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?

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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 . . .