Power Cuts

[alfiethetortoise]

Winter is approaching. The village next to us had it's first power cut. Then i went into momantary panic. We often get power cuts over winter, anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days. Sometimes a lot, sometimes once or twice....

So my question is, is anyone else already prepared for power cuts tortoise wise? And what can be done?

Obviously, my lamp and light wouldn't work. As i am overwintering Alfie, i dont want him to go into some hibernation sue to cold weather (and it is already getting cold, two frosts this week).

 

[Yvonne G]

If you only have one or two tortoises and they live indoors its a good idea to have some of these on hand:

http://www.heatmax.com/HotHands/products.htm

Yvonne

 

[alfiethetortoise]

Hand warmers, genious. And its safe to put them around the enclosure? Thanks for the tip!

 

[Isa]

I have hand warmers in case something happen, I also have a generator, our winter are very cold.

 

[Laura]

We have a generator.. two acutally . One for the house that can run the fridge and the tv and one for the barn.

 

[Stephanie Logan]

I have hand warmers in case something happen, I also have a generator, our winter are very cold.

Hi Isa,
I've seen a few posts by you declaring how cold the winters are where you live. Just curious, what state/country do you hail from?

 

[Isa]

I live in Montreal (city) in the province of Quebec in Canada. The month of January and February are the coldest. Even if I have a generator, I am always scared to lose the power during the coldest months. I always hated it when it is cold, you know when you go out and it is not even 5 minutes that you are outside and your ears, hands and feet are burning because it is too cold even if you are wearing winter boots, gloves and winter hat

 

[Stephanie Logan]

Yes, I know exactly. Even though we live in Denver, Colorado, it does get cold and windy! The older I get, the more painful the cold is, especially to my hands! (BTW, we lived just 50 miles south of Montreal, in Plattsburgh, NY, for a few months in the 80s. A beautiful area.

 

[alfiethetortoise]

Generators, now i am not sure how i even go about getting one of those.... Is there such a thing as something like a car battery, than you can put plugs into? Maybe i am sounding complety stupid at this point, but electrics, wiring and things are not my forte.

We live in the Lake District. Winters are cold, but perhaps not as cold as i am imagining it is in canada. Most days are hard frost from Nov-Feb. The Village runs on two circits. As i am fairly central, my power is always recconnected fastest. We always have gas, its only the power that sometimes cuts out.

 

[Isa]

Generators, now i am not sure how i even go about getting one of those.... Is there such a thing as something like a car battery, than you can put plugs into? Maybe i am sounding complety stupid at this point, but electrics, wiring and things are not my forte.

We live in the Lake District. Winters are cold, but perhaps not as cold as i am imagining it is in canada. Most days are hard frost from Nov-Feb. The Village runs on two circits. As i am fairly central, my power is always recconnected fastest. We always have gas, its only the power that sometimes cuts out.

I think generators only works with gas but I am not 100% sure about it.

 

[Traveller]

We are cold here from mid October to April. Snow on the ground to stay
mid. November.
We have a woodstove that we heat with and just bought an
XPower Powerpack 300 for emergency power whwn the power goes out.
Not sure how long it lasts before having to be recharged, I
am still getting acquainted with it.
I run a couple fish tanks and primarily bought it for that use,
but it will run lights and heaters as well.

 

[Isa]

Yes, I know exactly. Even though we live in Denver, Colorado, it does get cold and windy! The older I get, the more painful the cold is, especially to my hands! (BTW, we lived just 50 miles south of Montreal, in Plattsburgh, NY, for a few months in the 80s. A beautiful area.

You lived in Plattsburgh! Cool, your winters must be warmer in Colorado Tomorrow, My fiance and I are going shopping in Burlington Vermont I love the store kols but there are only in the USA

 

[Traveller]

Generators, now i am not sure how i even go about getting one of those.... Is there such a thing as something like a car battery, than you can put plugs into? Maybe i am sounding complety stupid at this point, but electrics, wiring and things are not my forte.

We live in the Lake District. Winters are cold, but perhaps not as cold as i am imagining it is in canada. Most days are hard frost from Nov-Feb. The Village runs on two circits. As i am fairly central, my power is always recconnected fastest. We always have gas, its only the power that sometimes cuts out.

I think generators only works with gas but I am not 100% sure about it.

You can buy generators here in Canada that run on gas or diesel.
Diesel fuel usually being quite a bit cheaper.

 

[Isa]

You can buy generators here in Canada that run on gas or diesel.
Diesel fuel usually being quite a bit cheaper.

Thanks for the info The one I have works with gas.

 

[tortoisenerd]

It burns up the fuel and you can plug a few things into them. They start at a few hundred dollars last time I looked, and the more you spend the more you can plug into it and other features.

I want one really badly for Trevor. We get ice storms here that have been known to knock out power for up to a week. Haven't had one yet since we've moved here, but this is our second winter (Western Washington has two seasons--road construction and winter, lol). Thankfully we have a wood burning fireplace so we'd probably be ok for a bit as we could put Trevor in a plastic tub and put him near that. Hand warmers as well but those wouldn't be very easy to use.