No Power, But I'm Warm

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Vic99

Minister of Fire
Dec 13, 2006
857
MA, Suburb of Lowell
Most of my town and many surrounding towns lost power last night up through now (I'm typing this from work 20 miles away). Even without the ceiling fans to circulate more, it's nice to not be freezing.

Who has had this happen, but is grateful for the stove?
 
I have! In a freezing rain event that knocked out power for a few days. The only problum I had was my refriderator, and well pump. Would have been nice to have a generator for those things. Had to take food, and bathroom trip to my parents house. I was toasty though!

J
 
Freezing rain for us to. Glaze on the trees caused lots of downed limbs. Could be a lot of scrounging potential this weekend.
 
I've had this happen where I lived before I had a wood stove :-( So if it happens again (has almost every year we have been there, going on 8 years) we will be ready! I just need a larger genset for the well pump... I have two small genset 1.0KW and 2.5KW...reminds me, its time to fire the genset up again and keep them running :)
 
Our steam boiler died last night in the 35*F wind and rain here in NE CT. So we lost hot water, but boy was I glad to have the fire going to keep us warm!
 
Yep - it's a nice feeling. Every winter for the past couple, we've lost power for 2-3 days. While the neighbors are scrambling around trying to drain pipes, find generators and find temporary shelter with heat, I just chuck another log on the fire and enjoy a nice stove-cooked meal by fire and candle light. (and invite them over to warm up/ have some coffee if they can take a break from their work)

It has almost made me want to have a "Power Down" night at the house - thought maybe we should shut down the main breaker for the night and just enjoy the peace, quiet and firelight. You never really notice it, but it seems daily life always has a background 'hum' to it...when the power is totally off, it gets nice and quiet!
 
I know I'm tempting fate, but have never had an outage last more than a few hours. None the less, I'm grateful for the warmth of the fire. Have a natural gas cooktop too. I have a UPS on my wireless router so my laptop still has internet access until the batteries run down.
 
We loose power for a couple of days almost every year,but we also live in a area that could be out of power anytime the weather gets like it is in eastern NY/New England for a few days to a couple weeks.Generators and wood stoves should be a requirement,I'm always glad for mine anytime the power goes off.
 
Got the power back at 5:30 p.m., so it was out for 16 hours. Could have been a lot worse. Lots of ice on the trees, many downed limbs.

Got home in time to scrounge a 1/4 cord of white pine from a neighbor right before it got dark. I don't think I've ever heard that many chainsaws as distant background noise as when I got home today. I think I'm going to cruise around freelance with my saw tomorrow morning. It's tempting to charge people a small fee as well, but it just doesn't quite seem right.
 
I came home Friday and noticed that the power seemed to be off in the neighborhood . . . based on the fact that few folks had lights on, my garage door would not lift and when I got out of my truck I could hear one neighbor's generator running . . . walked into the garage and lo and behold we had power.

My wife was making fun of me saying that she had been without power all day and then I walk in and it's like magic . . . of course a) we had wood heat which kept the place nice and warm all day and b) she works night so she was sleeping all day anyways so it's not like she missed out on much. :) ;)

But yes . . . after losing our power for 14 days a few years back it's nice to have a woodstove.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.