How many people here are prepared for an emergency?

wooddustmaker said:

with the pellet stove, you may be better off to buy a couple of deep cycle batteries, and a cheap inverter. Much quieter than a generator, and should run the stove for a while. It would cost much less to run than a generator as well. You could recharge the batteries off of the generator while you were running the pump.

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Now there's some good advice!

Back in Oct. '10 we had a preseason snowstorm when most of the trees still had their leaves. It was not pretty. For heat we were running a Hotblast 1400 wood furnace. It has a blower that pushes the air through the ductwork. It seemed like such a waste to run the genny for just the blower. I already had 2 deep cycle batteries and a small 400w inverter. I hooked up one of the batteries and plugged the blower into the inverter, which said it was drawing +/- 20w. One fully charged battery ran for about 16 hours. When it got too low the inverter shut off. I put the other one on then charged the first while I was running the genny for the fridge and freezer. Did this for 3 days until the power came back on.

I don't know anything about pellet stoves but if they draw less than 100w, batteries may be a viable option.

Pretty prepared, we think.

We've weathered a couple of blizzards so far this winter (power has been out a lot, though not for long at any stretch), plus we helped others during the local flood last summer, so we have a pretty good idea how well we'd do in a local natural disaster.

Lots of food, available water, first aid and other supplies. Feeling pretty blessed in our little house actually

Preparedness is really important, no matter how small or huge it is. You at least have to know what to do in times of emergency. I realized this when the Typhoon Haiyan hit my home country, the Philippines. Any preparation is really better than nothing.

kittiekat are you in the Phillipines now? That was a very bad storm.

Unclejoe, the pellet stoves that I have draw less than 100 watts. A small, cheap 400 watt inverter should easily run one. As a side note, you can still get heat from a pellet stove if you don't have pellets. You cau burn small chunks of wood, but you have to be watching, and feeding the fire a lot. Hardwoods burn longer than softwoods. If I was low on pellets, I would burn them at night, and throw small pieces in the stove during the day.

We will never know what we are prepared for, unless it happens. The bad thing is that we never know what will hit us, but the good thing is that many types of prepardness cross over, and cover many different things.

wooddustmaker said:

An emergency can consist of many different things. How ready are you for what may come your way? Any thoughts, any discussions about this? Anything that you have experienced lately that makes you think anything differently?

I am always up for discussion on this topic. Anyone else in the same boat?

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Having lived for years in a non-electric home, getting along without an active infrastructure is pretty much second nature to me now. One thing I have noticed is that there seems to be more power outages now than years ago and that they last longer.
Staying warm, having a way to prepare meals, a source of potable water and first aid supplies/drugs are critical. It is important that everyone have a backup plan as no area is immune to emergencies.

How's everyone doing in this cold snap?

Wishing it would warm up!

Freezing! Well I was outside anyway. The Wind is rising so loud I can hear it over the stove. We brought the horses I'm and sealed up all the open doorways and the barn is fairly cozy with all 5 of then in there. Just going nothing bad happens in this wind.
Stay warm yall!

Hope everyone fairs well.

Keep a list of the problems, or the things you would do differently in the same situation. It may help be a leg up for the next time.