Although this suggestion may come too late for some, it may help others, or anybody for next time. I live in an area that is famous for frequent power outtages, and we've becaome pretty power savvy, as our winters are pretty cold, and as i've been reading about you all with power issues right now, and sympathizing with you and your little fishie friends, i thought i'd share our power solution wih you all.

We have a power box, that we got from Canadian Tire. I think it's actually called "The Eliminator" power source. What you do is charge it up, and then when the power goes out, you can plug whatever you want into it. It has a bunch of regular 3 prong outlets, plus a buch of other kinds of holes to plug various other things into. If we needed to, we could bring it, and a space heater into one room and keep warm. We could also plug a power bar into it o run all the tank filters and whatnot, and the fish would never know the difference. It also has a light built right into it, and a radio too.

The charge will hold power with things running on it for about 2 days, so in case a power outtage goes longer than that, we have a solar panel that we can use to charge it back up again, or to run continuous power to the power source. It also is of "The Eliminator" brand, and we also got it from Canadia Tire. I'm sure you could get it at other hardware tpe stores as well. My husband uses the whole system on a regular basis to run our backyard astronomy observatory. But in case of a power failure, we can use it in the house.

I hope this info helps someone, somewhere!

Dana.

Dana - After being without power for about four days after Hurricane Floyd hit the northeast a few years ago, I invested in a gasoline generator and a special sub-panel which attaches to my regular power panel. This allows me to run my well, furnace, refrigerator, lights, etc. A total of 10 circuits in my house. The total cost at the time was just over $2,000, including the cost of an electrician to install the sub-panel.

I have never heard of "The Eliminator" here in the States. Must have some kick butt batteries in it to last two days. Did you say it would run an electric space heater for two days, or did you mean a kerosene space heater with The Eliminator powering lights and such? Can you tell us the name of the company that makes it, or better yet, a web site? I tried Googling it with no luck. I don't need it for the house, but I'm thinking ahead to "pond back-up."

By the way, I was at some business meetings in October in Vancouver and Whistler. Some really gorgeous country in BC! The sea-to-sky highway was spectacular, as was a day trip over to Lilooet.

Dennis

I think I found it: Eliminator Powerbox

However, it won't accept my zipcode so I'm not sure if they ship to the US.

Great idea, though! My dh has been looking for something like that to run all of our computers when have a P/O. We have a generator for the big stuff.

Lisa

You sound like you are well equipped! The powerbox is to plug things with plugs, so it couldn't run things off a panel. I was talking about a plug-in space heater. Although we've never had to use it for that purpose, i do know that it can run the whole observatory (lights, computer, stereo, clock and telescope) for two days. Plus we can continually charge it with the solar panel. Essentially, the observatory is "off the grid". Eventually, we'd like to convert the whole house to solar power.

Check the Canadian Tire website to get the details about the products - i think that it would work well for a pond back-up.

I love BC too! i live on the opposite end from where you were visiting, but i've been on the sea-to-sky hwy many times. Here's a funny story - when we were younger, my sister thought that the hwy was some sort of aborigial name, like "Seetasky" or something. It wasn't until we were adults that she one day said OH! Sea to Sky! Now I get it! I still make fun of her for that!

Dana.

Try this link for a product review:
http://www.vegetarianbaby.com/products/solarproducts2.shtml

I hope it works!

Dana.

Found an even better one!

http://www2.canadiantire.ca/CTenglish/pdf/...ns_guide_en.pdf