*RESPONSES NEEDED* What to do during power outage with no enclosure heat?

[MaxGen]

I remember that ice storm, we were without power for 3 days with temperatures reaching well into the negative teens Celsius.

I didn't have my frog then either, I jut got him this fall. That ice storm was on my mind the whole time. If it happens again, I have several heat packets like the kind people use to ship reptiles with on hand, as well as the kind people use for skiing, which are a bit shorter lasting. That's mainly for shorter outages.

I also have a powerful UPS I brought home from work for the winter that is fully charged and ready to connect in a longer emergency. I don't run it full time because the one I have is quite loud. A PC friendly UPS would probably be quieter. How well this will work with the ambient temperature of the room getting so low I don't know, but it's the best plan I could come up with.

Whatever you do, don't use a combustible heat source such as a barbecue.

[MichielB]

I also have a powerful UPS I brought home from work for the winter that is fully charged and ready to connect in a longer emergency. I don't run it full time because the one I have is quite loud. A PC friendly UPS would probably be quieter. How well this will work with the ambient temperature of the room getting so low I don't know, but it's the best plan I could come up with.

I was thinking an UPS would be the solution too, but in my calculations I run short. UPS's are meant to give a pc user the time to save data and shut down during a blackout and as far as I know, the expensive ones got about 180 Wh of power. If your heat lamp is 50 W, that's 3,6 hours of heating. If you've got a substrate heater of 8 W, it's 22,5 hours. If the room temperature comes close to zero, I don't think it'll be enough to heat your tank for 12 hrs/day. You'd probably have to heat non-stop.

Perhaps you could use an UPS and substrate heater if the blackout takes a day.

[MichielB]

In this thread Americans and Canadians recommend blankets, hot water (if gas is still available) and heat packs.

I'm glad the Netherlands have a temperate sea climate and blackouts are very rare (I've never experienced a blackout that took more than a few hours).