Power outages

[Darklingstorm]

I see a lot of posts about power outages and the loss of eggs. Why not use UPS (uninterruptable power supply)? My hubby is a big time computer geek and all of our computers are on UPSs. They make a lot of noise when the power goes out and can last up to (depending on the power usage) an hour or more. We have saved a lot of computers from power surges, lightening strikes and power outages using them. I plan on putting my incubator on one when we use it.
I know the price is kind of step (around $100) but the loss of a whole incubator full of eggs IMO is a lot more.

Anyone else using an UPS on their incubator?

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Power outages short of several hours are harmless. I have had outages up to 24 hours an still had good hatches. A UPS seems useless to me for incubators.

 

[Darklingstorm]

24 hours! really. I didn't know they could go that long. I thought they had to remain at a constant temp. and humidity?
I've never hatched my own and I'm trying to learn as much as I can. Hatching next year so I'm trying to plan way ahead.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Yep, my longest outage was 24 hours with the incubator out in the cold. Hatch rate was down but most still hatched. I don't sweat outages any more.

 

[rickerra]

Quote:
It's not a bad idea... if you have one. It would be a great use for it and it would work fine. A simple incubator wouldn't draw as much power as a full size computer and it could power it for hours... depending on the UPS battery size.

To buy one just for your incubator? That seems a little excessive. A UPS costs more than a nice incubator... a lot more than a homemade incubator. Most power outages are only for a couple hours (usually) and most incubators/eggs can handle that amount of interruption without much worry.

As for the price/worth of a whole incubator full of eggs... that's different for everybody. An endangered/rare-bird breeder where every egg could mean the survival of a breed... eggs are valuable. The folks trying to hatch Trader Joe store bought fertile eggs... probably not so much.

And many folks living in outage prone areas (like me)... already have generators.

Cheers!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I think A good generator is probably around the same price.