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

[Yander]

Curious what you all do to be prepared for a long term power outage due to weather, grid damaged by whatever. I've been telling may family to be prepared in the even of a sustained outage (longer than a month or two).

I don't feel sufficiently prepared for an outage that long, and I know my kids are not. If we had a coordinated attack on our grid that took out major components it could take months to get some things back in operation.

Right now, I have two generators, access to 100 gallons of gas, a freezer full of food and some canning supplies (not enough). I have a plan but would need to get a few more supplies. I do plan to put in a larger than normal garden this year, partly because of food prices and health reasons.

 

[ericm979]

I think an extended outage like you are describing is very unlikely unless you're very remote. If it does happen it'll be part of a much larger collapse. At some point it becomes too much to prepare for.

We have outages of a week or 10 days pretty often. The terrain here is not easy for power distribution and our power company is terrible at everything, especially maintenance. We keep a bunch of gas for our generator. We have always been able to run into town for more but sometimes it's been an adventure getting past down trees and under sagging powerlines.

The ideal solution for my area is a solar array, a big bank of batteries, and a generator to top the batteries up when it's overcast for days on end in a big storm. Neighbors have that and it works well. But its not cheap.

 

[drssg]

Our whole house generator is powered by a 1000 gallon propane tank. If the generator runs 24 hours straight, it uses about 5% of the tank. If I had reason to believe that there was going to be an extended outage, I could get by running it for a few hours a day, to keep food from spoiling in the refrigerator and freezer.

We have lots of non-perishable food in the basement. I would prefer to not live on it, but it would work in a pinch.

 

[MattB4]

I run an Off grid solar AIO with GAB (Grid as backup) setup. Most of the time my home is powered from solar/battery unless several days of bad weather require a transfer to utility. The AIO operates like a computers UPS (uninterruptible power supply) but you can choose preferred power and alternate supply. If you want solar/battery as preferred it will use those until they are insufficient and automatically transfer to grid when they are not. While on grid the inverter switches to become the battery charger.

Solar to an AIO setup and critical load panel can be sized for the basics or as much as you care to invest.

I can also use a gas inverter generator if grid is down. I do not keep a lot of fuel on hand because the sun generally provides.

 

[JasperFrank]

Canned goods is the way to go. You can always eat and make a fire. I don't understand high priced prepper stuff.

 

[YanmarFever]

If the power grid goes down longer than a week or two in the large cities, crime will explode along with burglaries & rioting.
Heck look at what's happening in todays colleges, and those are brats that are well off.
Folks should have a generator, fuel, food and a way to protect your family.
I personally have a diesel gen set and solar power to keep us going but for how long?

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[JasperFrank]

When the last ice storm happened last Feb, which isolated our community with so many tree falls, we got alerted that power was not coming back for weeks. We are somewhat use to this, so old timers have well stocked pantries. A very surprising thing happened. The neighbors, all phoned, or visited each other, by foot, to see how they were doing. And the conversations went something like, "I have this, if you need that. Do you need anything?" Drinking Water was a big deal as was diesel and gas for the generators. There was no fear of some sort of malevolent raiders. They couldn't get up the hill any way by any sort of vehicle. As soon as it became safe to go out, the chainsaws and everyone's' SCUTs were put to use. Two mile road was cleared in 1/2 a day. Messy and expedient, but done. I don't worry about civilization breaking down in a crisis. It is the opposite; at least in my community.

 

[steve tym]

Diesel gen, because in the zombie appocolypes, everybody around here has 275 gallons of diesel in their basement. Who's gonna bring you propane? High priced prepper food. Guns, because civilization will break down. Coming to my house? bring the 3 F's. Food, fuel, firearms.
Short term, the community is great. Long term, the city folks will be in big trouble and come looking for your stuff.

 

[Jstpssng]

When I moved here 20 years ago I was prepared for long term outages. They never happened until last year so when it was finally out for a week I discovered that my generator won't run my freezers.
I plan to pick up a 3pth generator and keep extra diesel on hand. Water isn't a problem, I can carry it down from my spring. The only thing I worry about is my freezer.
For a while I kept 6 weeks of dried and canned goods on hand, would donate them to the Post Office food drive every spring and refresh them. They didn't have it in 2020 and the next thing I knew I had canned goods leaking all over my floor.
Now I only keep enough on hand for a couple of weeks, and only what I will use.

Truth be told, if things turn to crap it's meds which will be my demise. Without the thyroid med I've taken since I was 39, eventually I would just fade away.

Long term situation like what's described above, I'm not sure I want to be around.

 

[Molalla1]

If the power grid goes down longer than a week or two in the large cities, crime will explode along with burglaries & rioting.
Heck look at what's happening in todays colleges, and those are brats that are well off.
Folks should have a generator, fuel, food and a way to protect your family.
I personally have a diesel gen set and solar power to keep us going but for how long?

19,734 Student Riot Stock Photos, High-Res Pictures, and Images - Getty Images

Explore Authentic Student Riot Stock Photos & Images For Your Project Or Campaign. Less Searching, More Finding With Getty Images.

www.gettyimages.com

Yep, (we know what things to stock up on YF ) I'm sure you are aware of what recently happened at PSU as of late . . .

 

[YanmarFever]

Sorry, I wasn't aware of that happening. Doesnt hurt to stock up..

 

[Molalla1]

Sorry, I wasn't aware of that happening. Doesnt hurt to stock up..

. . .

 

[jyoutz]

I have a gas generator that will run a refrigerator and a freezer. Several years ago, we has a tornado take out an electrical substation and we were without power for almost a week. I would run the generator plugged into a refrigerator and freezer for a few hours, then switch to the other freezers. Otherwise the gas stove still works with match ignition and I have camping lanterns for light. The biggest problem is lack of power to the well, so no water and my generator won’t pull the 220volt deep well pump. I have quite a few water jugs and have to run to town to fill them. I don’t have a storage tank on the well. Worse yet, about 20 years ago, we had a 48” snow storm and it took down 7 miles of powerlines in the woods. All of these inconveniences are multiplied when there’s heavy snow on the ground. But normally power outages are only a few hours to half a day, and we just deal with it. As for food, we have a huge pantry of home canned garden veggies and the freezers are full of home grown meat.

 

[shooterdon]

I have a 13 kw whole house generator. It uses about 1.5- 2 gph of propane. Running it three hours a day would get us by in a SHTF type event. Well, fridge, freezer, and charging batteries seen as essential. We heat with wood.

We have two 500 gallon tanks and never run below 50% without topping them up. That would give us about three months of power. Propane is the ideal fuel as it lasts decades.

A 7500 watt portable propane generator is another less expensive approach.

We have lost power for about 40 hours so far this year. Not worth the effort to cycle the generator on and off. But if there was a catastrophic event, we would switch gears

 

[YanmarFever]

We have Yanmar 12kw diesel enclosed gen set. It runs the whole house, AC and well included.
I don't start it unless the power is going to be out for longer than 3 hrs.
Also have a solar setup that we have yet to use (no power outages) lately.

 

[Molalla1]

We have Yanmar 12kw diesel enclosed gen set. It runs the whole house, AC and well included.
I don't start it unless the power is going to be out for longer than 3 hrs.
Also have a solar setup that we have yet to use (no power outages) lately.

What about a sun tan . . .

 

[YanmarFever]

Im getting to old to sit out in the sun, just like everyone else here...

 

[RjCorazza]

I liked to be prepared for extended outages, so I have a PTO generator that can run my house and well pump. Enough diesel for several months of intermittent use. I also have 2 inverter generators and 30 gallons of gas to use as needed.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Well, we get a few outages a year that last a couple days. We try to be ready with fuel on hand for the generator, but it's not like we have the ability to keep more than a few cans around at the moment.

Yet I can't help but think we're still better prepared than many by virtue of at least trying.

 

[Sigarms]

Long term situation like what's described above, I'm not sure I want to be around.

Thank you. World is already going to crap as it is.

Always find it ironic how "real" Christians seem so fearful of Heaven when you have to kill others to stay alive