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We have lived on this rural road 16 years. We rarely lose electric and if we do, most of the time it's because somebody crashed into a transformer pole on one of the roads below us. I have called the power company a few times to thank them for the great job their linemen do during those few times we have lost power to very bad weather. We have a generator but have never had to use it.
We have county water. It goes out more often and that goes in spurts. It can be due to the water company flushing the lines but more often it is due to old lines breaking and needing repaired/replaced. I have horses and we do have a live well on the property, in case something would happen to where I needed to use it to water the horses.
Too bad DirecTv can't be included in this thread --- it goes out every time the wind blows the wrong way, lollollol
Im in Mid TN also. Same with power. It goes out if there is a wreck. We have had some bad weather lately and the power has gone out. The ice storm had my power out for 10 days.
I have a well so the only problem is with the pump switch and of course when the power is out. None of my neighbors on "city water" have problems with outages.
I'm in very rural northern Michigan. We haven't had an outage here in the two years we have lived here. We're on a well so if power goes off, we would have no water, so we have a small storage tank. We were more concerned about loss of heating in winter, so have a second heating system out in our studio that doesn't require electricity, so we always have a warm shelter if we lose power.
Rural western Colorado. Water out never. Electricity goes out a couple times a year usually during a lightening storm or when a drunk hits a power pole.
Water only goes out when the water company has to make a repair or an installation, and only for a few hours. The February cold snap froze some of the company's well heads, putting us out of water for about a week, but that was the exception, not a rule.
Electricity very rarely goes out and only when lightning hits a transformer. Was also impacted by the cold snap for 24 hours, but again that was the exception.
The longest we have been without power is 3 days and that's over a 20 year period. Our water comes from 2 wells so water doesn't go out unless the power goes out.
We had a massive ice storm that left me without power for 4 days. Fortunately, my parents still had power, so I moved back home. Stopped in each day to check on the house and to feed & water the dogs. Well-insulated house, so the temperature never got down to where I had to worry about the plumbing. City sewage now, but not city water.
In the middle of huge summer thunderstorms here in SW Miami today and just about most of the whole day the electricity blinked 6-7 times, enough of a disruption to send the appliance clocks to 12:00, After updatind them all 3 or 4 times I gave up...I will reset them later today ... Still raining here slightly.
Power failures happen at least weekly where I live in northern New England. And since nearly everyone in this rural area has a well, when the power goes off, the well pump doesn't work, so there's no water (and frequently no heat either). Everyone on my road has a generator.
Power failures happen at least weekly where I live in northern New England. And since nearly everyone in this rural area has a well, when the power goes off, the well pump doesn't work, so there's no water (and frequently no heat either). Everyone on my road has a generator.
As far as I can tell every home in our township has generators.
The most common setup is one large generator capable of powering the entire home, and a small generator only capable of a few lights and laptops. These homes run the larger generator once a day for one hour, during that hour they run chest freezers to keep them cold, flush the toilet a few times to get all effluent down into the septic tank, they run the laundry and everyone takes a shower. Once that hour is over all the heavy lifting has been completed, so then they shift to the small generator only everyone is on their laptops. Until the next day.
Big generators consume a gallon of fuel and hour, and the small generators consume a gallon of fuel over eight hours. But using two generators in this manner you consume the least amount of fuel.
One of my neighbors is a gunsmith [the only store front retail business in our township] his insurance company mandates the type of alarm system he has and that he must have a large generator. I have seen him go through $150 of fuel per month.
I decided to shift to solar power largely due to the expense of consuming so much petroleum fuel.
All of the gas stations around here lack generators. When the power grid goes down they can no longer pump gas. When we are on our third day without grid power folks are driving to other counties looking for gas stations to sell them fuel. I had no desire to be like everyone else [running out of fuel after a few days, and this happening every month].
I dont remember it too well but when hurricane isabel came thru in 2003 we lost power for 16 days and it was hot as heck after. But being young it was sort of fun. We stayed in tents in the backyard. We lose power for a few hours now and then in storms. Never lost water.
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