Power outages and koi question

[MikeM]

Jungle, I don't want to hear about it. Much too depressing to think about....but I'm not ready to move anywhere else!

[junglegeorge12]

lol-nothing depressing about it mike, just means you get to do more remodeling, landscaping, and home upgrades and take a week or two off of work every time one hits. It aint so bad if you have your own reliable and cheap power source. Think how many flowers you will have excuse to buy!

[MikeM]

Well, Jungle, if not for Charlie, I'd not have my new pond...in fact, I'd likely have never gotten such a pond. It's called diverting one's attention, depression therapy, and many less kind terms. But, with 7 trees gone from our mini-botanical garden, I'm having to learn how to garden with sunlight! It's been enough change for a decade or two. LOL And we did not even come close to the devastation coastal areas have taken the past 2 seasons.

[Regenmeneer]

Scott, I meant that the power company will pay for the stuff gone bad in the freezer when the power shuts down.They probably won't pay for your koi, so you should use the generator on your pond

Regenmeneer

[MikeM]

I am not aware of any power company in the U.S. that would ever compensate for losses caused by a power outage. They think it generous that they do not charge for not using any power during the outage, and don't send a bill for the repair cost.

[junglegeorge12]

You have to buy insurance to cover damages and losses from power failures. They did not sign a contract with you. However, if you have a way to generate mpower that spins your meter backwards, they have to pay you the going rate for supplying it to the grid.

[Regenmeneer]

Mike, the compensation deal is something the government has demanded from the power companies when it all was privatized and let loose on the market. But there are restrictions. Companies are excluded for almost everything, and they only have to pay up if they're at fault.

For example, they are now trying to assess if the power outage in some parts of Holland last month were a result of the power companies not being prepared or if it was lack of maintanance. Compensation also depends on the duration of the power failure. And not everything has to be compensated. Food gone bad can be claimed, but I doubt they would pay for your koi that have died as a result of a power failure.

Regenmeneer

[Rich L]

Whenever I get to feeling sorry for myself I can get out of it by looking at what others have to bear. Hurricanes that devistate entire regions and much, much more. I have it good.

A while back I had a low stocked pond that lost power while I was on vacation. The person I had feeding and watching for problems called a hobbiest friend as I had recommended. He said don't feed them. I got back a week later and dumped the stagnent water in the filters and lines, restarted the system and had no problems.

DON'T OVERSTOCK.

Now I have a 500 watt UPS unit operating the air pump and air is supplied to keep up the oxygen while the power's out. The two batteries will keep it operating for a day or so.

An UPS and a small generator can handle a pond so there are no outages at all as long as you can get to the generator within the amount of time the batteries are designed to handle the load.

If you want to keep a freezer operating, you can pull the generator off the pond every 12 hours, or so to get the freezer back down to an acceptable temperature, then put it back on the pond. Staying out of the freezer will lower the heat infiltration.