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

[Torvy]

If it was an attack sort of thing, we could live off of the pantry and the land for a good bit. Neighbors are few, but like minded. We would have a militia of sorts going within days. We are capable of heating with fire, but rarely would need it down here. Summer would get sticky.

Most of Texas is not tied to a national grid. My understanding is that we are in the exception area.

I'm more worried about my kids and siblings. All further away and all live in cities or 'burbs.

 

[Sigarms]

We will kill to defend our family, friends and homes. We will kill those who intend to take the resources we have put aside to stay alive.

I will die instead of watching animals raping the people I love.

BTW, that was my approach long before I accepted Jesus in the later stage of my life.

Of course what you state is more than common sense than anything else, and per your examples are pretty much black and white as to why your scenario of killing would be justified to pretty much anyone with an ounce of common sense.

I was a very much black and white guy when I was younger.

The issue is as I've gotten older is that the life is seldom black and white, and has a whole lot of gray involved that makes the decision making process not as easy.

If I remember correctly you son really didn't want any guns of yours because of his wife. So, if by chance for whatever reason your son and daughter in law should wonder into our "camp" unarmed when the world has gone to crap and they're looking for "help", I tell them to get lost or be killed?

Don't get me wrong, it's not like my wife and I couldn't survive for some time on our own, but I found some time ago that if I'm preparing for the end of the world for survival "long term", I sincerely question at my age why I really want to be a part of it.

I looked at a whole home generator some time ago when I took some training on them and had the opportunity to get one at a decent deal. At least in the southeast, 22KW is more common than the smaller ones normally sold up north. We're stuck on LP for fuel other than electric. If I was running that full tilt at 8 hours a day, I'd have no more than two months fuel. When I found that out, I was like why spend the money just to live life easy for a couple of weeks that in general I'll never use? Way I see it, just get use to camping 24/7. I use to be pretty good at living off the grid, but now at my age, much rather a hotel room vs sleeping on the ground LOL

For many of us as we get older, it's an uphill battle without good medical to boot.

 

[mikester]

The frequency of extended electricity outages is pretty low in my area. Our uptime is better than 99%. Hard for me to justify the expense of buying and maintaining the hardware as I don't have anything "mission critical" requiring power 24/7 with 100% uptime. More of a concern for chicken farmers in my area

 

[Jstpssng]

How many of you with plans to run generator for the long term have it protected against an EPM? Especially with increased sunspot activity for the next 11 years or so, that is just as likely to cause long term outages as a terrorist attack.
Our grid is completely unprotected for either of those.

 

[Sigarms]

How many of you with plans to run generator for the long term have it protected against an EPM? Especially with increased sunspot activity for the next 11 years or so, that is just as likely to cause long term outages as a terrorist attack.
Our grid is completely unprotected for either of those.

A 22KW generator running 100% of the time will use approximately 3 gallons of LP per hour, and I could be wrong about that so someone can check me on that, but I do know I raised my hand in class to double check the usage (we have a 500 gallon tank) and all I know is when I did the math on the loads and usage of LP, no way could I justify it for the amount of time without power.

With our home, the below grade basement requires little to no AC in the basement during summer months. Been here going over 20 years. Numerous 3-5 hour down times with electric due to various storms. Worst I can remember is 3 days without power. Do have millivolt gas logs for back up heat which would help the first and second floor for heat in colder winter months.

Sooner or later though, if the grid is down, don't expect LP deliveries

NC is actually a pretty nice state when it comes to weather except for the summer months, but it's still better than SC or Georgia when it comes to being hot LOL

 

[Omega Woods]

We've been freeze drying our freezer food and have done enough to get two of us for a long time plus three freezers still full of food. We also have canned goods, beans, rice and pasta and a couple hundred gallons of water in 7-gallon totes with apparatus to collect more if needed. Guns and ammo. A solar generator with 400w of portable panels. Rocket stove in a bucket. Propane stove. Grill with 2-100# propane cylinders. Big garden. Manual tools. Lots of books. EMT-Class medical kit. And lots more. We're also laying in supplies for the kids and grandkids that will be relying on us.

I work for an electric utility. The grid is vulnerable and essentially unprotectable from some types of threats (EPM, Carrington event). There are lots of other ways for things to go south, as you know. Civil unrest, a pandemic with a 10+% fatality rate, supply chain breakdowns, in addition to normal severe weather stuff. Maybe none of this will happen, I hope it doesn't but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't think about how it could go and be ready for eventualities.

It's true that the scenario may be beyond what we've prepared for but I'd prefer to move that needle down the scale while times are good, if possible.
It's not functionally different than home, auto or life insurance, just takes a different form.

 

[YanmarFever]

^^^^^^

 

[MoKelly]

Generator theft during outages happen here…

I’m afraid if the food supply was impacted it would only be a matter of time for lawlessness to expand.

Yep - remember Katrina and New Orleans?

Given current lawlessness, it’s not hard to imagine total anarchy.

 

[Preacher81]

My biggest concern would be water, we live on a hill with no well or spring and we are about 2 miles from the river. We have plenty of food we have canned from the garden and plenty of firepower to protect it. I need to get a generator to power our 4 deep freezers though. I could live without light or a stove, we have plenty of outdoor cooking equipment.

 

[EddieWalker]

For years, I relied on my little Honda generator that puts out 13 amps. It's enough to power the TV, the computer, some lights and phone chargers. But not much more.

Last year I got a duel fuel 10,000 watt Challenger generator with an electric starter. We used it for the first time yesterday. I woke up to the power being out at 6 am and got it going right away. We have two incubators full of eggs that I didn't want to risk losing. One is Rio Grande Turkeys, the other is Guineas.

It's super loud. Almost painfully loud. I set it up on the back porch, but really need to find a place farther away for it. We had plenty of power to plug things into it with extension cords, but it's a pain. Power was only out for 10 hours. We've had a lot of heavy storms and the ground is saturated. Saturday nights storm was 2 inches of steady rain and we're guessing a tree fell over and took out the line.

Longest we've gone without power was a week because of snow. Honda generator and the wood stove was all we needed, but more power would of been better.

I'm thinking about a transfer switch so we don't have to unplug everything. I'm just not sure if I want to buy one for 10,000 watts, or wait until I get a bigger, better generator. My long term goal is to have one that runs off of Natural Gas. I have the line run to the land, I just haven't had it hooked up to my house yet. That's something I'm working on, but it keeps getting put back to do other more pressing projects.

I'm also thinking of just connecting the power to an outlet, and turning off the main breaker. If we only use the minimum stuff, it should have enough power, but I'm unsure about doing this. I need to read up on it some more.

We can food from the garden and we have plenty of livestock, so there shouldn't be a food issue. Our biggest concern is electricity.