A loss of electricity in the winter is a much more challenging situation. We have gas heat but the furnace requires electricity to move air around.
Here are the options I can come up with in no particular order:
Option 1: If the office still has power, we can hang out there. It might be nice to have an air mattress but I've slept on many a floor so it's not a necessity. Scratch that. I should probably ask my wife for her opinion before I decide an air mattress is not a necessity. The office has some stored water and a microwave. We can easily transport a few day's food and water, as well as clothes and personal care items. If the office has power, it is unlikely to be a widespread outage so some restaurants and stores will likely remain open. We can return to the house to shower in summer, but in winter we'd likely drain the pipes before leaving the house. Also, getting into/out of the shower in the winter would be very cold.
Option 2: Stay with a family member or friend who still has power. Needs would be similar to a stay at the office, but we'd have someplace to shower.
Option 3: Stay in a hotel. Needs would be similar to the first two options but would cost money. If power outage is widespread, availability will be limited and cost will likely be high as it was a couple of years ago. Cooking may be limited in a hotel so we would need a good supply of open restaurants.
Option 4: Stay in the home.
Without electricity in the home, we would lose the following:
- Heat/Air Conditioning
- Refrigerator and all food in it within 24 hours
- Stove/Microwave
- Ability to recharge cell phones
- Digital alarm clocks
- Cordless and other phones that require electricity
- Internet access
- Television
- Coffee pot
- Washer/Dryer
- Dishwasher
- Sump Pump but it is on a battery backup
- We should have water unless the pipes freeze in the winter
What we currently have/would retain:
- Water from the tap and functioning sewers , unless the pipes freeze
- Shower, unless the pipes freeze
- Gas grill for cooking with one full tank always on hand
- Enough clean clothes to last a week
- Crank powered and battery portable radios
- Crank powered and batter portable lighting
- Candles
A day in the life at home with no power based on current provisions:
- I get up whenever, probably because I'm too hot/cold to sleep.
- I can't make coffee in the coffee pot because we have no power. I can fire up the grill and heat some water and pour it through the grounds in my coffee pot. The milk and everything in the fridge is now bad so I'll take my coffee black. I think my wife bought a camping coffee pot a couple of years ago. We should test that out.
- I don't normally eat breakfast, I normally eat an early lunch. The wife normally eats oatmeal she heats up in the microwave. If we heat some water on the grill for coffee, she can use some in her oatmeal. She normally puts milk in it which we don't have, as well as cinnamon which we do.
- I grab and shower because it still works.
- I would wash the coffee mugs and bowl in the sink but may wait and wash everything after dinner so I don't dirty two dishcloths in one day.
- If the outage is not widespread, I would likely go to work, or hang out around the house driving my wife crazy until it was time to go find something for lunch.
- I would then return to work or go back home.
- If I'm home, I would probably want a cup of coffee in the afternoon. I could either fire up the grill and heat some more water, but what would probably be smarter is to make a thermos full in the morning that would still be hot late in the day. Then I wouldn't have to waste fuel heating water twice.
- Late in the afternoon, I'd try to figure out what to do for dinner. If the outage is not widespread, we might just go to a restaurant or a family member's home. If we need to cook, we've got a lot of options in our stockpile that I can cook on the grill or in a pan on the grill. We have enough cast iron and stainless steel cookware that we can get by for a week cooking on the grill or even on an open fire.
- After dinner, I'd wash and dry all of the dishes for the day.
- Not much to do in a house with no power so we'd likely read or play games and then go to bed early.
What might help the situation:
- A generator could restore use of refrigerator, sump pump, and many other things except the Heat/A/C, major appliances, and built in lighting. A generator would be a requirement in the winter so we could run the portable space heaters we already own.
- We could keep a small window AC on hand which would make sleeping more comfortable in the summer. Window fan(s) that could help circulate air around the house in the summer may also be an option.
- A better phone that does not require electricity.
- An air mattress that can be set up in the basement where it's cooler or in a closed off area with heaters in the winter.
- A small freezer with enough ice stored to transfer perishable food into coolers or the freezer. That might buy another 48 hours of storage, but we currently don't store too much perishable food.
- If it's cold enough outside, I may put the perishable food in coolers in the car and see if it stays cold enough. A thermometer I could keep in the cooler might be handy and let me know how cold it is staying.
- A burner/camping stove that could work off the propane tank from the grill. Heating water for coffee on a burner will likely use less fuel than heating water on the grill. An option would be to purchase a grill with a built-in side burner.
- If we buy a generator, an electric hot plate could also be used for heating water.
- Cold weather sleeping bags.
- Plastic sheets to cover doors and help seal off one area of the house for easier heating.
Basic Preparation:
- Make sure to always have one week's supply of clean clothes and clean towels on hand, especially kitchen towels since they get nasty and there won't be an easy way to wash them.
- Keep enough cash on hand to pay for a few nights in a hotel and a few meals at restaurants in case payment networks are down. If it is that widespread, it is more likely we'd just stay at home.
- Keep enough water and food that can be transported to office and cooked with the resources available at the office.
- Maybe build out the office stockpile with some basic cooking things like microwavable bowls, cleaning supplies, and utensils so we don't have to transport too much.
- Keep some plastic and tarps around to block off areas of the house to make heating a small area easier.
- Better insulate any pipes that are near an outside wall.
- Make sure to have some buckets to drain the water lines in case we have to abandon the house.
Purchases to consider:
- Generator and enough extension cords to power desired items
- Basement would need one cord that could power the sump pump
- Basement would need on cored that could power portable heater
- Kitchen would need one cord that could power refrigerator (optional)
- Kitchen would need another that could power Microwave or Coffee Maker
- Living room would need one cord that could power TV/Internet/ Phone Chargers/Laptop charger (optional but good for quality of life)
- Living room/basement would need two cords to power portable radiators in winter or fans in summer
- Enough fuel for Generator to last one week
- Window fans and/or an AC
- Air Mattress
- Powdered milk for the stockpile. I think we have some Coffeemate in the stockpile.
- A thermos that could keep coffee hot for 6-8 hours so we wouldn't have to heat water twice in one day just for coffee
- A better phone that does not require electricity. We have one, but it's old and I'm not sure how well it works.
- Cold weather sleeping bags
- More plastic sheets and tarps
- Pipe insulation
- More buckets in case we have to drain the pipes
- Additional portable radiator heater for basement
No comments:
Post a Comment