General Care Discussion :: power outage

[marisa]

Yes, I've found it to really work (keeping the tank wrapped and covered).

You could also use a camping stove to heat the water if you find it necessary to heat water (good for making soup in such a situation as well).

[turrbee]

alrightiessss

(thinking that water is an insulator.. in a way?!)

i guess i have to be prepared! just in case there's another one =x

Unfortunately water is not an insulator. Water dissipates heat/cold much quicker than air. A good example of this is if you ever need to thaw meat quickly, just put the meat in a pan of lukewarm water on your counter. It will be thawed WAY quicker (less than an hour for 2 lbs of ground beef) than if you just put it dry on your counter, which could take up to 4 hours to thaw all the way thru.

I could get really technical with the scientific details of why this happens, but I will spare you all today!

Kristin the Mechanical Engineer

i thought they thaw away cuz the water temp is higher than the ice??
HAHHAHAHAHAH
alright. i won't go there =P

[BullDog]

Hmm... That's a very interesting point I never even thought about! The power went out here for about 18 hours last year, and not once did I think of my turt (besides throwing him his usual kibbles for dinner)... However, my house is heated by gas and we also have a fireplace, so the air temp never went below 18 or 19, so I suppose the water temp wouldn't have gone down much either...
I have noticed that with the -20 weather we've been having this week the heater has been on a lot more than usual... I'm glad I got a 300 Watt heater for my bday!