I keep a panther chameleon in a screen enclosure here in Boise, and our neighborhood has had a couple of short outages this winter. My misting pump runs on a timer, and I started looking at portable power stations as a backup for the pump and the heat lamp. I came across a small solar generator model while comparing capacities online, but I'm unsure how long it would realistically run a misting setup before needing a recharge, and whether the heat side is even worth trying to back up for anything beyond a few hours. I don't want to overspend on capacity I won't use, but I also don't want to be caught with a dry enclosure mid-day. Has anyone here actually run a mister or basking light off a small power station during an outage? What capacity worked for you, and did you bother with solar panels?
Keeping a chameleon enclosure powered during outages — how much backup do I need?
- Thread starter johnbrown
- Start date
Carlton
Chameleon Enthusiast
Operative word here is "short". It isn't going to affect a cham that much to go without power for a few hours, even a couple of days. If the house/cage cools down it will just nap the time away. A healthy cham can easily go without UV exposure for a day or so too. If you're home, you could hand mist if the cage gets too dry, but again, if your cham is cooled down and dozing, probably won't be interested in water either. Assuming you would be home to monitor house temperatures, for power failures less than 48 hours I wouldn't bother with a backup.
