Loss Of Electricity In Winter

[WalkingMan]

Do you have a way in the wintertime to heat your house and cook if your electricity goes off? Several years ago I lived in a house that thankfully, had gas heat. The electricity was off for a week. It was really rough on some people but we were OK there. The problem is where we live now. It's all electric and it would be hard to make it now. How about you?

 

[hikingprincess]

We have a generator for when the power goes out but I was not so lucky a few years ago when my whole state got blanketed in this awful ice storm. We did not have heat, electricity or hot water for over a week and it sucked!

 

[northernbushape]

We have a fireplace that will do the job nicely for both cooking and heat. My biggest worry would be my fish tank. Unfortunately for the fish they would not make the priority survival list and I would have to donate them to a pet store so they would not freeze to death. Both my wife's SUV and my Jeep have inverters in them so in a pinch we could power some items temporarily, but those would be sparingly used and only smaller appliances can be run off them.

I have most of my firewood laid in for the winter already and more will be brought in in the next couple weeks. We also have emergency food stashed away for just such an event, so I think we would be okay for a while for sure. They are calling for a harsh winter here this year, so hopefully we will not have to put it to the test :tinysmile_hmm_t:

 

[SmackontheWeb]

Winter power-outages are fairly common in these parts (very rural, mid-TN). Usually it's no more than a few hours (kamakazi squirrles) but after ice storms we have seen up to two/three weeks without electricity. We have a fireplace in the house and an old cast-iron wood burning stove in the barn. Live in the middle of 20 heavily-wooded acres so fuel to burn for heat/cooking is not a problem. Water is no problem since we generally get more rain than snow in the winters. Between 55-gal barrel rainwater collecter and natural stream on the property, we're covered there. Not as stocked up on food as I'd like to be but we could probably go a few months before I would have to take to the woods for food. Deer, turkey, quail, rabbit, squirrel, wild hogs...

 

[GPER]

I keep a kerosene heater that will heat the house and keep the pipes from freezing. I also keep about 20 gallons of kerosene on hand during the winter. If the power doesn't go out it is great for the garage.

 

[Thumper]

I've got to get a generator for my place. We don't have any heat source. We live in a very small place and a kerosene heater would just stink us out of the place. I've thought about retrofitting the house with a fireplace but the time and the money just hasn't been there for it.

 

[Hannah]

We have a wood stove that heats the house nicely and we could cook on it, worse case we also have the bbq, I have been known to fire it up in the middle of winter. We have an inverter, but I think it has since calved.

 

[puddle jumper]

We have gas for our heat, stove, and water heater. So while it would be inconvenient without power, we could get by. We've been pretty lucky and haven't had the power go out for more than a few hours in the last few years.

 

[dinosaur]

I've never had that problem. Of course, my electricity is all Solar.