Options for maintaining incubator power in case of outage?

[ladyfaeden]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a power source-something I can plug the incubator into, and then into the wall that will give me a battery backup. My husband suggested a USB power source but I was looking at them on amazon and couldn't figure out how long they would give me, I'd love to hear from someone who has actually used one. We have a generator but it has to be turned on manually so I need something to bridge the gap in case we aren't home. I just put some hard to come by eggs in the incubator (silkied ameraucana) and am nervous that one bad wind storm could end my project.

 

[nick123548]

We had one where I used to work. They had the three primary computers hooked to it. We could use those computers for hours after power outages.

 

[jnjross]

you can use a car battery with an inverter. what kind incubator? if you have a 12v, gqf has a battery adapter that clips righ ot the battery

 

[cva34]

you can use a car battery with an inverter. what kind incubator? if you have a 12v, gqf has a battery adapter that clips righ ot the battery

X-2 on that .When you buy the inverter be sure to get one that will handle the load.Will need to know watts used.or amps .should be on tag.Most small inc. don't much.I got one that uses about 100 watts and one that uses 18 watts just as example...cva34

 

[ladyfaeden]

I've a 1588 hovabator. Wouldn't I have to unplug it from the wall and switch it over to the car battery? Or is there a way to hook it up to both and only have it draw off the battery if the electricity is off?

 

[cva34]

I was unaware that the 1588 was a 12vdc machine.I found someplace there is a cord to run it off battery ;GQF # 1729 and a cord to run it off car cig lighter GQF#1730. Just haven't been able to verify if thats true maybe you could run it on battery all time and then have a small battery charger keeping battery up and if power goes out it will just run on battery tell power comes on and starts rechargeing battery.Not sure if it will work but I think it will and of course some one can modify something that I missed...cva34

 

[debs_flock]

Hook up to a car cigarette lighter (just bought one for my car trip on Saturday, so I can take the incubator along. Yes, I know it would have probably been fine during the week I'll be gone).

https://www.gqfmfg.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=100

Hook up to a car battery.

https://www.gqfmfg.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=289

Deb

 

[Arielle]

I'm not very knowledgeable about electrical things But I did have the experience of dealing with 5 days of no power and an incubator full of eggs.

I was worried that with Irene racing north we would loose power. Normally I can cope with such things, but I had special eggs in the incubator. So DH bought an adaptor to plug into the car . However, the car would need to be run every 2-3 hours and that seemed like a very long night sleeping in the car and running it periodically.

We opted to move the incubator to another location that did have power. So DH drove to work with the incubator and hatched the eggs at work. He became very attached to those chicks!

My point: I didn't run the generator all day, rather a few hours at a time. And the adaptor for the car was also only good for a few hours at a time. I have incubated several batches of eggs, and I only had a problem with power outage once. Success favors the prepared. GL

 

[groundpecker]

You can buy a computer back-up power supply at a computer store. They are called UPS. It is a device that you plug in the wall, then plug your PC in to it. It should keep a low wattage bator operating for hours depending on the model.

I have a battery back up system consisting of 3 x 110 AH deep cycle batteries from my boat and a 12v converter. This setup can keep my whole hatch/booder room powered up for about 2 days when in full operation. 2 bators, 250 watts of bulbs and air filter system. I also have a generator, but usually the power is back on within a few hours.

 

[sager:)silkies]

i have one to they work great it ca keep my bator goin for a long time dont even know yet ive had power go out for a day and it was still runnin like a champ