What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss?

[grsthegreat]

Yeiks… i just had my 1000 gal tank filled last week. $1.68 per gal. Whys it so high up your way.

on mine, i wont run it during nighttime sleep time or during the day during long outage. But i personally dont care what it costs….im lazy and like my comforts.

 

[YanmarFever]

Would diesel be any cheaper for you instead of propane.
I always have 200 gals on hand for the farm so I would use that if I have too.
Plus diesel would be easier to find and bring home in a tank in the back of a truck.

 

[newbury]

Most of Texas is not tied to a national grid.

That's a political decision.
linky

If it gets that bad the last thing a propane delivery driver is going to give a crap about is delivering you propane. They are going to be at home with their families trying to sort their own problems out.

And probably with a propane truck or two, full.

richest 5%

Which in the US

Top 5% wealth: The next tier, the top 5%, has a net worth of around $1.03 million.

and

In the United States, the concept of being rich is often a subject of discussion, curiosity and, sometimes, aspiration. Charles Schwab's 2023 Modern Wealth Survey provides insights into this topic, revealing that the average American equates being wealthy with a net worth of approximately $2.2 million.

So being rich is relative.

As I've written before her my Grandfather was a Mormon and big on stocking up a years supply of everything. So I try to stay stocked up.

Being prepared for a long term ANYTHING outage depends on what ANYTHING is.
MY last experience with a relatively long term ELECTRICAL outage was in northern Virginia (Alexandria) where some sections lost power for a few weeks after a storm. Basically we just hunkered down. But it wasn't widespread like the Texas ice storm problem. Plus the area is populated by a LOT of military and prior military so there was stability.

For the last 12 years I've been trying to retire to northeast Mississippi. Here a power outage of a few days is rare, but it happens. And it seems people just start to "hunker down".

In both areas I've seen that most of the top 5% have stocked foods, pharma, generators. In Mississippi there seems to be many who still like to maintain a basement of home canned goods. Also in both areas presence of a LOT of prior military provides stability. And in both areas one of the most needed resources - WATER - comes from the sky, with average rainfall of 4' or more a sheet of plastic can gather a lot of water.

I'm more concerned with cult followers and uprisings for cult beliefs.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

It's nice to have a hands-off system in place that automatically provides power when it goes out, along with an automatic weekly test to ensure the generator is running correctly.

That's how mine came programmed, which I quickly changed.

In my mind it's engine cruelty to cold start one that often, and then not run it long enough for the oil to warm up.

Now it starts once a month and runs for about 25 minutes. And I might change that to every three months, or more. After all, if pickups, tractors, backhoes, and other stuff can sit for six months or more without needless cold starts, why couldn't a generator?

 

[Hay Dude]

If power goes you will not be getting any propane delivered. Gas pumps that run the truck are electric. If power goes out for over a month it will be very messy.

Hence the idea I stated in in the beginning of a very large tank that was constantly topped off.

 

[Hay Dude]

Nothing, 62 years old, lived in Minnesota all my life and I think I’ve only gone a couple days without power.

We own a food truck so we have 3 huge freezers with about 400 lbs of brisket 500 lbs of pork butt’s and 60 racks of ribs and on racks in the garage is about 450 16.9 oz bottles of water and 500 cans of pop

Damn I love good Brisket. I know where I’m goin. I’ll bring the beer.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

And why I pointed out that I'd have to bring a generator to the propane yard to power their supply tank's pump.

 

[Torvy]

That's a political decision.

That is also a very wise decision. A decentralized grid is much safer overall. Harder for a single incident to have as widespread of impact.

 

[Hay Dude]

Throughout history, many wars were fought because people thought the supreme being warranted it. If SHTF there won't be just two sides, there will be TOO many sides and most people won't really know which side they are really on. As someone said....it will be bad. I know many good people and I would like to work WITH them through hardships.

I know which side I will be on.
God‘s side.

 

[grsthegreat]

That's how mine came programmed, which I quickly changed.

In my mind it's engine cruelty to cold start one that often, and then not run it long enough for the oil to warm up.

Now it starts once a month and runs for about 25 minutes. And I might change that to every three months, or more. After all, if pickups, tractors, backhoes, and other stuff can sit for six months or more without needless cold starts, why couldn't a generator?

a generator is an emergency backup device. Weekly runs keep all parts lubed up, but more importantly makes sure it runs. I like heating mine fire up weekly. I have units with 1000’s of hours on them fire up weekly and no issues. Then again, ive seen units with 20 hrs with a blown engine. Who can say why it blew….but its nice to fix it in calm summer and not during a windy, raining power outage.

 

[grsthegreat]

That is also a very wise decision. A decentralized grid is much safer overall. Harder for a single incident to have as widespread of impact.

Well….texas has alot of power loss issues. And then cant get power from another source.

 

[drssg]

That's how mine came programmed, which I quickly changed.

In my mind it's engine cruelty to cold start one that often, and then not run it long enough for the oil to warm up.

Now it starts once a month and runs for about 25 minutes. And I might change that to every three months, or more. After all, if pickups, tractors, backhoes, and other stuff can sit for six months or more without needless cold starts, why couldn't a generator?

I can understand the thinking here. On the flip side, if there is a problem, such as a battery gone bad, it increases the risk that the problem won't be discovered until the next power outage, and the generator doesn't work.

 

[Hay Dude]

In 15 years we've lost power for more than a week 4 times, the longest was 20 days. I have a cheap chinese durostar generator from amazon I bought in 2015 and it has thousands of hours on it by now. We lose power once a month and it's been amazing. It runs 24/7 during outages with me going to fill up the tank every 8 hours.

I'm putting up solar panels to get off the generator and building out battery storage as we speak.

In Eastern PA? That’s a crazy long time. I’m in SE PA and our longest was 5 days, but I have a whole house gen set, so we breezed through it.

Would like to chat with you sometime on solar/batteries. I’m pushing my chips in on propane for the typical outages and a very large tank and a barn with solar on the roof with batts.

 

[newbury]

Well….texas has alot of power loss issues. And then cant get power from another source.

But apparently all Texans agree with the policy.

 

[ultrarunner]

a generator is an emergency backup device. Weekly runs keep all parts lubed up, but more importantly makes sure it runs. I like heating mine fire up weekly. I have units with 1000’s of hours on them fire up weekly and no issues. Then again, ive seen units with 20 hrs with a blown engine. Who can say why it blew….but its nice to fix it in calm summer and not during a windy, raining power outage.

For years the hospital backup generators exercised weekly.

This changed about 9 years ago when the new air regs stopped the practice so now it’s once a month and we’ll documented at that.

 

[WinterDeere]

Read it, audiobook it... whatever. This book paints an ugly picture of this exact scenario:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=one+second+after&adgrpid=1334807679368084&hvadid=83425550839167&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=95586&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83425820996803%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=24659_10678146&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_80ibb16u7w_e

 

[grsthegreat]

But apparently all Texans agree with the policy.

I have a cousin that lives outside austin. Ive talked to her. She, and most of her friends HATE it. On last power outage, their rates went up about 10x normal during the troubled times. Their utilities can charge whatever they want. Look it up, there lots of articles about this.

ERCOT overcharged power companies $16 billion for electricity during winter freeze, firm says

An independent market monitor for the Public Utility Commission of Texas wrote in a letter that the power grid operator kept market prices too high for nearly two days after widespread outages ended.

www.texastribune.org

 

[grsthegreat]

Heres another

Report Reveals Texas Had Most Major Power Outages In U.S. State During Past 20 Years - Reform Austin

According to a recent report from ClimateCentral.org, Texas experienced 180 of the 1,542 major power outages between 2000 and 2021.

www.reformaustin.org

 

[Torvy]

Well….texas has alot of power loss issues. And then cant get power from another source.

Actually we have fewer issues than many places that are on the shared grid. Our issues just make the news because NY media hates Texas.

 

[Hay Dude]

Actually we have fewer issues than many places that are on the shared grid. Our issues just make the news because NY media hates Texas.

And the DC media, and the LA media, and the Chicago media…..

Envy is a sin and an ugly emotion