Winter Reliability

[georgepds]

I live on a barrier Island, and the winter can sometimes be rough. Power outages are not as frequent as they used to be, but they still happen, mostly in winter due to ice or wind storms. About a decade ago, the town put in town water, and that was a big relief. The water stays on regardless of utility power.

But the power still goes out. For heat there is the wood stove. For cooking a propane stove. And , for amusement, a battery powered radio, or a book. If the power is out for a long time, the perishable food goes out into containers on the cold porch.

What do you do?

 

[greg13]

MOVE!! I don't like crowds, but I do enjoy creature comforts.

 

[fbelec]

yup love city water. if it's going to be long i spark up the generator for fridge and freezer and showers

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I have a small generator for essentials like the fridge and freezer. I'm on a well and my generator won't run the well pump so I always keep around 10 gallons of drinking water in my basement. If I know a storm is coming I will fill a couple 5 gallon buckets for toilet flush water. I try to keep around 15 gallons of gas in the garage at all times for the generator. I also keep 3 or 4 20 pound propane tanks for the grill, camp stove, extra heat, etc. I also have a stream about a quarter mile from the house so I have an emergency water source there as well.

 

[semipro]

For now a small gennie for constant loads like lights and the fridge along with use of a larger gennie for heating water and the well.
We also have a lot of battery powered LED lights that last a full day. We may also sleep downstairs by the fire. In the near future: solar with backup storage.

More importantly we seem to relish these outages. Although we enjoy our creature comforts as someone else said, we also enjoy the outages along with and the realization of independence that comes with them. They are some of the most memorable times of our lives. We used a sled to move groceries and other supplies up our driveway during one tough winter when our vehicle got stuck and found we really enjoyed even that.

Sometimes we like to be reminded of how good we have it and how well we can handle not having it.

 

[johneh]

After the big ice storm of 1998 we installed a totally automatic
stand by system . The system runs the whole house including
electric hot water tank , 2 hp well pump and ever other thing
in the house . In 98 we were without power for 38 days never
again the longest sense then 2 stretches of 7 days and
many of 2 to 3 days . The joys of living in the country

 

[Ashful]

For heat there is the wood stove. For cooking a propane stove. And , for amusement, a battery powered radio, or a book. If the power is out for a long time, the perishable food goes out into containers on the cold porch.

What do you do?

Pray that we’re not out of town, when it happens. We keep two stoves going, which will keep most of the house warm enough to survive, but there are other things to consider. We have a traditional electric water heater in a fourth floor attic space, feeding the bathroom and kitchen on that floor (only used for guests). I have one heated space of 1200 sq.ft. and another of 300 sq.ft., both heated by heat pump, and neither of which are going to get any heat from the stoves. Our water is also by well (3/4 hp pump).

So, our solution is to just run a portable generator (8kW) a few times each day, back-fed into the house. We can easily run the whole-house boiler, and toggle between the heat pumps. I have not ever had trouble getting gas, but if I do, I usually have at least 50+ gallons on-site between parked cars and OPE.

 

[georgepds]

Speaking of out of town.. i was in boston in the big storm of 78... no power any where.

Not being weighted by possessions my resiliency plan was to hightail it out of there to a girlfriend in Va beach

Now that was a resiliency plan. Alas, the weight of possessions holds me to less delightful plans. These days,if I'm out of town for any time, I turn off the water and drain the pipes, including the water heater

 

[jetsam]

All you guys who hoard generator gas should consider converting to propane. I did this with my old generac purely because I was sick of rotating gas cans (and not being able to actually get gas every hurricane).

On the down side, it de-rates the generator by ~20%.

On the up side, you don't have to keep rotating out gas cans to keep the gas fresh. A full propane tank is good for years. You also never get glue in the carb.

When I got a new propane provider for my kitchen stove, I just told them I needed to run a generator also, and got a big mongo house tank. I can still use BBQ tanks if I want.

I think the generator conversion kit cost around $200, most of which was probably the regulator.

 

[Ashful]

I have a buried 500 gal propane tank, that lasts me a decade per fill. It’s used only for the garage direct vent heater and gas log in the patio fireplace, each of which only get turned on a few times each year.

I’ve seen the conversion kits, but most are run on a gas grill bottle. How are you guys piping from your house tank? I’d need a 30 foot’ish flexible hose to tee off existing connection for garage direct vent, assuming genny would need to sit outside.

 

[jetsam]

I have a buried 500 gal propane tank, that lasts me a decade per fill. It’s used only for the garage direct vent heater and gas log in the patio fireplace, each of which only get turned on a few times each year.

I’ve seen the conversion kits, but most are run on a gas grill bottle. How are you guys piping from your house tank? I’d need a 30 foot’ish flexible hose to tee off existing connection for garage direct vent, assuming genny would need to sit outside.

Tee, shutoff, copper flex run around the side of the house to about 4' away from the service entry. Second shutoff, quick connect coupler. Generator has a quick connect on its line.

When I need the generator, I wheel it from the garage to the service entry, plug in the propane and power, start it up, and put its little doghouse over it (imagine a doghouse cut in half right down the roof ridge, with no back wall). Let the generator warm up. (If I was feeling ambitious I might dig 2 old 1500w space heaters out of the closet and plug them directly into the generator outside to let it run under a test load and direct observation.)

Shut off all the breakers and throw the interlocks. Put a meter across both hot legs of the service entry and ground to ensure no backfeed is occurring through a faulty main breaker. (If it is, remove main breaker from panel and retest.)

Flip on breakers one at a time on opposite legs of the panel to load up the generator slowly. Go outside and make sure regulator doesn't need adjustment. Go downstairs every so often and test service entry voltage to see if the power is back on (I can only see one other house from my house, and he has a generator too.)

 

[peakbagger]

In my area #2 heating fuel is the primary heating fuel. Worse case is I used to have 550 gallons of oil but now that I burn wood I have around 50 gallons. I have a 12 volt diesel generator and 2000 watt pure sine inverter kicking around so if I run out of gas for my regular generator I have longer term backup. I normally get my water from a 320 foot deep well but I have old surface well that I can pull buckets from. I have full outdoor gear for four season hiking and mountaineering so have the usual camping gear if things get really weird.

It all comes down to having a plan and a backup plan.

 

[Ashful]

I have full outdoor gear for four season hiking and mountaineering so have the usual camping gear if things get really weird.

I used to work with a guy who would say, "Seeds and bullets. When it all goes down, all you'll need is seeds and bullets."

I miss that guy.

 

[georgepds]

I knew a guy like that, he passed away choking on sunflower seeds

 

[jetsam]

I knew a guy like that, he passed away choking on sunflower seeds

He must have needed more bullets in his diet. The seeds were obviously not good for him.

 

[peakbagger]

I used to on occasion see the Preppers show on cable, it was so sad to see these folks who were living right on the edge of poverty wasting money prepping for low likelihood events in hopes that their miserable lives would change for the better when the world changed. It would be interesting to see a follow up show on where the folks are a few years after the original show. I expect more than few divorces and bankruptcys along with government assistance.

 

[firefighterjake]

Power loss and blizzards here are more of an inconvenience rather than a life threatening emergency.

Woodstove provides the heat.

Water . . . from the nearby lake or melted snow.

Food . . . we're not preppers, but we have a decently stocked pantry and freezer and if push came to shove could last at least a month if needed.

That said . . . I also have a small generator to run a few lights (vs. using our candles and flashlights) and the TV. Thinking about upgrading later this year though to a larger generator so we can also run the well pump for showers.

 

[jetsam]

I have a generator mainly so I can play computer games and take hot showers during a power outage.

In the event of a nuclear war, I live on Long Island. They'll nuke NYC first (which will be a real upgrade for that area, but hard on the roads). There are no farms to speak of. The locals are "every man for himself" on the very best of days. It's not a situation that a warehouse full of MREs and guns and generators is going to resolve- you need a boat.

(Now I am imagining myself building a boat to flee the island in. Every time it's almost done, my wife will come outside and tell me that it now needs to be big enough to fit six extra dogs, the entire chicken coop, her friend's pet rhinoceros...)

 

[georgepds]

I used to on occasion see the Preppers show on cable, it was so sad to see these folks who were living right on the edge of poverty wasting money prepping for low likelihood events in hopes that their miserable lives would change for the better when the world changed. It would be interesting to see a follow up show on where the folks are a few years after the original show. I expect more than few divorces and bankruptcys along with government assistance.

Here is what happened with one guy


A survivalist filled his massive basement with food — then decided Puerto Ricans needed it more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ricans-needed-it-more/?utm_term=.7ef93f54ea0e

 

[georgepds]

I ....

(Now I am imagining myself building a boat to flee the island in. Every time it's almost done, my wife will come outside and tell me that it now needs to be big enough to fit six extra dogs, the entire chicken coop, her friend's pet rhinoceros...)

Be careful... I hear thats what happened to Noah

 

[Jeremy8916]

I've got 2 woodstove inserts, natural gas furnace and a 12kw natural gas standby generator. I can run everything in the house if I am careful (don't run the dryer, stove, and cooktop at the same time). If i lost gas, my generator has a switch on it to flip to propane, so worst case i could figure something out. Well isn't that deep and is a 120v pump

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[jetsam]

Be careful... I hear thats what happened to Noah

"....and then I figured she'd do it again, so I built the next boat with room for all that plus two extra sheep or llamas or whatever... and as soon as the boat is half done, she shows up needing room for giraffes. GIRAFFES. Where did she even get giraffes? ..."

 

[CaptSpiff]

I've got 2 woodstove inserts, natural gas furnace and a 12kw natural gas standby generator. I can run everything in the house if I am careful (don't run the dryer, stove, and cooktop at the same time). If i lost gas, my generator has a switch on it to flip to propane, so worst case i could figure something out. Well isn't that deep and is a 120v pump

You have NG, and your dryer, stove and cooktop are electric? wow, your electric rates must be really cheap. (don't mean to be cheeky, just amazed)

 

[Jeremy8916]

You have NG, and your dryer, stove and cooktop are electric? wow, your electric rates must be really cheap. (don't mean to be cheeky, just amazed)

No, they aren't. $0.20/kwh on average. We have time of use billing, so I do everything when it's cheaper. I haven't even lived here a year yet, and theres a kitchen reno on the way. I'll replace a bunch of appliances then. A 30x40 garage is on the way this year with in floor heat so I'm planning to take a zone off the boiler to heat the hot water tank. I'm not a huge fan of the ventilation requirements of gas appliances though, so i doubt I'll do a gas dryer. I'm thinking condensing if I can find one. I find myself cooking on the woodstove a lot anyway in the winter, and I use the bbq in the summer.

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[sportbikerider78]

I keep canned food. I keep a freezer of food. My little inverter will keep the lights on and fridge cold...and let me make coffee. I have 2 cars in the garage I can get gas out of if I need more than the 5-10 gallons that are handy. But if the power is out for more than 5 days, there is something seriously up and I will have bigger problems than keeping milk cold.

If it is summer and the power is out...I'm heading out of town to the summer place after a day or two. Winter, I'll sit tight and make sure the house is ok.