power out procedure

[xcrafter]

Okay so PG&E just gave me a letter saying they plan to switch something out for about 6 hours, leaving me with no power. So my question is this.. what would I do if I lost power for an extended period of time, say, longer than 6 hours? I've been in blackouts for a few days because of storms or bad heat waves, so what would I do with my snake in that situation? Remember, I don't have a generator and I may not be able to make it to power, so the obvious solutions won't help here. How long before I start to see problems with her?
EDIT: I'll assume 6 hours without regulated temps will be not that big a deal, the temp in my house isn't likely to dip below 65 even without heat.

[WingedWolfPsion]

The obvious answer is to buy a small generator, which you can get for under $100.

We have the following:
A small generator, which we will use to power incubators when needed, and a fridge or freezer.
An indoor kerosene room heater, which will be used to keep the reptile room at a comfy 80F+, and extra kerosene for it.
72 hour heat packs, in case the animals need to be moved.

A few more ideas:
Heated water can be used to provide a source of warmth, if you have a gas stove. Just fill water bottles with it, and wrap them in towels. These would have to be checked pretty often.

While hardly desireable to leave a car idling for an entire day, the collection can be packed into bags and put into a nice warm car.

My house is not well insulated, so I would go for the kerosene heater if the power were out for longer than a half hour to 45 minutes. Ball pythons do not handle temperatures under 70F well.

[deto360]

A few more ideas:
Heated water can be used to provide a source of warmth, if you have a gas stove. Just fill water bottles with it, and wrap them in towels. These would have to be checked pretty often.


i have never thought about this one u may have just saved my bps like in the event on and emergency

[Don]

Buy a case of heat packs. 240 to a case and at 40 hours each, that gives you some time.

[jdouglas]

Say you have a PVC cage how would you use the heatpack's to heat the cage above 70 degrees?

Although in my area if the power goes out its normally an issue of getting to hot not to cold, but just in case.

What would you do for say its 90-95 degrees outside with the power out? I am just asking because we went 9 days after Hurricane Katrina without any power. We couldn't maintain the generator running because of lines at the gas stations and gas stations out of gas. It was hooked up to a few devices like our fridge and freezer and like 1 or 2 box fans but we couldn't run the central air.

[Don]

I have a generator and on/off thermostats for back ups (which turn into primary thermostats in a power outage). But, if something like that happened, I also have my case of heat packs.

What I would do is drop one in each rack under the newspaper and keep track with a temp gun. If more heat is needed, drop another in. If less, cycle the heat pack out on a timed cycle. What you would have to do is manually act like a thermostat with a temp gun and heat packs.

[MrLang]

This is something I put a lot of thought into recently...

If you only have 1 or 2 cages, I think something like this : http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-PP-...6815167&sr=8-2 would run your setup for at least several hours. I would love to see someone with electrical knowledge chime in here and/or do some actual math on how many watts a battery like this could run for how long. My current setup uses 60w of heat tape that draws power ~50% of the time (on/off thermostat) and you can feel free to use me as an example I think a pretty awesome way to automate this is using a computer UPS backup that will kick on automatically if power is out (protection even if you aren't home). Again, I would love to hear an electrical person's opinion on this. It's my understanding that any "pure sine wave" unit can power a regular appliance. Old ones can only run computers? The question with those units is how long it would last.

This is assuming you can't have a generator, like me. For now I have a case of hot hands as backup.

[Annarose15]

For now I have a case of hot hands as backup.

Please ditch the hot hands. They heat up way too hot, way too quickly, and burn out just as quickly. Get proper 40-hr heat packs that are appropriate for shipping live reptiles. Here is just one source: http://www.shipyourreptiles.com/shop/heat_packs/product

[Egapal]

The best answer in my opinion is a generator. If you can't do that I would look for a kerosene heater. I personally would not run a kerosene heater without a carbon monoxide detector. Just keep in mind that you don't need to provide your ideal temps and humidity through a power outage if they are a rare occurrence. The key is to keep the temps above 70% so your animals don't die. Even 65 for a few hours is probably not going to be a problem.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Naturally, BE CAREFUL. When you get any sort of space heater, particularly one that runs on kerosene or another fuel, make certain that it is rated for INDOOR USE. Many of them are not--they're intended for garages or job sites.

Make sure that it's large enough to cover the space it needs to cover.

For those of you wondering how to heat cages:
Remember, in an emergency, your snakes do not have to be IN cages. Bag them up, and put them in an insulated box, even a large cardboard box, that you can heat. It's much easier to heat a smaller area than a larger one. They will be fine in bags for a few days.