What I learned from the last four days without power

[FarmerChick]

one thing I learned without power for 5 days (way back when I first moved in my home, like 15 yrs ago) and NO I WAS not prepared back then....my fish froze.
in the tank.

On day 4 I drove to my moms. I couldn't take it. freezing in the house so off I went forgetting about the fish. all belly up when I came home


just throwing that out for some reason cause it was the one thing I hated to see happen when I got home. of course now I have all provisions but just telling people with fish tanks be aware

 

[Hinotori]

I don't want to sound too dense.....I'm from the deep south and I've only gone thru about 7 hard freezes in my 46 years and I've seen very little snow in my years as well. I understand about outages though because hurricanes can be devastating. What I am confused about is the freezer and refrigerator isssues. Couldn't a shelf be emptied in a shed and all the contents of the freezer be put there? Couldn't an ice chest be partially filled with ice to keep the refrigerator food good? I mean here refrigeration is a major issue during outages....2nd by AC, because it will get hot and muggy (we used our AC today). But for other things that really don't require much electricity anyway, like lights, radios, tvs (unless you have a huge one with lots of extras attached to it), I would think some standby battery power might be useful.
I have a whole house generator and a small generator....well kinda small; its a 13 HP. Smaller than the whole house anyway. Its nice to be able to live as usual, so I'm with you. I just don't get it exactly because we have completely different weather extremes.

I filled an ice chest with snow and put the fridge stuff in it. We have plenty of ice chests. It was not a reliable temperature to put frozen out in the shed. Best to keep the freezer closed. Wrap blankets if you can. It will last several days keeping itself cool. Even the bottom freezer on my fridge was fine after three days. It's only a few months old so the insulation is great in it still. We don't have to worry now unless we run out of gas. That generator will run a day on one tank if just running the two appliances, though. We have three 5 gallon gas cans. I think we may add another one or two. I use enough mowing to cycle through it in a reasonable time.

 

[Mattemma]

I only lived a few hours without electric,but we did go almost a week with no furnace when it was 2-10 F. Also went just 2 days without gas and water when the water heater flooded the house,and the gas line broke. Just those short times without the *normal* conveniences really showed us how unprepared we were.Being without water in the house was a tough one.

Why can't a pellet stove be used? Does it have some electrical component?

We have a little generator in the garage.Never even opened it ....but still glad we have something!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

If you new to generators, make sure you give it a break after each tank up and check all gauges. A lot of people here in South/Eastern Louisiana bought generators, not really knowing much about them after Katrina. We always roughed it before. Well by the time Gustave came through the generators all kicked on and stayed on and about 48 hours later they all went off.....some of them for months, until a repair man got around to them. I use my whole house for 8, then my 13 HP for 8, then back again.
I try to keep the freezer closed after a storm........its pretty well insulated. But it was hot after Katrina and after about 9 days with no power, it was thawing out. It became as a refrigerator. We ate as it thawed, until DH broke my heart by throwing away all our shrimp, saying it was not good (no comment).

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm surprised we didn't mess up our generator after Irene. Hubby had it going pretty much the whole time we were w/out power. I would have kept it off at night, but he had to keep it running.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Honestly, even though I am all 'ready' as a lot of my family thinks I am, I don't think any of us should rely too much on any modern technology. The old ways are much safer. You are better off not needing to rely too heavily on a deep freezer and all our high tech communication devices. Its good to have some old fashion books hanging about, candlels/latterns (hey, they give off heat too......too much for my neck of the woods sometimes), wood stoves, masons and such.

 

[TheMartianChick]

I only lived a few hours without electric,but we did go almost a week with no furnace when it was 2-10 F. Also went just 2 days without gas and water when the water heater flooded the house,and the gas line broke. Just those short times without the *normal* conveniences really showed us how unprepared we were.Being without water in the house was a tough one.

Why can't a pellet stove be used? Does it have some electrical component?

We have a little generator in the garage.Never even opened it ....but still glad we have something!

Pellet stoves have some electrical component or regulator that will not allow them to be used without electricity. For this reason, I will always want to have some sort of woodburner as backup heat. I like the idea of a pellet stove when it comes to how little mess it makes, but don't like the fact that it is useless without power.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I am thinking about checking into small scale battery back-up. Might check out NorthernTool or the like. Although I am Okay, I have older children that live in apts, near the university and I work on a bridge that doesn't have generator back-up and I'd at least like to have lights if we have a storm or lose power for some other reason. Besides, as I said earlier, I have 2 generators and one can be moved, if necessary....so I don't want anyone to think I have an extra generator. I might not mind someone leaving with a battery to power up their freezer a few hours, but I'm not letting my generator go. That thing is mine.

 

[Emerald]

I have my eye on a Bison deep well hand pump.. for under $2000 I can install one on my well.. now to figure out how to get enuf money to buy it! They are stainless steel and they even have a model that can go side by side with your electric pump.

 

[Icu4dzs]

I got one of those nice quiet Honda 3000 W generators for working away from the house. I really don't expect to be able to use it if something other than simply a weather problem happens. (That is why I have the wind turbine and the solar panels.) Fuel to operate a generator is expensive and they won't make one that runs any more efficiently than 1 gallon per hour. That is ridiculous. Adequate gearing would allow it to be a lot more powerful for a lot less fuel. It would be heavier to lift though.

On the other hand, I looked into the Bison pumps and they were quite spendy. At the time, I was quite broke and the cost intimidated me. I might look at them again as there is adequate water on my farm.

I had someone give me two wood burning stoves when I first moved here and I have yet to hook them up. I finally got myself a "kitchen queen" wood burnng cook stove which will heat a house much larger than my own. It is capable of heating 2000 sq ft. and I don't have that much. Seems that all the preparation we do is "speculative" now that we have all this wonderful "global warming". Winter this year has been significantly better than before despite the fact that it seems to be starting NOW rather than in November.

The good news is that none of my important electric clocks have been blinking even once since I got off the grid!
Trim sends
//BT//