Many of us have already seen the coming of winter and the extremes of mother nature. Some this last summer were forced to evacuate due to wildfires, others due to flooding in the spring. With those various issues that you can have in your area, and with the coming winter, where are you at in your emergency power prep's? Can you bug out and provide power to your mobile devices such as radios, phones, GPS and such with portable power of some form? If you are bugging in, do you have a generator and have you powered up your house to see where the holes in your plan are? Do you have a whole house system that can keep all essentials running including the well to keep pumping your water? If you have a portable gennie, due you have enough cordage, distribution boxes and such to extend power to where you need it? Have you serviced it for the coming winter? Do you have solar, wind, hydro in your plans and if not, what are you doing to get where you want to be in that regards? Many have portable solar set-ups to continue to power small devices like phones, radios, pads and laptops... have you implemented those tools? Have you checked all of your emergency lighting, flashlights, lanterns and such to ensure they are serviceable and that the batteries are fresh? Do you have your lighting tools in strategic areas so you do not have to grapple in the dark to find them? Do you have plenty of spare fuel for the lanterns to last for an extended duration? I came home tonight with high winds, heavy rain and power out. I put my plan into action and as usual, found another thing or two I could do better........ How is your plan and are you ready...if not, what are you doing about it!?
I'm excited to hear more here. I hoard batteries, both regular and rechargeable. I have a solar charger. I have tons of propane for our stove and we have a wood stove in our house for heating, though it would be fairly useless for cooking. I'm thinking about getting a starter solar panel or two. I think we'd be ok in place for months. I have two bug out options that both have similar set ups.
It came on for two hours.... went out for an hour and just came back on.... life in the Pacific Northwest!!!!
Glad your power is back on. Our's goes out when the wind gets crazy. The most annoying part for me is having the computer crash in the middle of a book I'm working on, and the time I spend waiting for the power to come back on so I can find out if I have to rewrite half a dozen pages or if the autosave ran in time. I really, really need to get some oil lamps. All our backup lighting now requires batteries.
I have plenty of Duraflame logs since I bought them on sale, and lots of fatwood to use in the portable stove. I could close off most of the house very easily and warm the part I intend to use until bug out is necessary. But, that's only a worst case scenario. I would drain the water lines and use wool to stay warm otherwise, until the winter cold gets to be too much to deal with. Lots of fuel, stoves and lanterns, too. Enough of everything, and a flashlight as well as a fire extinguisher at every necessary location of the house and by both doors. I even went all silly and got myself a carbon monoxide alarm. It also pays to plan ahead --I have steel bars for the windows. Since it may not work for fire code, they are not installed, but I did install the hardware and can snap them in place and screw them tight in a jiffy if need be. I do not have a family to take care of, just myself, so I keep it simple. No need for large amounts of power, I can make due with the basics. A portable solar setup for cellphone, radios and data is ready to go. Multiple water sources locally, enough stored away. Good neighbors, helpful and kind folks in this part of the neighborhood for the most part. But, when the going gets tough, that's when you find out who you can trust and who you can't.
@Yard Dart 's storm blew into my AO while I was at work.. We all knew it was coming and I threw the chain saw in the back of the truck and the tire chains. We checked our emergency gear at work to make sure we could get emergency power to the area's that required it. Not the first time we have had to go through a power loss because of a storm with high winds and we where all ready.. On the drive home, I came across where there was tree's down. Neighbours going home themselves had cut the down tree's back enough so others could drive through and I had a pretty easy commute.. Often enough it had been my duty to cut them back, simply because I drive through so late at night.. When I got home, I had my usual power.. After I started the Gen., and warmth after I stoked up the fire in the wood stove.. Turned on the lap top to see how the Monkey's are doing.. All was normal. I do have the cheep Walley Mart oil lamps, (you get what you can afford) and extra oil for them, so I am ready just in case a tree falls on the Generator shed.. I do covet those mantle oil lamps..Nice and bright!
We have a few old kerosene lamps and keep 5-10 gallons of kerosene on hand. About 2-3 full cords of seasoned oak and a wood stove. As we live in a forest, there is plenty of down timber to gather. A 100 gallons of propane and a heater in the basement to protect the pipes from freezing. There is a T fitting on the propane line and as campers, I have the different regulators (high or low pressure) to run the Camp Chef stove etc. A few inexpensive 10 amp battery packs for charging laptops, phones or anything else that operates on 5VDC. The 2 camper and 3 bass boat batteries are in the garage on a float charger; so if needed I can reduce power on my Ham rigs (HF and VHF) and communicate if needed.
I perhaps have the worst scenario of all. In my 8 years of living on the edge of a large city, power has been out maybe a total of two seconds. Utilities are buried and even though a monsoon storm blew down about 40 or 50 power poles on the large thoroughfare near my home a couple years ago, power for me remained uninterrupted. Why is this the worst scenario? One word, complacency. Do I have flashlights / lanterns / oil lamps at the ready? Nope Although it doesn't often get extremely cold here, do I have an alternate method of heating? Nope Probably more importantly, do I have an alternate source of cooling, or a strategy to deal with 105 + temps and no power? Nope Do I have some alternate source of AC power (gen set, solar with inverter)? Nope - well, not here Do I have extra water on hand? Nope Do I have extra gasoline? Nope I have a few things that could be made use of in a pinch. But will they be enough? Better check. I have a BOL that is well equipped, solar power, water well and pump independent of the grid, lots of extra fuel, gen set, food etc. But it's several hours away. What about right where I am? What if power is lost here for three or four days? Thank you for the wake-up, Yard Dart.
I've got a small gas-powered 6000w generator that is enough to power my 10,000 gallon rainwater cistern pump to get some water (not sure on the well pump yet) and can be used to power fridge/freezers and lights when not using the pump....not ideal but it'll do in a pinch. I usually have a minimum of 25 gallons of gasoline on hand, so I'm good for maybe a week or two. I want to put hand pumps on both the rainwater cistern and on the well. I'd go with solar/wind, batteries, controller and inverter, if I ever win the freakin lottery to afford to do so. For heat, I have a woodburning stove piped into my furnace duct, as well as a propane-powered Big Buddy portable furnace and a open-flame propane heater that I use in the barn sometimes. I usually keep about 60lbs of propane on-hand in 20lb and 1lb tanks for the propane heaters, my grill and my trailer. With them lottery winnings I'd probably get me a big propane tank, adapt the gas furnace to run on propane as well as natural gas, and even get a big propane fridge/freezer. I can always fill the smaller propane tanks from a bigger one. I try to keep a minimum of a cord of wood in the shed...which has a capacity of a good 4 cords, which is what I try to have stocked by this time of year...and room for another cord outside if need be. I also have a small supply of bio-blocks that we keep in the basement...just in case we run out of wood and it's too nasty to go out to the shed. I have assorted oil lamps and battery powered lights & lanterns...I need to build up my stock of lamp oil and batteries tho. We also have a small travel trailer...but only one battery for it at present. I need to add another battery or two plus a solar charger. Air conditioning I can live without...in fact we didn't even have air until we moved into this house. Our walk-out basement here stays nice and cool even on the hottest days, so if I didn't have electricity and it was scorching hot, I'd just hang in the basement. I'm not where I want to be yet, especially when it comes to pumping water, but we can survive a couple of weeks without too much discomfort. We've only been here since July...I think we're making good progress....now only if I could win that danged lottery or have a long lost rich relation kick-off and leave me a fortune....
hmmm, 24+ face cord of oak, hickory and elm. 2 fireplace inserts that have a top large enough for a large skillet and a pot. Many a meal has been prepared on these (sometimes even potatoes on the inside of the stove) Light and heat. Bring it old man winter.
Until those winning numbers come up: Pump was about 50 bucks at Harbor Freight. I made the pump and well cap removable for servicing or for winter storage.
I have my redneck retirement plan in place (lottery ticket) for tomorrow night's drawing. That's when I'll be buying all my backup stuff (genset, lamps, oil & solar system) since I can't afford any of that stuff just now. Wish it were otherwise, but that's the facts. We are firmly in place at the new city house and everything is working fine but I wish for a small generator for the pellet stove and we could switch it out for the fridge and other things. Gotta keep your priorities in line and the budget can only take so much strain. Be well and be blessed, y'all.
10k propane generator with whole house transfer switch and 800 gallons of propane 900w solar with all LED bulbs in house 12 Solar yard lights from 10 to 70 lumens each 7 oil lamps (4 Dietz 80's as shown above) 50+ 100 hour candles 2 bee hives and cotton cord for wicks
We have a solid 10 year plan with about 500 gallons of propane, wood heat, long term gasoline storage. Long term food preps and lots of ammo . Two generators and WATER STORAGE ALL FOR BUG IN.
Yes, nothing beats propane for long term storage. My tank has been sitting ready for 6 years now. I still need second tank with a wet leg for the jeep and to fill smaller tanks.
I have a 500 gallon vapor tank right now. The gas is under pressure. Im looking at getting a 300 gallon tank with what is called a wet leg meaning it draws off the bottom of the tank. this gives you liquid propane into smaller tanks. you have to have a scale under the tank and weigh the propane . So I guess we are talking a gravity feed how ever the gas is under pressure.