Incubators and Power Outages

[CSMGecko]

I have had a couple power outages at my house due to weather and wind. One in particular lasted a quite a long time, over an hour. Fortunately I didn't have any eggs incubating at the time but now that I have eggs incubating and more on their way, I am a little concerned.

What does everyone do during a power outage?

I was actually thinking of a battery backup that plugs into the wall and charges all the time and supplements power during the outage. The problem I have reached is that I cannot find one. Does anyone know of a reasonably priced battery backup as described? I can really only find gas powered generators and such.

Thanks for the help,
Cory
CSM Gecko

 

[sdheli420]

well i have a modded exo terra incubator, and since it has a 12volt hookup i can use a car battery, that will keep it running for about 35 hours or so..a generator would be a great fail safe (honda makes a pretty reliable, quiet, and affordable small generators)

most likley only need all of that if you have more than just one incubator going..

 

[CSMGecko]

I have up to 3 incubators running depending on what I am after temp wise, as I breed Leopard Geckos, Pictus Geckos, Carpet Chams, and Panther Chams. I really don't want to spend a ton of money on a generator that I won't use except for this, especially since if the power goes out why I am gone it won't do much good.

The problem I am running into is that most of the battery backups I have found state they only last about 3 mins at max capacity. Since I am guessing I have up about 200watts possible, then a 400watt backup would only last 10mins. I guess I need to know if someone has used any backup for an incubator and how long they really last, to see if it is worth it.

Using a car battery if need be might be a good alternative for if I am at home. I know home depot sells sockets that aren't connected to anything on the end which I guess I could connect the wires to battery nodes. But once again if the power goes out when I am not at home then it probably wouldn't do much good by the time I got home.