[yls]

Hi,
Just moved here last month from the SW...........yeah, big change! Anyways I started thinking after some friends have been without power for 2 entire DAYS, what would we do in the middle of winter, when it's in the single digits or worse, and there is no power? We are in a rental now but am wondering what plans do you have for when this happens? Would this be a very rare occurrence? Also I'm concerned because I have two really young children (toddlers).......i'd be less concerned if it was just us adults as I assume you'd just huddle under blankets
Anyways, this is probably ignorant but really this is all so new to us. Thanks!

[Dave Wojo]

I've been giving this a great deal of thought myself. We'll be moving to about 40 miles southeast of the Mackinac Bridge this coming summer. We have a wood stove as a back up to an LP fired boiler and baseboard heat, so heat won't be an issue. I don't currently have anything in place for backup power. I know I'm going to want to do something for the well pump at a minimum.

As we sell our house in Ohio we'll be looking at different options for spending the money. Maybe a backup generator for the house is in order.

[Bydand]

I have a small generator that I haven't had to use because of a power outage since the winter of 2004. We are in a different house now (been here for 3 years) and haven't done a thing to get it ready if the power does go out either. I guess I should do that pretty soon.

Now is a good time to bring up getting your circuits hooked up CORRECTLY for using a generator to power up portions of your home. You HAVE to use a transfer switch of some type to totally disconnect the circuits that are being powered by your generator from the normal power supply. If you don't, that transformer that drops the voltage from 10,000+ volts at the power line to 120/240 volts to power your home; will step it UP from the 120/240 volts from the generator back up to the 10,000+ volts on the power line. Which can be disastrous (think injury or death to a Lineman) for a line crew trying to restore power to your area.

[magellan]

I think we lost power for about 24 hours in the winter about 3 or 4 years ago, first time that I can ever remember. Answer was: a hotel for $85/night. We finally couldn't stay warm enough and got out. I gotta believe a portable generator big enough to power a whole house will cost 10x that?

[Dave Wojo]

Whenever we've been up to the place in the winter we've heated solely with the wood stove. With temps below zero the interior stayed nice and toasty. It's pretty well insulated. All 2x6 framing, fully insulated, Tyvek wrapped, and cedar sided. The attic insulation is roughly two feet thick of blown in cellulose. The only weak point are the windows, and we're planning to replace those almost first thing after we move up there.

As far as heat goes, I know we'll be OK with just the wood stove. I do have a small generator that I believe I could use to power the well pump. Maybe I'm not as far off from being prepared as I thought.

[Michigansnowflake]

We have wood burning stove and a generator that will run the well pump, the fridge and the furnace. Lanterns and candles take care of the dark....always have flashlights and a supply of fresh batteries. Gallon jugs of water are nice to have for cooking,cleaning up etc. .. melt snow to flush the toliet if you have to... Wear hats and mittens, hot chocolate and lots of blankets!

[alleyyooper]

I have a 7500 watt gen that runs nearly every thing. What it won't run the 3500 I use when doing bee removals where I have to supply my own power takes care of the rest.

We heat our home with wood in a add on wood furnace that doesn't need power to heat the house.

A friend just bought a whole house gen that runs on propane. It is big enought to even power his wifes electric range if they need to use it. His total cost was in the $4000.00 range. It is kind of high but the peice of mind if the power goes out in the dead of night in the dead of winter is priceless. Not to mention when the power goes out in the summer and the freezer full of frozen food is destroyed due to a 10 day power outage. He figured that cost them $2000.00 worth of food.

Al

[Coldjensens]

We have a generac that powers 16 circuits. It covers all of the major items in the house. It can run anything, even an AC unit if necessary. We bought it while our house was under construction and we had no power for several months. We were running two generators about ten hours a day and one of the two had to run all night. We needed power 24/7 to run sump pumps, some heat for a guy who was staying at the house while working on it, lights, and power tools. Gasoline for gas powered generators would have cost as much as this generator cost anyway (about $3000). Unfortunately, by the time that we realized that we could not get power for several weeks and it woudl be prudent to buy the Generac, we had already bought a 5700 watt gas generator, which we really have no use for now. We just keep it to lend to neighbors and family members when they lose power.

It is really neat. It runs no natural gas. When the power goes off, it immediately starts and the lights come back on (most of them). There is only a few seconds delay and it hardly seems like it is that long. It has to start itself to charge up the battery once a month or so. It also needs yearly or twice a year maintenance. We are getting a contract for the maintenance for about $100 per year. It is something that I could do myself, but it is worth the $100 to avoid the risk of forgetting to do it. Besides, $100 is not all labor, they buy some synthetic oil, a filter and a spark plug or two. It is really nice to know that if your power goes out, it will start up immediately and cna run for as many days as needed. It is mroe expensive than having the power on, but it i snot all that dramatically expensive to run it for a few days.

I would not have bought the Generac but for the need for power that was going to cost us as much in Gasoline as it cost to buythe Generac.

Someone pointed out something to me today after they had no power for about 10 hours and no generator (but their neighbors have a generator). If you have a generator and the power goes off in your area, do not turn on your Christmas lights with your generator while your neighbors are suffering with no power. It is a bit of a slap in the face.

We also store quite a bit of food and water, plus we have a pool with 21,000 gallons of water that we could use in a pinch. There is a huge river in front of our house where we can get non-potable water (for flushing toilets, etc). In a long pinch we can eat eggs from the chickens or even eat a chicken if we had to. there are plenty of squirrels, deer and other animals that we could shoot (ilegally, but it beats starving) if we really had to.

Our house is very old and was heated with fireplaces, so we can heat it reasonably well by just using the fireplaces and a couple of kerosene heaters. Basically, we are in pretty good shape for most short term type crises. We would be in trouble if something ran long term.

[skyl4rk]

Good quality woodburning stove, city water, natural gas cookstove and oven, kerosene lamps and some battery lights. We would be without hot water, so we would have to heat it up on the stove for washing dishes and bathing.

What we would not have is internet, laptop, tv, hot water, natural gas furnace, toaster, radio, etc.

With the woodpile we have we could probably make it till spring without electric. We might be bored but could always walk a few blocks to the library and check out some books. I would miss a morning shower though, a washbasin and washcloth does the job but is not quite the luxury of a shower.

[danielj72]

If it really concerns you then you should pony up the money and buy a whole house generator. Losing power in the winter is tough, but you can get by without a generator if you want. First if you have a fireplace that helps, but even if you dont kerosene heaters will work. (they do have an oder). Back in the 80s there was a terrible ice storm, we made it a whole week with no electricity in January.