Electricity shut off tonight

37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California
It was a typical evening here in Ca. Then we were in the dark. The wood stove was working, so we had heat. Found a couple electric battery operated lights. Sure gets quiet. Not much to do. Thought I was going to have to talk to my wife for a change. My wife opened the door to the refrigerator, to see if she could find something to cook, we still had the gas stove. She said she can't see in the refrigerator. I was about to head out for take out food. Then the lights came on. We were without power for a couple hours. What do you people do back east when you lose power for days? Stan
 
I will second Diesel tech. electric is not just a convenience to many people in the country. The cattle in the yards have to have water all of the time. Especially in times of stress. That could be real cold or real hot. So most people around me have generators of some type ready to go. I started out with tractor run PTO units and now have fully automatic standby generator setups.
 
37Chief- BG or AG? BG= Before we were able to afford generators or AD when generators prices were affordable.

BG- If it was cold outside, we took food from the fridge and put on the porch(if power was out for a time). Cooked on wood stove or ate sandwiches. Heated water on wood stove to take baths. Kerosene lamps or candles for light.

AG- Bought my first generator in 2008 winter ice storm. Power out for 15 days. I didn't know how nice a generator could be. Still haad to heat water on wood stove and heat house.

Very little modification to lifestyle(except buying gas). It was money well spent.
 
liveing here in las vegas we just go to the casino and eat at the buffet. Doesent happen often though and I do have a gen set for the AC
 
"Thought I was going to have to talk to my wife for a change"

As a kid growing up, used to have neighbors, Fred and Lucy, an elderly couple that stayed together for their children, but fell out of love and slept in separate bedrooms. Lucy was a house maker and Fred was a retired mechanic that liked to drink a bit, and drink the cheapest stuff on sale. He'd hand my brother or me a $5.00 bill, then tell us what kind of case of beer was on sale for $2.00, so get him two. One time Fred was over to the house and my brother and I kept serving him the good stuff and got him pickled but good, then aimed him at his house and gave him a shove. The next day he came over, giving me and my brother what for. We got him so pickled that he woke up in bed with Lucy, and was he ever bent out of shape. Fred would have preferred to talk to the wife over what apparently happened. Things, could be worse.

Mark
 
The last time we had a power outage we were at the cabin, I used the boat battery and an inverter, powered a couple of lamps (cfl) and the TV, power came on in a couple of hours before we needed to cook, but we could of used the wood stove. We also have camping stoves and lanterns. If it's out for very long I have a small generator that will run a fridge or freezer.
 
After having a number of power outages lasting up to over a week long and losing contents of freezers and refrigerator a few times I invested in a new generator and transfer system. It runs well, gas furnace, frig & Freezer, Micro Wave & counter plugs, and all the light in 95% of house. We also cook and heat water on gas stove and also heat with wood. Ours usually goes out in weather that you can't put contents fridge & freezer out side.
 
If it's going to be for a short term outage I just start the 8500 watt diesel generator I have tied in full time. If it's going to be long term, I've got a 10 Kw and/or a 30Kw generator I could tie in if I had to.

Beyond that, I've got a wood stove for heat, and a gas stove/oven to cook on. Granted the oven has to have 120V to work, which isn't an issue, but the stove can be lit with a flame.

Ultimately I've got the stuff to tough it if necessary, but am thankful that I don't/
 
We used to have a lot of outages when we lived out of the city. Have lived in this development for 5 years without even a flicker on the power. All the utilities here are underground so they are safe from wind and lightning.
 
The typical outage here in SE Michigan is several hours, but outages of several days aren't uncommon, even in cities. During the northeast blackout of 2003, we were out of power for almost a full week. Needless to say, generators are quite popular. Within of few minutes of power going out, our neighborhood is filled with the sound of generators.

We have a 6500 watt Honda portable generator and a transfer switch that allows us to power everything except the ovens. Being on well water, no power gets old real quick. And with two refrigerators and a freezer full of food, a long outage can be expensive, too.
 
Even though we live out in farm country , we rarely have power outages. I have a pto gen set that I hook to a pole switch , and power the house and barn. This allows us to milk the cows , cool milk ,run stable cleaner , and run lights in house and cook dinner all at the same time. Gets use maybe once every 5-6 years but, it is a saver when we need it.
 
use the genset, Colman lanterns,battery powered lites, wood for heat, keep both fridges and the freezer full of food and plenty of fuel at the farm for the generator, tractors ect after frequent problems years ago i took a look at what we need for daily needs, and asked myself for each of these things how can some moron or the weather screw this system up, and what can i do about it, then i did it we are now in pretty good shape, i set the well up to be powered by the generator if needed as well as can power up the fridges one by each if needed to keep them cold
 
Actually unless you know the electricity is going to be off for days you shouldn't open the fridge when the power goes out. It lets the temperature inside warm up a lot faster than if you left it shut and the food may spoil.
 
3 years ago our electricity went out for 5 days. weather was from 25 to 50. Didnt have any back up heat but our house kept fairly warm until the 4th day when it got down to around 45. We were lucky because it didn't get real cold outside and the wind didn't blow much. They had a large transformer that blew up. Power companies usually don't have them on hand so it took awhile to get one and hook t up. After the 3rd day my wife went to stay with the daughter. me and the dogs toughed it out. I know the last night I went to bed I figured I was going to have to go to the daughters myself but at 1.30 am the lights cane on. Sure was a pretty sight. Even the dogs were happy. it was really starting to get cold in the house. that summer I bought a generator to help with that if it ever happens again. Hopefully it never will. We get spoiled with our electricity. Power companies a good job but things do happen some times.
 
(quoted from post at 21:12:19 01/31/16) What comes natural.

Nine months after any major outage the hospitals have to really ramp up the staff to handle the results.
 
was without electricity for 10 days following super storm sandy--had gas stove, propane lights, and generator to keep refrig and freezer cold.
 
Knock on wood, but the last overnight outage we had was several years ago. Christmas Eve, to be exact. We just kept the fireplace going, and it stayed comfortable in the family room and never got below 60* anywhere in the house.

Whenever a storm with possible outages is immanent, we just fill a bathtub with water to hand fill the tank on a toilet stool if we have to flush, and keep some jugs of bottled water for drinking and coffee. We have a gas range that we can light manually if needed. And I make sure the firewood rack in the garage is full.

Just for peace of mind, though, I'm thinking of getting a generator this year. Maybe not power the entire house, just enough to run the furnace, the well, and a few lights and outlets.
 
I've got a portable generator and an outdoor connection point to an interior xfer switch that runs 6 circuits, enough to give me heat, refrigerator and light/outlets in every room.

As an aside, the US has the best electric grid in the world. In other countries, the power goes out daily for hours at a time. Guy I work with travels to relatives in Lebanon frequently. He has a relative (doctor) in a million dollar condo and when the power goes out, they grab an extension cord that dangles by their window and plug in a cord that will run a couple of things, refrigerator, TV. There is a diesel generator on the ground floor in an alley that has dozens of cords running off of it. I asked "why don't they fix the grid?". He said the guys who run the generators and their suppliers bribe the govt to keep things the way they are. Guess what his relative pays? On top of his electric bill, he pays $400/month to the generator guy.

We have an office in India that has rolling blackouts on a daily basis.

Which makes my blood boil when people scream about the "greedy" utilities that can't get their power back on within minutes when a storm blows through and knocks down trees, poles, lines. Then they complain if the electric company trims a tree on their property or cuts one down to PREVENT a problem from happening. Also, they don't think about the guy out there in the rain and cold hanging from a bucket to get their microwave working again.

Yup, we've got it pretty good here,
 
The circuit and local grid here became very unreliable for years. Add in the acquisition of the regional power company by a very large UK company, and the transition period, things were not as they should be. They upgraded everything, including one side of the high voltage transmission lines that cross this land. I upgraded to a solar back up system that works very well. Eventually the circuit I'm one became reliable again and we do not get the numerous outages we were having. It was a once a week or more affair, and that is aside from some weather related outages. With some conservation, my battery bank provided power for days, all depending on how much you use. I can bulk charge the battery bank in an hour with my miller welder/generator that provides 8500 watts continuous. Funny, when the neighborhood is dark, I can blend in and no one knows I have power LOL !
 
I have a tractor powered standby generator, plug in and transfer switch on the main power pole. runs the whole farm, though not all at once. I have to Milk and cool the milk, and run the silo unloaders and tmr later, makes chores take a little longer.
 
If we don't have electricity we don't have water (unless we want to pump it by hand) so we have a whole-house 20kw propane generator set up to come on automatically. It's a lovely thing.
 
Funny you should ask, I told my daughter last week during a windy day that sometimes the wind causes power failures, we should start the generator and let it run awhile under a load. Saturday night 1:30 in the morning the power went out, well I have to start the generator to keep the water circulating in the wood stove, otherwise the pressure builds up and blows the relieve valve, now I'm gonna do what my brother and dad did, get a deep cycle battery, a transfer switch and an ac to dc converter, this way when the power goes out the switch transfer the circulator to the ac battery power which has a float charger hooked to it, I think he said the battery ran the circulator for 3 days before needing charging. Should make life a little easier! Lol
 
Been here 44 years, had a 17 hour outage during the "blizzard of the century" in January, 1975. We bought the 25/45 pto generator about 2 years later. Very seldom had to use it, and the most was under 2 hours. Our REA is very reliable.
 
we freeze. :)

It's tough without a generator. I always want to buy one, then look at the price tags, especially to tie into the electrical system, and there just always seems to be something a little higher in priority I need to spend money on.

I will say, you'd be amazed at how warm you can keep a house just by closing blinds/curtains at night to insulate windows, and opening them in the day to let the sun in.

I've kept the house above freezing for over a week one winter, and it was well below freezing outside.

We kept a barrel in the house for water, and filled it with 5 gallon buckets from neighbors with running water.

We cooked on a coleman stove. I used my ice fishing "buddy heater" in a small room to take more of the edge off the cold for the kids, but we didn't need that.

Other than that, flashlights and lanterns/candle light. That's kind of a pain since it gets dark before 5 in the winter. But made for a very quiet house - kids as a rule behave better when the lights are out! More family time when you don't have all the electronic distractions. So much better it makes one seriously consider cutting the wires for good.
 
Generator bought 40 years ago.. Only 6 KW, but the thing weighs close to 300 pounds. It's shaft drive , I have it belted to a 2 cylinder Wisconsin . Generator is 1800 RPM, I run the engine 2200. Tough old set up.
 
We are on our 4th generator, since 1966. Not automatic yet. But I can have it going in few minutes.5000 watt
 

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