In case of emergency?

This is a topic i was thinking of almost randomly but i poses a very serious question to me, I'm just getting into breeding myself and I'd like to know what would some of you do in this situation, or what would be the best thing to do if there is anything you could do at all..

Scenario# 1:
You Bp has recently laid a clutch of eggs, during incubation you have a power outage, you do not have a generator (as more often not that many people do). Hours go by and power is still not restored and the clutch is at severe risk. You have no idea what the temp is inside the incubator cause the thermo has no power to display it ,and opening the incubator would take away from any heat/humidity you have left in it. A whole day might possibly go by before power is returned..
What would you do if any thing can be done ??

For me I would have the heat packs I use for shipping, as I know more likely I will always have extras, and i would use those as a temperarory heat source, as well as having an old fashoned thermometer to try and somewhat monitor the temps,
or if the incubator is small enough I would call a family member and if they arent too far I'd ask them if i could hook the incubator up at their place if they have power.


I'd certainly like to hear all your ideas on this situation as some healthy advise i could use for the future:)

well, my acurite takes AAA's so that will always have power.and as fair as heat goes I would start my fire place get the room warm and then check my temps ;). If that dont work I know some ppl I could take my eggs too for a over night thing if I need to.

I have lost power fo as much as 12 hours while incubating eggs. One way that we try to keep the temps as stable as possible is to store as much water in the incubator as we can possibly fit in there during incubation. The reason that we do this is that water retains heat much more efficiently and longer than does air. I typically have at least 15 gallons of water in my incubator at all times. Remeber, that as much as it might suck to lose power, there is nothing you can do about it, so leave the incubator closed and pray for the best.

I know I have mentioned this before, but it seemed like a good time to bring it to light again. Remember that most people (unless you spent a small fortune on your generator) have generators that put out "dirty" power. With that said, most proportional thermostats will not work with dirty power. So, if you intend on using a generator for your incubator in case of a power failure, make sure you have a back-up thermostat that is an on/off thermostat.

I hope some of that helps.

Thanks for sharing that Tim! I'm going to be using a dorm sized fridge as an incubator, and so I'll be sure to add water bottles in the un-used spaces.

Your post is now marked in my favorites for easy reference! :D

No problem Robin. I try to pass on what limited informtion my wee brain holds.

That is awsome I'll keep the water in mind, I plan on making a small fridge into an incubtor as well, and that iis some useful info indeed :D

Curious as to what you consider a fortune for a generator?... My pops has one that he spent like 5-6k on that will power and entire floor of a house... weve only had to use it once for the house but would you consider that dirty power? I'm assuming your talkin about a smaller generator that doesnt have as much kick, this ones pretty big.

Has anyone thought about a battery back up? I got one that is made for backing up a computer server and my thermostat runs through that... Its made to last like 3-4 hrs running a server at Max so I've been told it should last 3-4 days with the small output I have using just flexwatt. I've been lucky and havent had to use it but its there if I do.

Battery back ups might be a good idea. You could get a 360 minutes back up that would probably run for days or weeks on a flexwatt thermostat output.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Thanks for sharing that Tim! I'm going to be using a dorm sized fridge as an incubator...

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Just curious, I am not breeding (yet anyway) but how would you turn a small fridge into an incubtor...maybe I have just not thought enough about it, but seems like this could be a task indeed....

I agree Tim, I always keep tubs with filled with rocks and water in my incubators for humidity and heat control/stability. Het packs may help but you would have to monitor temps to make sure.

The battery pack sound interesting but how long could one last. My computer battery back up is like 15 minutes I think.

Would love to learn more?

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Originally Posted by jason4173

Just curious, I am not breeding (yet anyway) but how would you turn a small fridge into an incubtor...maybe I have just not thought enough about it, but seems like this could be a task indeed....

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Easy run a strip of flexwatt down the back, install a computer fan over flexwatt to blow down over it. Drill some holes to run electric cords and t stat probes, hook up to t stat and you are rockin. I leave the computer fan running 24/7. Also I like to remove all the coolant lines and compressor, uneeded weight and chemicals and don't use fridge fan, too cold.

Even very small backups, which usually look like powerstrips, can run a computer for about 15-30 minutes. Computers use MUCH more wattage than a simple flexwatt, but without knowing the exact numbers on each I give give a definite amount of time.

You can get a 6 hour battery back up for around $300, which could translate into days of power, obvious depending on how many things are running off of it. $300 might be a good investment if you are hatching $10,000 dollars in snakes.

Tim mentioned something about proportional thermostats don't work with generator power. I'm not sure if it has the same affect with the back ups.

you over estimate the battery backups and how much a flexwatt will drain them. i assure you it smuch faster then that. if you have one. just plug i your heaters, unplug it and check the clock. and wait for it to beep dieing.

Ive used mine before and only got a few hours for two snakes

BUT that being said if you have a dirty generator. AND one of the UPS supplys for your pc. You plug it into the generator and the whole idea of the battery ups will help regulate your power a lot.

How big is your back up? If its is normally a 15-30 minute one I think that 2 hours is pretty good for two snakes. As I said I am unsure of flexwatt wattage.

Also who makes it? Mine is built for a server that would power a whole network of computers... I'm going to guess yours is built just to power 1 PC

What I have is very similar to this...

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/...sku=SUA1500X93

a 11inch flexwatt is 20watts... so for me... 11 pieces of flexwatt x 20w is only 220W which is like 1/4 of the Max power ... plus I use a Herp Pro which is a proportinal t-stat so it doesnt even use the full 20watts(usually around 20-40%).

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Originally Posted by JoshJP7

Curious as to what you consider a fortune for a generator?... My pops has one that he spent like 5-6k on that will power and entire floor of a house... weve only had to use it once for the house but would you consider that dirty power?

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It doesn't really matter how big the generator is, it could be a 50K, but if it doesn't have some kind of filter to clean up the power (i.e. surges and inconsistent amperage), then it won't power a proportional T-stat. If you don't trust me, that's fine, just have pops start up the generator and try to run your thermostats. If they work, great. All I am saying is that after Hurricane Katrina, I was out of power for 31 days, and I tried to run my snake room with a generator and none of my Helix's worked. It would run a fan and the AC's though. I am not trying to get into a debate about electricity, as I am not that versed in it, but pass on some experience that I have had.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jason4173

Just curious, I am not breeding (yet anyway) but how would you turn a small fridge into an incubtor...maybe I have just not thought enough about it, but seems like this could be a task indeed....

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I didn't build this one myself, a friend is selling me one of his. But basically it has a fan to circulate the air, and flexwatt for heating.

Here's how to make one with a full sized fridge, so I would imagine you'd modify it.

I'll be picking mine up next weekend!

http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/incubator.shtml

http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm?

try the ups selection tools that apc has on their site.
if you look under the telecom (middle colum) it says by load fill it out and viola! it helps you select one.

i have (2) 1500kva ones that i can use if need be but most of my stuff is set on/off cept for the incubator

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Originally Posted by nixer

http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm?

try the ups selection tools that apc has on their site.
if you look under the telecom (middle colum) it says by load fill it out and viola! it helps you select one.

i have (2) 1500kva ones that i can use if need be but most of my stuff is set on/off cept for the incubator

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oops i mean 1500va!

Just my thought you would be better off running a generator even if it is small and not of the best quality through a small ups. The ups will clean up the dirty sine wave created by the generator thus letting your proportional stats work properly. The problem with the generators is that they dont really put out 60hz which is what we normally have, it varies and some times alot! Since our proportionals are actually changing the sine wave themselves they will not work since the input is not correct. I also believe just having a ups might not be enough, if it were me i would do a trial run on it to see what it really can do before having a lot of lost eggs because you calculated wrong.