Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My incubator is a coke fridge, 2 strips of heat tape down the back (ignore pic, it shows alot of heat tape). The power in my building go's out every 4-5 months and all it would take would be one time for all my hard work to go down the drain. Last week the power went out for 4 hours and the temp on my incubator droped about a degree every hour. I was thinking about taking an extension cord and wiring it to a car battery (chopping off the male end) and hooking up the female end to the heat tape and fan cord. So, when the power go's out, I would just unplug from the wall and plug it into the extension cord and battery. Im not much of a handy man, but I thought this might work. I would like to use something a little less inexpensive then a car battery, but that is the only thing I can think of. Well, other then buying a generator. I would really appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,
Kyle

Kyle.......if you want to use a 12 volt battery as your backup power source for your incubator, you will need to get an inverter to convert DC to AC. I'm not sure how much extra room you will have in your incubator when it is fully loaded, but if there's room, you can add containers filled with water and it will help hold the temps longer if the power goes out. Good luck.
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Louis Kirkland
Game Balls
The Morph Factory

Yeah...go to Walmart and get a "power inverter". You can find them in various wattages. They are in the automotive section. You may even be able to find one that plugs into a cigarette lighter. The power at my place has never gone out since we've been here, but I plan to go the inverter route if it ever does.

I would have an electrician wire up a new circuit breaker to the barn. It will save you alot of head ache. I have one breaker ran to my barn and 3 running to my snake room
each one runs a 4 plug recepticle. Good luck
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Thomas Jones
aligatorhunter@cox.net

>>I would have an electrician wire up a new circuit breaker to the barn. It will save you alot of head ache. I have one breaker ran to my barn and 3 running to my snake room
>>each one runs a 4 plug recepticle. Good luck
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>>Thomas Jones
>>aligatorhunter@cox.net
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Thomas Jones
aligatorhunter@cox.net

what wattage do you get?

like for computer equipment? Seems to me unless you're at home when the power goes out a battery won't help unless you run it on the battery all of the time. Won't that run the battery down pretty fast?

Cheryl

Last year a couple of weeks after my girl laid her eggs - we got a notice saying that the following week the electric company would be doing service in our area and would be shutting down our power for 6 hours two days in a row. Just my luck right - fortunately since I was using maternal incubation it wasn't a big deal mom kept the eggs all nice and warm while the power was out - but that didnt lessen my worry.

If I remember correctly you are also in So. Cal. (?) and will probably be subject to a few rolling blackouts this summer - I would recommend (especially if you are prone to blackouts) just for piece of mind - getting a little camping generator ($150-$200) that way if your power does go out then you can start that up - but I guess if you aren't home at the time you might be up the proverbial creek - as suggested use the water bottles and think about some more insulation.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

11.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

Hey tosha

Thanks for the info, camping generator is a good idea. I might fill up the empty containers with water, just so I can sleep easier at night. I'm expecting my first clutch of eggs shortly and im a newby at this. Never bred a thing till this season, so I want to make sure everything go's right. This hobby is addicting, 2 years ago I didn't even own a ball python and now I have 30+.

Kyle

a 4 degree drop in temp for a very short time won't hurt your eggs. Think about it, in the wild there are temp changes on a daily basis. There are nights in Africa that the nights get down into the 60's and 70's and no snake can generate that much heat to keep the eggs at a perfect 90. Granted the eggs are usually laid underground but with that much of a temp change above ground there is bound to be a change underground as well. As long as there isn't a very long period of them being at 86 degrees than you should have nothing to worry about. I live in south florida and we have power outages here on a weekly basis (if not daily) and I'm using a very well insulated fridge as an incubator, it should be up running in the next 2 days and I'll check how well it holds heat as I know there will be times that I'm out of power for 4-6 hrs at a time. If it drops below 86 at anytime I will just buy a small portable generator and not worry about it.
Josh Hutto
JKReptiles
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2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
0.1 High Contrast Albino (Gulf Coast)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, Gulf Coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(Gulf Coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (Gulf Coast line)
0.1 graz pastel female
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

Hooking up a relatively small solar power grid to a battery such as they use for RVs might work for a small power usage like an incubator. I have been looking at one as an emergency power back up after hurricanes or other disasters, when gas may not be available for a generator. It will cost you a few hundred dollars, but you won't have to keep gas on hand.

Look them up on Google - there are lots to choose from.

Yes, it will make you anxious (...especially since you can't
tell for sure when the power will be back on!). But 4-5
degree drop for a few hours should not cause any harm.

Another 'act of desparation' if you really needed it would be to
just throw in a couple of heat packs (...but YOU need to keep
an eye things don't get too hot).

Good luck!
Chris Simone
www.SimoneReptiles.com

I thought about that also, heat pads great idea. But over heating would be a more of a problem. At least I know now that 4 or 5 hours isn't going to make much of a difference, Im not as stressed out.

Thanks,
Kyle

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