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We are less than six months out from putting our house up for sale and we are purging things we don't think we'll need in NC. I know snow/ice events happen but are not that common, so after winter we'll chuck most of our shovels.
But we bought a kerosene heater when Sandy hit a few years ago and also have a portable electric heater (but no generator, go figure). I'm just curious how often you've lost power / heat or if people do keep things like this and generators available.
In Raleigh, you might lose power for 1-4 days every couple of years and for 12-24 hours once a year at the most. It is nice to have an alternative source of heat if you don't buy a place with a fireplace.
Coastal areas might lose power more often due to tropical storms or hurricanes.
Depending on where you are in the mountains, you might lose power once or twice a winter or not at all.
We lived in Raleigh for 30+ years and have just recently moved to the mountains. We got a whole house generator for up here for a couple of reasons. We are at a higher elevation at approximately 4400 feet, so the winters can be a bit windier and snowier, so power outages can be more frequent. Also, our road can be challenging to navigate during normal weather, there's a very good possibility that we won't be able to get down the mountain for a few days if we lose power. In Raleigh we could always find some place that was open and had power, so we didn't have to stay put unless the roads were really bad.
I don't like kerosene heaters. Rather have a fireplace. Too many housefires started by kerosene.
We do lose power and it's nice to have some way to keep warm, but I'm just not down with kerosene. Folks do have generators, but personally we don't use one.
Bring one snow shovel. It's nice to have once every couple of years. Mostly we just wait a day or two and it melts. No need for a snow blower.
I would bring it since you have it. You are likely to lose power at some point during a winter here. We tend to get wet, heavy snow, or - more likely - ice, both of which will bring down power lines faster than what you're used to on LI. We owned a house for 13 years on LI and only lost power once during a snowstorm; we've been here 6 years and have lost power three times. It wasn't a long event any of the times (longest was 8 hours) but we do have a backup source for heat in case it's long lasting (not kerosene, can't remember what it is I got). We used the fireplace last time.
Bring a snow shovel, and ice scrapers for the cars.
Many fires are started by fireplaces too Poppy. It's all boils down to regular maintenance and proper use for both.
Probably so, but you just hear about the kerosene heaters more often. I also grew up with a fireplace and am comfortable with that and do know to get it cleaned regularly. It's hard to find data that separates out kerosene heaters from other portable heaters, but I did read multiple places that portable heaters are a leading cause of fatal fires in winter.
I've made it 50 years successfully in NC without a kerosene heater. I've only heard problems with them, though it certainly seems to always be among the low income folks who live in older poorly-insulated homes and may not be able to spend the $ to maintain them as some have noted.
We're just not typically so cold, nor lose power for so long, that you're in any danger.
I'm sure it's worth more sold there than used here.
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I always have backup heat for emergency. "Two is one...One is none"
