How often do you lose power where you live and

[DawnM]

what do you do/what do you have to work around it?

 

Last night we lost power for several hours due to a storm.  The neighbors had power (we could see their lights) and I assume they have a generator as our entire area was out.

 

We rounded up all the candles we could for light.  We only had 4.  Our water is from a well and our pump doesn't work without power, so DH was going to go get buckets to fill from the pool to help flush toilets.  And we had bottled water to drink.

 

But the power came on before we needed to get concerned about the above.

 

We have considered getting a generator, but just haven't ever done it.  We don't lose power that often.

 

 

[Lady Florida.]

Rarely. We get severe thunderstorms all summer long (we have weather warnings almost weekly in the summer) and often have power bumps where it blinks off then right back on. But losing power for more than a minute or two? Hardly ever. The only time that happens is when we have a tropical storm or hurricane, and even then it's not a given that we'll lose power.

[Roadrunner]

When we have a storm or a tree down. Maybe once a year? We have camping lamps we once got at Costco  that run on batteries, and two of those light up my living room beautifully. Luckily I have a gas stove, so food is never an issue. And I don't believe we had issues with water either tied to electricity. 

[Ali in OR]

We do not lose power often and it's usually back up pretty quickly--within a few hours. Power lines in our newer neighborhood are underground, so if it goes out it's usually trees falling elsewhere in a high wind situation or a bird flying into generating equipment.

 

We have lots of candles. We have city water still available when power is out and we have a gas fireplace for heat in winter (and we're much more likely to lose it in winter).

[wonderchica]

Hardly ever. It might blink but that's it. The power lines in my neighborhood are underground. In the past year, we only lost power during Hurricane Matthew. It was out for 3 or 4 days.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Rarely.  It's only a major problem in winter.  Usually we sit in the dark and feel sorry for ourselves.  LOL

[ealp2009]

I think we lose it once a month or so. It seemed like a lot more often until we got a generator. I am glad we have the generator because otherwise my husband would have to go to work every time we lost power.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lady Florida.]

. Power lines in our newer neighborhood are underground, s

 

 

 The power lines in my neighborhood are underground. 

 

Ours are underground as well, but the lines leading to our neighborhood are above ground. During the 2004 hurricane season big, mature trees took out the power lines at the entrance to our subdivision and we all lost power. Those trees that haven't been removed are now routinely trimmed so we haven't had that problem since Hurricane Frances.

[Tanaqui]

Pretty much never. We lost power during Sandy, and during the 2003 blackout. And I think we had a 30 minute stretch without lights last year which was just five houses on my block - literally next door wasn't affected, but we were.

[Selkie]

Very rarely, maybe once or twice a year for a short time, but we have a generator just in case there is ever a lengthy power outage. We live far out in the country and our well requires electricity, so we got a generator that can power the well and a good portion of our house. We used to live in NY state and once went a week without power after an ice storm, and I am never doing that again! 

[wonderchica]

Ours are underground as well, but the lines leading to our neighborhood are above ground. During the 2004 hurricane season big, mature trees took out the power lines at the entrance to our subdivision and we all lost power. Those trees that haven't been removed are now routinely trimmed so we haven't had that problem since Hurricane Frances.

Yeah, we were one of the hardest hit areas with Matthew in October. No one in a several county radius had power for days, regardless of where "your" lines were. Water was out longer, and then not safe to drink for even longer. No bueno.

[Arcadia]

It is rare and most times it was in the afternoon and we won't home at those times. We have tap lights in the bathroom because that room does not have windows so no street lights or corridor (condo) lights. The outside lights are strong enough for our bedroom, dining room, kitchen and living room. Mine is a gas stove and our supply water isn't affected by power outage.

 

We do keep the refrigerator door close though while power is down.

 

The only thing we won't have is internet. Once the power was down because the contractor for our condo's repair works tripped the condo mains. I ended up sending an SMS to my husband to let him know since SMS is cheaper than data on our prepaid plan.

[Carol in Cal.]

3-4 times per year, for maybe half a day or so.

I have lots of candles, LOTS.  I can find them by feel in the dark, and matches, too.

Also we keep a big flashlight in a kitchen door when I can find it by feel as well.  I've been thinking that I should stash one in our bedroom also, maybe in a dresser drawer.

[Tap]

We lose power a couple times per year, but only a few minutes to a few hours.  We are in the PNW so our weather is pretty mild 80% of the year. 

 

We only do the basics:

 

Don't open the fridge or freezer.

City water works fine with no electricity.

We have candles and flashlights.  We try to not use the cell phones for flashlights to preserve the batteries.

We unplug all electronics so when the power comes on so there isn't a surge going through them.

We have no heat (gas furnace with electric  blower) so we try to preserve what we can.  ie don't go in and out of the house. 

 

 

One time we had the power out long enough to start to melt the items in the freezer.  It was winter and freezing. We were just going to move the contents outside if that happened.  It cam back on within 24 hours, so we didn't need to. The electricity had came back on a couple of times, so we were able to heat the house back up before it went back off.  It got cold in the house, but nothing extreme. 

 

 

 

I actually love it when the power goes out.  We live in the city and I love how quiet it gets. It is amazing how much ambient noise we listen to each day. 

 

[lavender's green]

We get a lot of summer thunderstorms and occasionally they make the power blip out for a moment. I've lived here for six years and can think of only one or two times where it was off for maybe a half hour. The lines where I am are all underground, but I know of other places nearby where they're above-ground and a lot more susceptible to storms and downed trees. A friend who lives about 15 minutes away lost her power for several days earlier this year, so it really varies.

 

I grew up in an area with severe winter storms and above-ground lines. We happened to live just down the road from the power plant, so we usually got power back earlier than others, but we still occasionally slept in the RV with the generator hooked up. I remember my relatives just a couple miles away being without power for days or weeks at a time occasionally. We all had well water, which requires electricity to pump, so it was really difficult for them. They'd come to our house to shower and have a hot meal. I can't remember exactly how often we lost power, but it was definitely more than where I live now.

[SKL]

It doesn't happen super often here, maybe once a quarter, and it usually only lasts a very short time.  There are exceptions though - maybe once every two or three years it will be out long enough to impact fridge food etc.

 

Because it isn't very frequent here, we don't really do anything to plan for it.  If we have a long outage, we adjust meal planning so we don't lose food.

[bettyandbob]

Almost never.

 

Occasionally (once a year) lights will flicker in a storm, but we don't loose power for even a minute.

 

We lost power several years ago because someone drove into a transformer box near my home.

 

Our power lines are all buried. When oldest was little and wanted to understand electricity and circuits I had to drive to the next town to show him overhead power lines similar to a book we'd read.

[luuknam]

The longest we've lost power since moving to WNY is something like an hour. I think we've lost power on average once a year. A few days ago we lost power for 5 seconds. Which was a pain because the router took 3 minutes to have us online again, and we had to reset the clocks on the microwave and stove. That's the only time we've lost power since our move a month and half ago - my wife says that in some areas if a power grid breaker flips it automatically resets a few times before just leaving everybody without power, so maybe that's the case here? Anyway, at our previous house in WNY we've lost power for like (not in this order) 5min, 10min, 20min, 25min, and about an hour (not entirely sure how long, since we ended up going to the store).

 

We obviously don't do anything about it. We have candles and flashlights (battery-powered and handcrank) etc, but no generator or w/e (we have an inverter we can hook up to the car, but that was because at first we didn't have power at our house in TX). 

Edited July 14, 2017 by luuknam

[luuknam]

Oh, and we have a weather radio that can run on batteries or handcrank (iirc... I need to a) find it since it's AWOL since the move, and b) try it out (and yes, I know I should've done the latter years ago)). Also, we have two unused gas heaters (also from TX), so we could take the bigger one and unhook the stove and hook it up to the stove's gas line, if we were snowed in without power for an extended amount of time. I also have some bottled water, but the water should keep working without power. 

Edited July 14, 2017 by luuknam

[TravelingChris]

We have lived here six years and have only had a power outage lasting a few hours.  However, just before we moved here, April 27, 2011, the super tornado day,  our city lost power for about a week because the giant power towers in another nearby area were torn down from our power source- a nearby nuclear power plant.  We do have a generator but while we could use it for a few items, it isn't a whole house generator.  My dh uses it more for woodworking I think when he has to use more than one high energy use power tool. Some of his tools are on higher power so can only be plugged into our outlet for laundry machines or on the generator. If he uses one, he unplugs the dryer. If he uses two, he also has to use the generator. 

 

My plan if power is out like it was in 2011 before we moved is probably to go away since water also needs power and all services need power too.  We do store water but not that much for a week.

[Mom22ns]

We're fairly rural, but we almost never lose power. If we do, we all have laptops and cell phones that keep us in technology for hours. It has been years since we've been out of power longer than that. We have a fireplace that keeps us warm enough if a winter storm takes out the power, we have candles and a oil lamp for light. I've always loved having the power go off, but it just doesn't happen any more. 

[Cinder]

We've been here over 10 years and rarely lose power--even in really big storms. I think the longest we went without power was 3 hours? When we do lose power it's usually only a minute or so; that happens about once or twice a year. We're much more likely to lose cable/internet service--that happens about every other month. :glare:

[luuknam]

My plan if power is out like it was in 2011 before we moved is probably to go away

 

 

On my wishlist for potential power outages I still have snow shoes for at least one adult, because you cannot walk *through* 6 feet of snow. Luckily, when this area got crazy snow a couple of years ago, we only got a couple of inches, but since we moved, we probably should get some snowshoes in case of another snowmageddon.

[RegGuheert]

We have considered getting a generator, but just haven't ever done it.  We don't lose power that often.

It seems you last thought about this in January.  :)

 

Here's our plan that I posted then:

Heat:

- Air-source heat pump: Strictly grid-tied. I do not even have this set up to run from the generator.

- Wood pellet stove: We used to heat the entire house for the winter with this unit, but the price of pellets has doubled and we now have net-metered photovoltaic electricity that cover our heat pump's consumption. The fans and auger only consume about 120W of electricity when operating.

 

Cooking:

- Everything is electric except we have a propane cooktop (and a propane oven which draws about 300W for its igniter).

 

Water:

- We have a well pumped by a 1/2 HP submersible. The pump is 240VAC, but I added an autotransformer after the pressure switch to allow it to be run from 120VAC if needed. It has a high starting surge, but only draws about 1000VA when operating.

 

Hot Water:

- We have a heat-pump water heater that only draws 600W when running. It is also 240VAC, but I do not have it set up to run from 120VAC through an autotransformer since we sometimes (but rarely) use the 4.5kW resistive heaters. I have a couple of autotransformers kicking around here, so I certainly could wire it for 120V if needed.

 

Dryer:

- We have BOTH a propane dryer AND an electric dryer. We used to use propane when the house was off-grid, but I switched it for an electric unit when we decided to move to a grid-tied arrangement. The propane unit could be switched in if needed for emergencies (or we could simply hang the clothes to dry).

 

Electricity:

- Our house is powered by grid electricity with just over 100% of our consumption offset by net-metered, grid-tied PV.

- We have a 6500VA Honda generator which is connected to run everything except our heat pump and our electric double oven. It can simultaneously run the wood pellet stove, the well pump, the water heater and charge the LEAF.

- We have 800Ah (nameplate) of 12V AGM batteries. I got them for free because they were badly sulfated down to only 200Ah of capacity. My little BatteryMinder 1500 is dutifully pounding away on them to try to recover their capacity. Last time I tested them, they were up to 300Ah! Since there's no hurry, I just let that thing continue to do its work of recovering capacity.

- To go with the 12V batteries, we have a 2000VA Outback inverter that puts out 120VAC. This should be able to run any of the loads which the generator is connected to, although I have not tested it with the surges of the well pump or water heater yet. The most important load for these batteries is the pellet stove, which it should be able to run for a day with the current capacity of the batteries or three days if they ever get fully desulfated.

- In a pinch, I could rewire one or more PV panels to charge the 12V batteries.

- Then there is the Nissan LEAF. I have a couple of 120VAC inverters which work with it. Since there is a fridge and deep freeze in the garage, those are its primary loads, but I have used it to run the pellet stove in the past, since it is easy to set up.

 

Also, here are my tips for generator safety:

 

 

For all those with generators, remember to stock up on spark plugs--they foul quickly!

Good tip!  Here are a couple more:

 

1) Always use ethanol-free gasoline in your generator.  Ethanol is a very strong solvent AND it fouls your spark plugs quickly.  If you don't know where to find ethanol-free gasoline, go to this web site.  Unfortunately, ethanol-free gasoline is not available everywhere.

2) Add Sea Foam to your fuel gasoline to help keep it from going stale.  Sea Foam is available at most auto parts stores and at places like Wal-Mart.

3)  Run your generator every couple of months.  There are several reasons for this:  a) It moves the fuel out of the carburator to keep it from gumming up, b) It helps keep the magnets magnetized, which are needed to provide spark to the plugs, c) It helps to keep the spark plugs from fouling, and d) It recharges the generator's battery, if it has one.  (It's really best to recharge the battery from a high-quality trickle charger occasionally.)

4)  Replace (or use) all the fuel at least once a year.

5)  Make sure to NEVER run in the garage.  You need an extension cord long enough to ensure that your generator is not putting exhaust into the garage.  (Unfortunately, extension cords for larger generators are expensive!)

6)  Ensure that you cannot backfeed electricity to the grid.  Many people feed generator power in through a dryer plug.  If you do this and forget to turn off your main breaker before firing up your generator, you will be trying to energize the entire grid.  This will likely overload your generator, but, more importantly, it will put dangerous high voltages out onto the grid while linemen are out there working.  (The transformer that steps down the voltage coming to your house steps it UP when power flows the other direction.)  It is best to have a transfer switch or a breaker panel with two interlocked mains that prevents this from ever happening.

 

Not to self:  Self, you need to do some of the items above!

[Alessandra]

We used to lose power for several days to a week or more. It happened at least three years in a row -- Irene, Sandy, freak October snowstorm, March windstorm, and other events whose names I have forgotten. One year we had two separate week-long outages. The the utility company was forced to spend $$$ and prune around utility lines. Who would have thought tree limbs brushing against power lines could be a problem?!?

 

We were basically ok. We had water, also hot water, but no heat. Gas burners on top of stove could be lit. I remember once turning a roast leg of lamb in the oven into a braised leg in a stovetop Le Creuset. Gas was often in very short supply, and supermarket shelves got sparser, but never empty.

 

What we did:

Camping lanterns, the type that use AA or AAA batteries, last much longer than C or D battery type.

Flashlights, ditto on the batteries

Camping headlamps, invaluable for cooking, as you get light where you need it

Sleeping bags

Hot water bottles

Long underwear day and night, other warm clothes

Charged phone with solar charger, driving around in car, or going to charging station in local police station

 

I never stoked up freezer, because I did have to discard food.

 

We camp a lot and we were ok. Probably most people we know had generators, portable or underground. Or stayed in hotels.

 

I am glad we did not invest in a generator, as long outages have ceased.

 

ETA

If house is cold, open cabinets under water pipes, keep water dripping, to prevent freezing pipes.

 

I also had a rule that I was the only one allowed to open refrigerator, kids take too long. If you think there might be a blackout, good to fill refrigerator with water bottles -- keeps things colder.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Alessandra

[gardenmom5]

we would lose power in big storms - usually because the wind would take down trees up the street that would then take out power lines . . . a builder bought that property a few years ago, cut down all the trees and built several houses.  I don't miss losing power.

 

or a squirrel who isn't careful around the transformer . . .

[Amira]

It's funny you should ask right now. We're in temporary housing right now and the generator died so the power was off this evening. I had to get the laundry from the basement and got lost down there. I couldn't find the stairs because it was totally black and I'd only been down there a few times. I had to get dh to come and talk to me from the top of the stairs so I could find them.

[Alessandra]

we would lose power in big storms - usually because the wind would take down trees up the street that would then take out power lines . . . a builder bought that property a few years ago, cut down all the trees and built several houses. I don't miss losing power.

 

or a squirrel who isn't careful around the transformer . . .

PSA

If squirrels use power lines to get on you roof;

 

https://www.critterguard.org

[luuknam]

Cooking:

- Everything is electric except we have a propane cooktop (and a propane oven which draws about 300W for its igniter).

 

Water:

- We have a well pumped by a 1/2 HP submersible. The pump is 240VAC, but I added an autotransformer after the pressure switch to allow it to be run from 120VAC if needed. It has a high starting surge, but only draws about 1000VA when operating.

 

 

We have a small camping stove we could use if our gas stove were to be unhooked to hook up a gas heater, but it wouldn't last long, cooking for 4 people (especially if we were to bother boiling snow for water). I have some tablets for water purification too though, and I think my wife got some small water filter like life straw, and we have a slow cooker that we could run with the inverter hooked up to the car, which we try to keep at least half full of gas (that said, we'd obvious have to shovel enough snow to make it safe to run the car). We used to have an electric wok and a rice cooker too, but not sure what happened to those... I think we don't have them anymore. We should have a coffee maker too somewhere (again for the inverter). 

 

Lots of blankets, some sleeping bags, some tarps and the plastic used for transporting our mattress in, duct tape so we could seal off part of the house (wouldn't be very insulating, but it would keep the warm air from just going through the parts that don't have doors separating them). Actually, we could cut up some cardboard boxes to make it a bit more insulating. 

 

ETA: Or use the kids' mattresses. Which I'd already thought of before, and which would be much more effective. 

Edited July 14, 2017 by luuknam

[Alessandra]

We have a small camping stove we could use if our gas stove were to be unhooked to hook up a gas heater, but it wouldn't last long, cooking for 4 people (especially if we were to bother boiling snow for water). I have some tablets for water purification too though, and I think my wife got some small water filter like life straw, and we have a slow cooker that we could run with the inverter hooked up to the car, which we try to keep at least half full of gas (that said, we'd obvious have to shovel enough snow to make it safe to run the car). We used to have an electric wok and a rice cooker too, but not sure what happened to those... I think we don't have them anymore. We should have a coffee maker too somewhere (again for the inverter).

 

Lots of blankets, some sleeping bags, some tarps and the plastic used for transporting our mattress in, duct tape so we could seal off part of the house (wouldn't be very insulating, but it would keep the warm air from just going through the parts that don't have doors separating them). Actually, we could cut up some cardboard boxes to make it a bit more insulating.

 

ETA: Or the kids' mattresses. Which I'd already thought of before, and which would be much more effective.

For water, Katadyn BeFree is super easy to use, much faster than life straw.

 

https://www.katadyn.com/us/us/14946-8019639-katadyn-beefree-water-filtration-system_usa

[luuknam]

For water, Katadyn BeFree is super easy to use, much faster than life straw.

 

https://www.katadyn.com/us/us/14946-8019639-katadyn-beefree-water-filtration-system_usa

 

 

I'm not entirely sure what she got. I don't think it was the life straw itself, just something like it. 

[3 ladybugs]

We rarely loose power. I think the last time was maybe 3 years ago. Before that it was Sandy (but after the storm... grrr!!!). I would get solar before I would get a gas generator. I just don't like a bunch of explosive gas hanging around my house... I say as I would never get a house without natural gas. 

[G5052]

Our power ALWAYS goes out 2-3 times a year for a day or more. Last summer we were out one time for 2 1/2 days, and then another time in December for 18 hours.. We have above ground power lines all over our area and are extremely vulnerable.

 

I work full-time online, so not having power would mean camping at the local college or Starbucks.

 

DH has critical medical equipment. We are also on a well.

 

We used to have just a generator, but now have a full-house generator. Most of our neighbors have one or the other too. Just how it is...

[PrincessMommy]

At our old house we would lose power about 1x per year...sometimes 2.  We never lost it more than a full 24hrs, IIRC.   We were also on well/septic and had a pool. That made flushing toilets easier.   There were other parts of my county that would lose power at the same time and they would be off for much longer.  They were on city water. I was told that our local electric co gave areas/neighborhoods with well/septic priority over those with city/local water.  Perhaps that is the same with you.  We lived there for almost 20yrs and never got around to buying a generator.  

 

We now live within our city limits and get local water.  We've never lost power for more than a few minutes in the 5.5yrs we've been here.

[gardenmom5]

things we did:  (especially becasue big storms are usually in the winter)

have a wood burning fireplace - and would only burn madrona.  it burns long and hot.  and we just cut down a dead madrona - so, we probably won't need to restock our power outage wood for a long time.

 

got a gas range - we can cook (with a window open) even without power.  just use a match. (the oven is electric - so we can't bake)

we have down comforters - can always add a layer of wool blanket.

 

 

[luuknam]

got a gas range - we can cook (with a window open) even without power. 

 

 

Aren't you married to Reg (who already posted an extensive list)?

 

Anyway, I don't know about propane stoves (which is what Reg said you have), but with natural gas, you can cook without opening a window. 

 

ETA: oops, wrong gardening mom. 

Edited July 14, 2017 by luuknam

[mommyoffive]

Hardly ever. 

 

I think in the last 11 years we have lost power 1 time?   And only for a few minutes. 

[Guest]

We lose it less than we used to, but after a 6 day outage (yes, 6 days) we got a generator, thereby ensure that we would not have another power outage for a few years.

 

DH got it off CraigsList--it is a monster, and it is tied into our electrical system, so we can have both heat and refrigeration.  We can cook.  

 

During the 6 day outage, we ran our gas fireplaces to stay warm--2 days.  The gas bill that month was $1000 or more.  (Usually $250-300.). TWO DAYS.  Good grief.  I'm glad we left town instead.  

[dsmith]

We lose power a few times a year for a half day or less, every other year or so we lose it for 2 - 4 days, and during Sandy we lost power for 17 days. We have inverters for the car so my in-laws can do their breathing treatments. I also have some Goal Zero Escape 150s for various electronics because we have to keep working when the power goes out. Thankfully we still have hot water when it goes out! We do store some water just in case. We have gone to hotels in the past if the weather was too hot for my father-in-law or we were working on a big project. With Sandy we couldn't find a hotel anywhere near us, or the gas to make the trip, but we actually had fun staying home. We were lucky that we didn't have any flooding or damage to our house though. When we can afford it we will get a full house generator hooked up to the gas line. My in-laws need the stair chair to get to bed nowadays, and sometimes I need it too. I also can't function well in the heat, so if we lost power in the summer it would be a major problem for me and for my father-in-law with his breathing issues.

Edited July 14, 2017 by dsmith

[RegGuheert]

Aren't you married to Reg (who already posted an extensive list)?

No, I only married one of the homeschool moms around here who gardens: MomsintheGarden. :001_smile:

[Lanny]

Not very often.  After our house was finished, when we first moved in (March 2004), the power company infrastructure where we live (huge rural subdivision) was much more primitive.  We had a problem occasionally when our house  would have very low voltage. The house next door had normal voltage. Two different circuits.

 

Approximately 6 or 8 (?) years ago, they invested a lot of money and greatly improved the infrastructure and now it is very rare that we have a power failure.

 

We live in an area with extremely frequent Thunderstorms, so there are a lot of Lightning Strikes.

 

The next door neighbors on one side have a Generator and I assume it provides enough to power their lights and their Refrigerator.

 

I'm glad they got your energy restored quickly and that you are OK.  

 

We have our own Transformer in the street, which we had to pay for to get them to install electric power to our house..  I think this was during November 2016 we had a bad issue one night. We were the only house with an issue. Worst case is to be the only house with a problem with electricity, phone or water...   It took almost 24 hours before they got to our house.A big truck got here, about 4 P.M. the next day.  They replaced a little gizmo (a fuse?) up high near our transformer and that fixed the issue. The cool thing is that they have a tool on a long pole they extend and did not need to climb up there to fix that. 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Lanny

[Guest]

Every hurricane, some ice storms. We have food, stove fuel and water to last a week. We don't let the vehicle fuel go so low that we can't get to the nearest city with power...other than the Northeast Blackout of 2003, we have been able to drive to a city with power within 24 hours of the initial power off.

[luuknam]

During the 6 day outage, we ran our gas fireplaces to stay warm--2 days.  The gas bill that month was $1000 or more.  (Usually $250-300.). TWO DAYS.  

 

 

:svengo:

 

How crazy cold does it get where you live, and how huge is your house?! 

 

We used our two gas heaters in our house in north Texas all winter long (well, on the days it was cold enough, which some months would be almost every day). For the record, it does get cold (though not crazy cold)... one time our water line was frozen for a full week, even though we'd left the water dripping (we only heated the bedroom and the living room). We also cooked with gas and had a gas dryer, and I think our gas bill was never over $100.

[luuknam]

No, I only married one of the homeschool moms around here who gardens: MomsintheGarden. :001_smile:

 

 

Oops. But you ARE also married to MomsintheKitchen, MomsintheBedroom, and MomsintheBathroom, right?

 

ETA: and now I just noticed you even have in your signature who you're married to. 

Edited July 14, 2017 by luuknam

[Guest]

You need five candles, at least :)

 

We used to live somewhere that lost power regularly because of wind. I like it, tbh, as long as imminent death isn't a concern. I set up the propane stove and go about life as normal, really.

 

Oh it is a bummer if there's a pile of laundry. I could hand wash if it come to that, but it never has.

[luuknam]

Oh it is a bummer if there's a pile of laundry. I could hand wash if it come to that, but it never has.

 

 

One good reason to stay on top of chores (a sink full of dirty plates isn't great either if for whatever reason you were to somehow lose water, especially in summer).

 

Not that I'm good at that. Working on that though.

[73349]

Our power used to go out all the time. Now it's not so often and not for so long (power company changed owners and upgraded equipment), though still a bit more than when we lived in the Northeast.

 

We don't have a generator and don't plan to get one. We have city water/sewer. Our camping lantern has proven very, very useful, much better than candles (e.g., it's reasonable to let a kid carry it to the bathroom). The stove and heat/AC are electric, but that's about all that would be problematic in less than a day. We have some large battery back-ups for computers and the like. We keep a bit of shelf-stable food on hand (canned soup, canned fruit, peanut butter, jam, matzo crackers [which keep a really long time]).

[Wheres Toto]

 

Anyway, I don't know about propane stoves (which is what Reg said you have), but with natural gas, you can cook without opening a window. 

 

We have a propane stove and don't open windows to cook.  That actually confuses me because it's not a camping stove, it's our primary stove/oven in our kitchen.  I couldn't imagine having to open a window every time we cooked anything.

 

 

One good reason to stay on top of chores (a sink full of dirty plates isn't great either if for whatever reason you were to somehow lose water, especially in summer).

 

Not that I'm good at that. Working on that though.

 

Every time we used to lose power it seemed to happen with a sink full of dishes.   :glare:

 

We used to lose power fairly frequently.  Then between Sandy and Irene, most of the old trees that kept losing limbs came down completely and the power company put in all new wires and poles.   We were getting ready to buy a generator, then didn't when they redid all the wires.  We only lose power maybe once a year for any length of time now.  Usually because of a tree that came down somewhere else or someone driving into a pole.

 

We have a fireplace and a propane stove so we can keep warm and cook.  Our biggest issue is we are on a well and the pump doesn't work without power.  If we are going to be out for any length of time, we have to go somewhere else.

[gardenmom5]

Aren't you married to Reg (who already posted an extensive list)?

 

Anyway, I don't know about propane stoves (which is what Reg said you have), but with natural gas, you can cook without opening a window. 

 

ETA: oops, wrong gardening mom. 

nope . . . not me.

I have natural gas.  I prefer to open a window anyway.  I have an exterior vented exhaust fan.

 

We lose it less than we used to, but after a 6 day outage (yes, 6 days) we got a generator, thereby ensure that we would not have another power outage for a few years.

 

DH got it off CraigsList--it is a monster, and it is tied into our electrical system, so we can have both heat and refrigeration.  We can cook.  

 

During the 6 day outage, we ran our gas fireplaces to stay warm--2 days.  The gas bill that month was $1000 or more.  (Usually $250-300.). TWO DAYS.  Good grief.  I'm glad we left town instead.  

 

so - the inaugural (bill clinton) day storm? or that december one several years ago?   I was without power for SEVEN+ days!!!! then there was the one with 1M customers out of power . . .

I remember one - it was very sunny and nice the next day.  my mother didn't want to be there in the dark, so she wanted me to come get her. . . . . there were power lines on the ground, traffic lights were all out . . . I had to wax extremely creative to get to her apartment - then she said she'd just stay there. :glare: :glare: :glare: :glare:    she had power by afternoon. . . . us . . . it was a week.  ('cause the trees would take out lines on our street.  and since it was <20 customers . . . we were way down the list.  there's a reason I don't mind a developer coming in and cutting down all those trees!)

 

[RegGuheert]

Oops. But you ARE also married to MomsintheKitchen, MomsintheBedroom, and MomsintheBathroom, right?

Yes, but NEVER at the same time. FWIW, those are four VERY different women. :tongue_smilie: