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Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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Cold Weather Power Outages
#1
So I am getting ready for 18+ inches of snow to drop.
The frogs are fed, the snowplow driver is informed as to where to push all this white stuff but, most importantly, a five day supply of firewood is inside ready to burn.

I do not worry about the lights at all, feeding is still possible with the ambient light my frog room gets during the day. The only thing I really worry about is the temperature dropping way down. My furnace requires electricity. Fortunately I have a wood stove and that is my long term winter power outage plan.

What do others do in this situation?

Chris Sherman
Chris Sherman
One big methane burp from the ocean could make everything here obsolete.
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#2
Move South.


-Byron
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#3
Pray.
Depending on the setup/extent of the "frog room" some have generators.
I had an arrangement with another local frogger, I could bring mine to his place and vice versa if needed. But he's out of it now, so, now I cross my fingers and hope the lights stay on.
Derek
1.5 kids and a bunch of frogs
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#4
Armson Wrote:Move South.


-Byron

O.K. This opens up the flip side of the coin.(Which I intended for another thread.)

In the summer, how do you maintain cool temperatures during an extended power outage?

Chris
Chris Sherman
One big methane burp from the ocean could make everything here obsolete.
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#5
If this is an issue then you have moved to far south.

-Byron
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#6
Sherman Wrote:
Armson Wrote:Move South.


-Byron

O.K. This opens up the flip side of the coin.(Which I intended for another thread.)

In the summer, how do you maintain cool temperatures during an extended power outage?

Chris


Ok ok I am just trolling your thread.

My mother's side of the family is from the Southeast Boston area so I am a die hard sox fan.



So here is my advice/solution/prep guide.

Most important thing IMO is find your Buddies (other local froggers).
This hobby is too specialized, You have your cultures crash or they have their's crash you are going to need a close resupply.

I am firm believer in the gas generator it has saved my ass on several different occasions. The challenge is that you need to remember to keep it well maintained and not let it sit for long periods of time before firing it back up. Trust me on this, my gas generator has been sitting in my garage for more than a few years and it will not start.

OH and during Hurricane Sandy, Don't go to the Bahamas for a week. Especially if you are going to spend that entire week on a sailboat with no communication to the outside world. Only f*cking stupid people do this. How is your incompetent mother in-law going to know how to keep your frogs alive?


-Byron
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#7
i have couple coleman sportcat catalytic heater will go for about 2 days one can because the frog room its well insulate it will keep it at 75 F and its cheap $10 for 4 tanks and in the summer same room a beisment its all ways a good option
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#8
Generator with buddies with back -up generators (thanks for the offers JP, Lewie, etc.) and various fuel heaters in the winter. In Chicago they tend to take outages pretty seriously, and so do I. Never had to use a generator , but I could say the same about very most all of my needed insurance policies.
Summer time it's not super hard with a basement and lights out. But I could always hook up the generator/s to my portable air conditioner I run in hot summer months , which this last crazy summer was all summer.
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.


If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.

My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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#9
A/C failure and a few days without power in the dead of the winter are the two things that scare me the most when it comes to my frogs. I really need to add a temperature monitor...
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#10
Craig, get that iphone app or whatever you need in terms of alert systems. You lose THAT frog room to cold or heat and we are all gonna witness a grown man crying for like a week straight. Hell, I'll probably cry too.
https://www.facebook.com/dartden/

https://twitter.com/DartDen


"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#11
My whole plan when moving here was to be more self sufficient. I have a generator, woodstove(and all the wood I could ever need), propane stove(burners and oven)(get 2 fills on my tank a year)and kerosene heaters(k-1 kerosene is $4/gal and lasts more than a year). Remember you can always hand light your stove(if it's not electric) and heat the room. K-1 kerosene and kerosene heaters are the cheapest. For under $200 you can get a heater and 20 gal. of kerosene, which should heat a place for a week.
"I don't want to believe, I want to know" Carl Sagan(my fav. stonerSmile
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#12
cbreon Wrote:I really need to add a temperature monitor...

Craig,

I recently picked up a La Crosse Alerts temperature and humidity monitor:
http://www.blackjungleterrariumsupply.c ... _2105.html
Short of having a longer data recording capability, I find the thing awesome.
It automatically graphs two separate temperature probes and a single humidity probe.
It will also email and text you when, your sensors exceed your set parameters, and when the system looses connection. It does nothing to prevent a problem, but will let you know when a problem is happening.
Easy to use and worth every penny.

Chris Sherman
Chris Sherman
One big methane burp from the ocean could make everything here obsolete.
Reply
#13
Sherman Wrote:
cbreon Wrote:I really need to add a temperature monitor...

Craig,

I recently picked up a La Crosse Alerts temperature and humidity monitor:
http://www.blackjungleterrariumsupply.c ... _2105.html
Short of having a longer data recording capability, I find the thing awesome.
It automatically graphs two separate temperature probes and a single humidity probe.
It will also email and text you when, your sensors exceed your set parameters, and when the system looses connection. It does nothing to prevent a problem, but will let you know when a problem is happening.
Easy to use and worth every penny.

Chris Sherman

Chris, I have been thinking about one of these systems for a while, thanks for the feedback. I guess my concern was their functionality and reliability, its good to hear from someone that has one. thanks
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#14
cbreon Wrote:Chris, I have been thinking about one of these systems for a while, thanks for the feedback. I guess my concern was their functionality and reliability, its good to hear from someone that has one. thanks

My only current gripe is that it repeatedly warns me that the it has not received an update for more than 10 minutes. It has become so frequent that I disregard all emails and texts from La Crosse, and erase them without reading them. I fear that when the system is actually warning me about errant temperatures I will ignore it.

Every time I look at the system it reads 100% connectivity. I have contacted the support line because I was unable to adjust the time it takes for the system to alert me to a "lost" signal. The woman I spoke to was unable to help me because she knew nothing about my particular unit and told me that someone would call me. I patiently wait. (Original call was made Friday afternoon.)

I have included a screen shot of the interface, and still think that this system is worth the price and this mild aggravation.

[Image: LacrosseScreenShot_zpsb2de83e2.png]
Chris Sherman
One big methane burp from the ocean could make everything here obsolete.
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#15
Resurrecting this thread since the topic has been on my mind recently with the predictions of a bad winter for the west coast, and the recent power outage that lasted almost a week for us due to a fairly mild to moderate summer windstorm.

There's some good info for those who live in/own a home, but what about us apartment dwellers who don't have/can't have access to things like generators or gas powered heaters? Or if you can't hustle your frogs to a buddies place because if one part of the grid is out no one has power?
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#16
If your apartment has a gas stove you can heat up water and por the water in jugs/ water bottles to help hold the temp in your tanks. Also, If you throw quits or an insulation blanket over your tanks this will help hold the heat in the tank. I lost power for a day in ohio when the high was only 9 degrees and didnt lose a single frog cause of the stuff mentioned above.
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#17
Out of curiosity, when you say insulation blanket do you mean the ceramic ones used for water heaters and the like, or something more along the lines of a military surplus blanket?
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#18
Heavy duty quilt. Lots of insulation. You could always keep a bunch of 60 hour shipping heat packs as well to place between the quilt and the glass of the tank to raise it a few degrees. Or several phase 22 and large foam coolers like a giant shipping container that's going nowhere. Shit gets severe,pack them into coolers
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