What is the first thing you think of when the power goes out?

M

Mary Stetler

Well-known member
I've been a prepper for a long time so I don't need to think. Right? Well I got home from the barn and we were supposed to meet friends. It is 90 degrees so the first thing I think of doing when I get home is to jump (LOL) in the shower. But all of a sudden the fridge stops humming and the clock goes out. I am glad I had not soaped up yet.
What is going on? Brown out from too much draw on the grid with AC's? My internet provider keeps wanting me to bundle internet, phone & whatever. I did put my house phone on the program but thankfully not my cell. I love when the power comes back on I get an email from my provider telling me I could have checked for updates. HOW ? There Was No Power!!!
Anyway...Thoughts. I can change into clean clothes. Is my car outside? (electric garage door). Call upstairs to tell hubby and daughter there will be no water in 3...2...1...
Do NOT open the refrigerator!!!
Then if this is a longish outage this could be bad. I have a full freezer in the garage. Do I have enough water? Can I have Cal bring the generator over?
I know! I will call Sonia next door. She knows EVERYTHING. She is better than YouTube!
She said someone just dropped a tree on the power line just north of our road. When I left, they had fire trucks and men directing traffic I guess because road crews were busy and electric lines on the road might be dangerous.
But if we did not know what happened, what would we think of first?
 
Great question!

1. I can still get a bath because, as far out in the country as I live, I am on city water. So that’s OK and that means my horses will have water and I don’t have to stress over that.

1. However, in the summertime, I would worry about the horses not having the barrel fans blowing on them. In the winter time when it was bucking cold out, I would worry about their water freezing up because I don’t have a generator at the barn to run their electric water tubs on.

2. Depending on the season, I would be whining either about no AC or no heat and wondering how long it would be before the TV came back on because I didn’t charge up my iPad. I wouldn’t be able to use it for anything except to check the outage map of my local power company maybe.

2. During the day the garage door stays up so that wouldn’t be an issue, but it would be at night and that would mean I’d have to pull the cord and push it up manually with the broom handle – oh joy.

3. If power loss persisted more than two hours in extreme weather,I would then be forced to go out to the garage plug in the generator at the back end of the garage, make sure I shut the house electric off, so I could then start the generator up to power the house. The generator is big enough to run the HVAC system the refrigerator and my little TV. Do I want to have to do that?? No. I. Do. Not🤯🤯

double numbers are intentional on my list —- that is because the things mentioned with the same numbers are of lateral importance.
 
The first thing I used to think was that I must not have paid the bill, but that hasn't happened in several years. Around here, it might be snow on the wires, trees falling on the electric lines, or a squirrel in the works. My wife gets on the phone with the electric company to find out how long it's likely to be out. Then, we decide whether to drive somewhere where it's working and find a restaurant or just wait it out.
 
It doesn't happen often here, but in the summer, it is no big deal. We don't really need electricity in summer--long days and moderate temperatures. In winter, however, loss of power can be catastrophic. It is dark and cold, and if thee generator is not going, things can go downhill fast. We have a wood stove big enough to heat the entire house although some areas will be cooler than is comfortable. We also have quite a stash of lamp oil for lighting should we need it. When we had livestock, we worried about any babies that could be born early, and the adults if the power loss lasted too long. We had the earthquake in 2018 when I lost the computer and the original SOC, but it was only November, so it wasn't terribly clod by Alaska standards. We did, however, lose power for a day a -30 F. when a truck took out a couple of power poles, and the utility had a hard time auguring holes into the frozen ground to replace them. We were without electricity for 18 hour or more that time but we survived fine. Prepping is standard here, mostly because of the winters.

Earthquakes and wildfires can take out the power and even the natural gas if bad enough. We just have to be ready for anything. Fortunately we live on a small lake, but cutting a hole in deep ice to draw water is not a pleasant thing.
 
I get text notifications of power outages and "anticipated" service restoration time from the power company on my phone. We have occasional power outages that last for a few hours due to electrical storms or vandalism. For those, we don't do anything much except keep the refrigerator closed and wait it out.

For long-term outages such as hurricane-related damage, we drag out the generator and get the window unit out of the garage. We have city water so no problem there. The generator will run a few lights, TV, freezer, fridge and one window unit so we basically live in the den where the a/c is. I have a stash of candles and flashlights/batteries and a gas stove so I can cook and make coffee. All the necessities are covered.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I get text notifications of power outages and "anticipated" service restoration time from the power company on my phone. We have occasional power outages that last for a few hours due to electrical storms or vandalism. For those, we don't do anything much except keep the refrigerator closed and wait it out.

For long-term outages such as hurricane-related damage, we drag out the generator and get the window unit out of the garage. We have city water so no problem there. The generator will run a few lights, TV, freezer, fridge and one window unit so we basically live in the den where the a/c is. I have a stash of candles and flashlights/batteries and a gas stove so I can cook and make coffee. All the necessities are covered.
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Having a gas stove makes a big difference.
 
We seldom lose power except in bad storms, and we are always expecting that can happen if there is a heavy wind and lightning, and more so if there are tornado warnings.
We did lose power one year from rolling blackouts, too. It was right at Christmas holidays, so people had lots of lights and cooking, stores and restaurants were decorated for the holiday season, and it was really cold . Between all of that, the power people decided just to do rolling blackouts about an hour or two apart, but we had no idea at first why the power kept going on and off every so often.

Even if we lose WiFi and power, we can use our cell phone hotspot to go online and get information about the power outage. We are on city water, so we don’t have to worry about having a well and losing water, too, which is a good thing, and usually they have power back on before too long. Ice storms are the worst, or tornadoes, becasue they take down a lot of trees and power lines and roads are inaccessible to even fix the power lines.
 
Good morning to all-

We have occasional power blips- no big deal usually.

But when a big wind with a name to it blows through, we may be out of power for a week-or longer. At this point, I'll go out and crank the generator and run the line to the kitchen to keep the freezer/fridge going.

Of course, this is inconvenient, but it's just part of living on the gulf coast. and since we will have plenty of warning, I will have all of the many ,many five gallon gas tanks filled and ready for use.

Hope to not have to deal with this sort of thing this year.

you all be safe and keep well- Ed
 
Mary Stetler said:
I have been trying to find on old fashioned apt sized gas stove I could light with a match instead of electric start but no luck. Would have to use wood or gel fuel to cook.
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I have the same issue. The stove top can be lit with a match. One solution might be to get a computer battery backup, because it outputs 120vac. I don't know how long it would power the thermostat and gas valve in an oven. I've thought of trying this, although I don't bake much in my full-sized oven. If I did try it, I would make sure to unscrew the light bulb, since it draws more power than the electronics of the oven do.
 
Some time ago I bought a bunch of night lights at Walmart that serve as Emergency Lights. They have a rechargeable battery, and automatically light up when the power goes out.

-There's a flashlight in the top, so you always have a charged flashlight right where you know it is.
-There are two levels of brightness, and you can set them on a table or countertop for illumination.
-I played with them when I first got them...the light lasts 5-6 hours or so.
-You can turn the nightlight function off if you like darkness when you sleep. Link

Power-Failure-Plus-Night-Light_854b7b2a-2c26-4b11-ab9a-274e9c01f699.c1e71e594a001cbd753a6870222bb256.jpeg


I have 6 of them throughout the house. They still work after 5+ years, although one started to flake out so I replaced it. It is an odd experience when power goes out. The computer goes off, the tv goes off, yet there's still light. It takes a moment to register.
 
Ken Anderson said:
I bought some bulbs that were supposed to hold a charge, and continue operating after the power was out, but they didn't work.
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That stinks. The ones I bought have a Dusk-to-Dawn sensor for the nightlight (if you have it Enabled) but not for the Emergency Light, meaning if the power goes out in the middle of the day, the Emergency Light still lights up. The unit that flaked out kept flashing erratically while the power was on, and when I put it in a different outlet the flashing stopped...for a while. Then it started up again. I keep that one out in my garage so I have a charged flashlight always handy. I can look out my kitchen window at night and see the stupid thing constantly flickering in the garage.
 
We have four Halo Bolt portable power banks that have 110 outlets. We usually keep one in each vehicle because they have battery clamps and can be used to jump start a dead battery, but when the power is out they will power lamps or the internet router, or charge cellphones. They are handy for short-term power outages.

We seldom have power outages in winter, but we were without power for 3 days in January 2021. Thank goodness we have a gas fireplace and stove so we could keep the kitchen and den fairly warm.
 
My only concern is how long it will be out. My insulin has to be kept cold. The longest the power was out here was around 6 hours, which is OK as long as I don't open the fridge often. I have medication coolers that will keep things cold for 16 hours, so I'm not very concerned.
 
John Brunner said:
I have the same issue. The stove top can be lit with a match. One solution might be to get a computer battery backup, because it outputs 120vac. I don't know how long it would power the thermostat and gas valve in an oven. I've thought of trying this, although I don't bake much in my full-sized oven. If I did try it, I would make sure to unscrew the light bulb, since it draws more power than the electronics of the oven do.
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The oven has a "no light" safety feature that is run electrically and cannot be overridden.
 
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