What can't/can you do when the power goes out during the day at your house?

Aneeda72

Aneeda72

Well-known Member
Power just came back on, good thing I didn't have my recliner tipped too far back, I would have been trapped.

I had just made myself a cup of tea and sat down to watch my recorded tv shows. No tv. Can't leave the house unless husband gets up. Have to take his old car. Garage door is automatic, no getting the van out. Hmm, fireplace is on, gas, can I turn it off? Will it turn off? It certainly won't turn back on if I turn it off.

Husband is a day sleeper. He is on a C-PAP machine. It turns off, he wakes up, goes back to sleep. No lights but I open a curtain, still a bit dark in the family room. Can't use the iPad or computer. Won't be able to make lunch-no stove or microwave. Too quiet, get cell phone, play music list. Get book, read.

Electric is supposed to be out for five hours. The electric company is wrong-half an hour later back on. YAY. Don't know why it went off, but strange, when it did all the dogs in the neighborhood started barking. I heard no explosion.
 

Our power goes out quite frequently. A year ago it was out for several days during the winter. After that stretch we decided to get a generator. We have an all electric house and we are able to turn the heat on and off in each room. We only use the generator to keep our freezers and refrigerator running and the room we are in at the time and for my bird. It is costly running it for the entire house.
 
Our power rarely goes out. We are on the same grid as the hospital,so I think that may be why. We only get a blip once in a while. Just enough to mess up all the clocks lol. When we moved to this county,we were told that the power goes out frequently,but in 27 years and 3 different houses,that hasn`t been our experience at all. Well,except for the fires last summer-power was off for over a week. But we were evacuated so wasn`t a problem. Except for the fridge when we came back.....:eeew::eeew::eeew:
 

Not in a house anymore, but living in a senior apartment complex on the 3rd floor, made me come to the realization that when power goes out, so does the elevator! ;) ... and power has gone out a couple times in the past year .. for an hour or two each time as I recall.
It can be a very serious problem in a complex like this as there are many seniors who cannot get out w/o working elevators, and other health issues that require electricity on a daily basis.

There's no problem in my apartment itself w/o power for a short time, plenty of windows and patio door light, but I bought a Trolley Dolly stair climber cart for emergencies. Haven't had to use it yet, but it will haul up to 150 lbs. (groceries) up/down three flights of stairs.
That would be fun! NOT

Lil'Bear and I walk up and down all those stairs about 1-2 times a week now for added exercise. (punishment)
It was painful at first .. I was not used to stair climbing at all before moving here. But glad I'm doin it.
 
I live in the sticks. So when the power goes out so does the well pump- NO WATER.
But the thing I do when the power goes out is do stupid things. Like if this light doesn't work, I'll just plug this one right in here. DUH
 
I wouldn't have a problem using my ipad..it would run on it's battery for quite a few hours on 4G and I could even watch tv on it .. .. but the laptop & desktop wouldn't be any good.

I'd still have lots of light due to many windows, but if it happened in the dark, I've got lots of candles..

Got lots of Books... got an Iphone that's always fully charged when I'm home and still have a landline too, so I wouldn't be cut off from anyone

Got a Gas stove so I can cook.. I'd use a match rather then the electronic ignition..

The Gas central heating would be off, because the pump and the fan is electric ...

I could have a shower without the electronic pumps running if necessary...

We do get quite a few power cuts in a year but usually not for longer than 30 minutes or so...
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I live in the sticks. So when the power goes out so does the well pump- NO WATER.
But the thing I do when the power goes out is do stupid things. Like if this light doesn't work, I'll just plug this one right in here. DUH
Click to expand...

Oh yes,in the sticks here too. No electricity=no well pump= no water. Thankfully,during the fires,there were angels (my son in laws electrical co-workers,another friend who drives a water truck and was free to drive around the area,and the fantastic organization called LEAP,who all came in and brought food and bottled water to my cats.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I live in the sticks. So when the power goes out so does the well pump- NO WATER.
But the thing I do when the power goes out is do stupid things. Like if this light doesn't work, I'll just plug this one right in here. DUH
Click to expand...

Same here. I heat with wood/coal, cook stove is propane so no problem with either of those. But the well pump of course doesn't work with no power.

I've had a basement since 1989 and never had a sump pump because I didn't need one. Until 2014. Had torrential rains twice that summer, so had to buy a sump pump. Basement flooded again the following year too.

My biggest fear was having flooding rains and having the power, and thus the sump pump, go out. So last spring I had a whole-house generator installed. It's all automatic -- power goes out for a few seconds and the generator starts. When it switches over I can do anything, live as I normally would, using whatever I want to use. It runs off my 500-gallon propane tank, so no fooling around filling a gas tank, etc.

But no floods or long-term power outages since. But I'm sure there will be at some point.
 
I'm already off grid, so business as usual.

I've heard about power outages in our area
Heh, never knew
 
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It only happens around here maybe once/year. My only concern is lighting, so I have several LED lanterns & powerful flashlights always ready.
 
It's not much of a problem here - maybe an hour or two each year. A longer outage would be inconvenient as most things rely on electricity, although we have a log burning stove in the lounge. We did have one power cut while making Sunday dinner, but the campervan is just outside, so I finished the cooking in its gas oven.
 
We lose power a few times each year and have a generator that will run the heat and the well pump (if it's out long enough to warrant it). My real frustration is the range. When we bought the house a few years ago, it came with a brand new electric range. NO POWER - NO COFFEE! I'm too cheap to replace it with gas range quite yet, so when the electricity goes down for any length of time I either light the wood stove or tough it out! :upset:
 
Tommy said:
We lose power a few times each year and have a generator that will run the heat and the well pump (if it's out long enough to warrant it). My real frustration is the range. When we bought the house a few years ago, it came with a brand new electric range. NO POWER - NO COFFEE! I'm too cheap to replace it with gas range quite yet, so when the electricity goes down for any length of time I either light the wood stove or tough it out! :upset:
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Yuh, Tom - -Without coffee it's close to a life threatening emergency - -at least in my case.
 
We're on a well. When the power goes, no water. So, no water, no flushing. That's the real issue for us. But, in decades living in the same house, we've only had a couple of extended power outages and probably no more than a dozen outages in 30 years, most of them no longer than a few hours.
 
we had an outage here for 3 days during the winter no heat or no electric---my sil set up the grill and we cooked on it ----put bags of ice cubes in freezer
 
We lost our power last year when Hurricane Irma hit us here in Jacksonville, FL. It hit us on a Sunday night and our power went out twice. I reset the clocks twice. The third time, it didn't come back on. Wife and I have a flashlight on each side of our bed, on the bed stand. Had to watch how much we used our iPhones, due to battery going down. Then, I remember that we could, if need be, turn the engine in our vehicle and plug the phones into the power source on the dash panel. Ended up that that wasn't needed. Had a small battery operated radio, so we could keep up with what was happening in the area. Also had a battery operated DVD Player, so we could watch a movie. Monday was just sitting around. On Tuesday AM, went to Waffle House for a limited breakfast menu. Was able to see all of the down trees in the area.

Stopped by the Dry Storage where our boat is and all of the boats were fine that were sitting in the racks, where ours was. Two docks had broken away, but employees were able to retrieve them and tie them up to another dock. The creek and river had rose quite a bit and the sales office almost got completely flooded.

Electricity came back on that Tuesday evening and boy were we happy. Everything in the frig had to be thrown out. There were those that really complained about how much food they lost in their frigs.

What is funny, during the big snowstorms and blizzards we had in Colorado, not once did we ever lose power for more than two minutes. Will take a snowstorm or blizzard any day over a hurricane!

And, btw, the St Johns River here, looked like a junkyard. Boats floating down that broke away from their docks, picnic tables floating in the river and other things. A large barge, with a built-in lift, had to go down the river pulling things out of the water. Our boat mechanic told us that the river was a real mess.

Already had our large cooler filled with ice, some cold cuts, mustard, mayo, beer and water.
 
I cannot cook any meals when the power is out. I worry about the frozen food in my freezer.

Otherwise it's no big deal. The heat is off as well because I have electric heat.

But a place will stay warm for quite a while before it becomes a problem.
 
I guess this is where our (wacko) prepper mentality comes shining through. :D We have a well, but, I also have a deep water spring that flows so my supply of water isn't really bothered if for instance, my generator should quit providing power for the well. And, I'm blessed that our spring water can be used for drinking straight up with no gut issues. (I drink it all the time in when working in the area)
Meanwhile, the wife will be on her computer (powered off our solar system) checking for the reason and time length for the outage. :eek:kay:. The solar also handles both the fridge and freezer, so no lost food.
Of course, the wood stove is percolating my coffee, and if for some reason, it's in the hottest part of the summer, rather than light the wood stove, I break out the little LP burner out doors and cook the coffee. :)
Now, if all else fails, we can always go out to the yard and stay in the self contained motor home.
 

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