blackouts are imminent this winter.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Theoretically, yes.

Practically I would never run a heat source that burns propane in an indoor space. I have used them while camping and they don't put out a ton of heat anyway. IMO a better alternative is a kerosene heater.

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and kerosene heaters don't release carbon monoxide?

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Originally Posted by Ax01

and kerosene heaters don't release carbon monoxide?

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I ran one in a townhouse years ago and had a CO detector. It never registered anything but I was rather zealous about keeping the heater clean and maintained.

Obviously if you have any sort of heat source that relies on combustion, whether a kerosene heater, wood stove, propane heater, etc. you'll want a CO detector.