Ice Storm, Power outage.

[SavedByGrace3]

Experienced an ice storm and power outage here in SC.
We waited 9 hours for the power to come back on, but could not risk going into the night with no power or heat. So, we went to a hotel for the night.
Adding to the list of needful things:
A nice efficient power generator.
A portable gas heater and a tank.
Get that propane stove up and running.
Take steps to get that solar power system going. We have trees on all sides, so the ones on the south are going to have to go.
A little sterno can stove.

It is nice to have events like this to both test your preparedness and get you going on the to-do list.
We are home now.

 

[bekkilyn]

Glad you got through! I've seen some of the pictures in SC and in some areas it will take days of clean up and melting. My power stayed on but my internet went out for a few hours in the afternoon and evening, so I was very fortunate in that respect. I'll be very happy when my kerosene heater arrives and I'll have it to use as backup power while getting my wood burning insert into shape enough to use.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Glad you got through! I've seen some of the pictures in SC and in some areas it will take days of clean up and melting. My power stayed on but my internet went out for a few hours in the afternoon and evening, so I was very fortunate in that respect. I'll be very happy when my kerosene heater arrives and I'll have it to use as backup power while getting my wood burning insert into shape enough to use.

We have used kerosene in the past. In our younger days we went from wood heat to kerosene. Our first heater was a potbellied stove. We went through a time of poverty in the 70s and had to build a wood heater out of a 55 gallon drum. We prospered a bit and bought a coal-wood heater from Western Auto. I do not remember what happened to that thing.
Today it is hard to find kerosene. I could not tell you where to buy any right now. So we are going with a propane gas heater for backup. I don't know if we will get a big outdoor tank or use the 10-gallon portable. Anyways, we are in our upper 60s and so we cannot get cold, like below freezing cold.
The Lord will direct our paths. He always has.

 

[bekkilyn]

We have used kerosene in the past. In our younger days we went from wood heat to kerosene. Our first heater was a potbellied stove. We went through a time of poverty in the 70s and had to build a wood heater out of a 55 gallon drum. We prospered a bit and bought a coal-wood heater from Western Auto. I do not remember what happened to that thing.
Today it is hard to find kerosene. I could not tell you where to buy any right now. So we are going with a propane gas heater for backup. I don't know if we will get a big outdoor tank or use the 10-gallon portable. Anyways, we are in our upper 60s and so we cannot get cold, like below freezing cold.
The Lord will direct our paths. He always has.

This heater uses something called K-1 that is found in places like Walmart or home improvement stores. It can also be stored inside without risk of explosion. Since I won't be using it except for emergencies, I shouldn't need to be looking for it all the time, especially since it's also more expensive than just using my central heat. I do also have one of those propane buddy heaters. Ultimately I want to have a variety of heat sources so that if supply for one is too hard to get at the time, I have others.

 

[bekkilyn]

We're supposed to have more winter weather Friday and Saturday. Not sure if my heater will come in time, though it is currently being processed for shipping, but I did just put in an order with Walmart for some fuel which should come in a couple of days.

 

[bekkilyn]

UPS just gave me a delivery date for the heater. It should arrive on Thursday, which is before the icy weather!

 

[Kettriken]

Take steps to get that solar power system going. We have trees on all sides, so the ones on the south are going to have to go.

I'm always sad to see trees go, but sometimes it's necessary. Do you have any open land further out from the house that would be suitable for a solar array? Glad you're getting through!

 

[Sophrosyne]

We experienced a massive power outage here back in 2007 and we had to resort to using the burners on the stove to heat the house as the oven didn't work. As for the kerosene heater I recall working once and the old man I worked for used a kerosene heater fueled with diesel to heat a garage I was working in at the time. It didn't burn too clean but the heat was very welcome. We have natural gas heating here but the central heating uses a blower and electronics to run it. When I was growing up we had small heaters in bathrooms and one in a fireplace downstairs and had a few short power outages the longest one was about 3 days when someone driving recklessly spun out and snapped a power pole in 3 pieces and that force in turn snapped 2 more poles and broke the power wires for almost half a mile down the road and it took several days to replace the poles and the wiring.

If I ever get my own place I plan on installing spare heaters that operate without needing fans or a generator setup that can power the blower so we have heat in the house as running that stove for over 4 days drove heating bills up about $100 more that month than usual. I do have a forced air kerosene heater in the garage but not enough fuel for it to wait out several days outage.

 

[Kettriken]

We experienced a massive power outage here back in 2007 and we had to resort to using the burners on the stove to heat the house as the oven didn't work. As for the kerosene heater I recall working once and the old man I worked for used a kerosene heater fueled with diesel to heat a garage I was working in at the time. It didn't burn too clean but the heat was very welcome. We have natural gas heating here but the central heating uses a blower and electronics to run it. When I was growing up we had small heaters in bathrooms and one in a fireplace downstairs and had a few short power outages the longest one was about 3 days when someone driving recklessly spun out and snapped a power pole in 3 pieces and that force in turn snapped 2 more poles and broke the power wires for almost half a mile down the road and it took several days to replace the poles and the wiring.

If I ever get my own place I plan on installing spare heaters that operate without needing fans or a generator setup that can power the blower so we have heat in the house as running that stove for over 4 days drove heating bills up about $100 more that month than usual. I do have a forced air kerosene heater in the garage but not enough fuel for it to wait out several days outage.

Be safe! Poorly ventilated gas stoves can kill. We lost two elderly gentlemen a few years back who were heating with their oven.

 

[Sophrosyne]

Be safe! Poorly ventilated gas stoves can kill. We lost two elderly gentlemen a few years back who were heating with their oven.

We were using the stove top and had used it one other time before and checked it from time to time. Natural gas burns very clean and if there are leaks they put in some stuff that makes it smell so you can detect gas leaks. The biggest problem was making sure the excessive constant heat wasn't going to do something to the area around the stove I made sure and turned down the burners from max output so the amount of heat wouldn't be a problem as it was left on for several hours checking it about every 15-30 minutes to make sure everything was good. It definitely saved our bacon here as over half the state was without power I doubt we could have found anywhere to go at that time, that is something to consider in an outage or some other disaster or emergency where can you go and stay for awhile especially when all the hotels and such are booked up.

 

[Kettriken]

We were using the stove top and had used it one other time before and checked it from time to time. Natural gas burns very clean and if there are leaks they put in some stuff that makes it smell so you can detect gas leaks. The biggest problem was making sure the excessive constant heat wasn't going to do something to the area around the stove I made sure and turned down the burners from max output so the amount of heat wouldn't be a problem as it was left on for several hours checking it about every 15-30 minutes to make sure everything was good. It definitely saved our bacon here as over half the state was without power I doubt we could have found anywhere to go at that time, that is something to consider in an outage or some other disaster or emergency where can you go and stay for awhile especially when all the hotels and such are booked up.

Good looking out. It's tricky when there is nowhere else to go and the temp is dropping. A carbon monoxide detector is very helpful, as that is the primary danger in the situation, but some smoke alarms have them built in.

I've thought a lot about how we could work with local friends and family to conserve resources/stay warm in the event of an outage. We are all decently prepared, so in the short term relationships and personal interactions might be more of a challenge than just keeping warm and fed.

 

[Sophrosyne]

Good looking out. It's tricky when there is nowhere else to go and the temp is dropping. A carbon monoxide detector is very helpful, as that is the primary danger in the situation, but some smoke alarms have them built in.

I've thought a lot about how we could work with local friends and family to conserve resources/stay warm in the event of an outage. We are all decently prepared, so in the short term relationships and personal interactions might be more of a challenge than just keeping warm and fed.

I had neighbors that were without power for over a week because they couldn't get equipment there to fix a broken power pole in the back yard of a neighbor. It got a little boring too I played a lot of solitaire and listened to the portable radio. Since that time I've got a portable dvd player and better lights for such an event.

 

[Kettriken]

I had neighbors that were without power for over a week because they couldn't get equipment there to fix a broken power pole in the back yard of a neighbor. It got a little boring too I played a lot of solitaire and listened to the portable radio. Since that time I've got a portable dvd player and better lights for such an event.

I'll have to remember this story for when my husband complains that I have too many books around the house

 

[Sophrosyne]

I'll have to remember this story for when my husband complains that I have too many books around the house

Board games can be fun in an outage, but I also added a 12V TV set and have a Sony 12V blu-ray player and I have adapters for them so I could even watch over the air TV in an outage off my car battery. I am glad that I had a 12v nimh battery charger as I recharged about 36AAs over the almost 5 days of outage to power my lights I used to play cards and navigate my house. I've since invested in some 3AA puck lights I got from walmart for about $5 for 4 of them they should run for several days at the low levels. I have them strategically placed around the house including the bathroom and kitchen. In a power outage it is nice to have dim area lights so you can navigate everywhere in the house needed. I also have a nice headlamp which comes in handy as you can do things with both hands free which sometimes when you have an outage you end up needing to do more work and dragging lights from room to room and getting the light where you need it can be a chore but a headlamp the light is where you need it and stays with you.

 

[Kettriken]

Board games can be fun in an outage, but I also added a 12V TV set and have a Sony 12V blu-ray player and I have adapters for them so I could even watch over the air TV in an outage off my car battery. I am glad that I had a 12v nimh battery charger as I recharged about 36AAs over the almost 5 days of outage to power my lights I used to play cards and navigate my house. I've since invested in some 3AA puck lights I got from walmart for about $5 for 4 of them they should run for several days at the low levels. I have them strategically placed around the house including the bathroom and kitchen. In a power outage it is nice to have dim area lights so you can navigate everywhere in the house needed. I also have a nice headlamp which comes in handy as you can do things with both hands free which sometimes when you have an outage you end up needing to do more work and dragging lights from room to room and getting the light where you need it can be a chore but a headlamp the light is where you need it and stays with you.

We have some of the hardware for rechargeable batteries, but the original batteries are long gone. Replacements are hard to find, but I admit to needing to look harder.

Thankfully, we have a lot of headlamps, lanterns, stoves, etc. for camping that we can use if things go wrong, but our power line is close enough to the transfer station that it tends to not go out for long.

 

[mama2one]

our furnace was out for hours one winter
it did go down to about 50 or 52 degrees in house
we weren't able to find someone for repair until late evening (it was a Sunday)

we put coats on & fortunately the repair man was able to fix furnace

 

[Sophrosyne]

We have some of the hardware for rechargeable batteries, but the original batteries are long gone. Replacements are hard to find, but I admit to needing to look harder.

Thankfully, we have a lot of headlamps, lanterns, stoves, etc. for camping that we can use if things go wrong, but our power line is close enough to the transfer station that it tends to not go out for long.

Not too hard to find chargers and batteries IMO...... I've gone to lithium ion batteries in a lot of things as they are easier to use and higher power density than other types. I would like to get a propane heater, but if I were well off I would look into something like the 20V dewalt propane heater.

 

[Sophrosyne]

our furnace was out for hours one winter
it did go down to about 50 or 52 degrees in house
we weren't able to find someone for repair until late evening (it was a Sunday)

we put coats on & fortunately the repair man was able to fix furnace

I had my furnace act up even with power and had to figure out how to fix it myself else I would have had to turn on the stove as it was in the 20s outside