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We have a portable generator that can run the refrigerator or tv, lamps, room heater, etc.. We're thinking about upgrading to a whole house one. We may actually buy gas logs which we previously ignored.
Would highly recommend getting some sort of rechargeable battery that will operate a cpap machine. I had talked my husband into getting one a few years back for a camping trip. He didn't like that one so he up graded last year. This is the first time he had to use it. He used it to run the tv while we were powering the refrigerator with the generator. I've heard some folks had miserable nights.
We keep camping supplies and emergency supplies on hand. Knowing where they are is key. I bought several of my favorite scent jarred candles for a school fundraiser a few years back. I keep them in a couple of specific places for when the power goes out. We had light because we had a generator, lamps, flashlights and phones. Weirdly, I find the scented candles comforting. I need to buy a couple more of the long lighters although I had matches and short ones.
I saw plenty of 3KW dual fuel generators for $400-500. 3KW is plenty. For the gas furnaces (two units) I need only 0.5 KW to run blower motors. Lights around the house are all LED, don't need much power.
So I think 3KW generator will be pretty sufficient.
The 2020 covid panic and the fear of election riots caused us to have plenty of food and water and ammo in stock.
Couple things helped out for this freeze up:
1/ The $80 small 'car battery emergency jumper starter box' I bought a few months ago came in handy for keeping the cell phones, laptop, and a couple of flashlights charged. (it has usb charge ports as well as the heavy wires to start the car). Never lost cell data service so had internet even during the power outage.
2/ The excessively big and ugly homemade insulation jobs I did at the water service entrance/outdoor spigots. Basically foam, plastic water proof wrap,more foam... - never turned off the water to my house, no freeze up at all - dripping worked fine.
3/ I have a 'water valve at the street' shutoff tool but never used it
4/ At the coldest times we kept big pots of water boiling on the cooktop which kept the kitchen tolerable
The most USELESS thing during the recent freeze was the gas fireplace with ceramic logs, I'll swear most of the heat went right up the chimney.
Put some old cookie sheets in the back to help send some radiant heat out. It worked great for a few minutes just one time, but then realized I forgot to open the flue and let out the CO (and heat).
No pipe trouble here but the power outage wiped out my plants in my small greenhouse.
The only adder I COULD use for the next storm would be a gas powered generator / electrical and gas hook-up work. Not going to do it since at 73 years old I won't be here for the next 100 year freeze up.
Neighbor had a portable generator running outside with a cable through the window which probably let in more cold than made sense. I may reconsider a big generator set to just to keep the summertime AC on as we get along the 9 years remaining before global warming kills everyone.
Only thing I WILL add is a dedicated propane tank or two (30lb BBQ gas grill size, like they swap out for you at HEB). Already have two, one is always full, one is on the BBQ gas grill.
And one or two catalytic dish heaters to add to the the top of them. Used to have those when I lived in a much colder climate and they are helpful if you have to work in the super cold garage.
Another item on my list is to upgrade the stoppers on the tubs so they will hold water for more than half hour.
Last edited by resonator; 02-21-2021 at 10:48 PM..
The 2020 covid panic and the fear of election riots caused us to have plenty of food and water and ammo in stock.
Couple things helped out for this freeze up:
1/ The $80 small 'car battery emergency jumper starter box' I bought a few months ago came in handy for keeping the cell phones, laptop, and a couple of flashlights charged. (it has usb charge ports as well as the heavy wires to start the car). Never lost cell data service so had internet even during the power outage.
2/ The excessively big and ugly homemade insulation jobs I did at the water service entrance/outdoor spigots. Basically foam, plastic water proof wrap,more foam... - never turned off the water to my house, no freeze up at all - dripping worked fine.
3/ I have a 'water valve at the street' shutoff tool but never used it
4/ At the coldest times we kept big pots of water boiling on the cooktop which kept the kitchen tolerable
The most USELESS thing during the recent freeze was the gas fireplace with ceramic logs, I'll swear most of the heat went right up the chimney.
Put some old cookie sheets in the back to help send some radiant heat out. It worked great for a few minutes just one time, but then realized I forgot to open the flue and let out the CO (and heat).
No pipe trouble here but the power outage wiped out my plants in my small greenhouse.
The only adder I COULD use for the next storm would be a gas powered generator / electrical and gas hook-up work. Not going to do it since at 73 years old I won't be here for the next 100 year freeze up.
Neighbor had a portable generator running outside with a cable through the window which probably let in more cold than made sense. I may reconsider a big generator set to just to keep the summertime AC on as we get along the 9 years remaining before global warming kills everyone.
Only thing I WILL add is a dedicated propane tank or two (30lb BBQ gas grill size, like they swap out for you at HEB). Already have two, one is always full, one is on the BBQ gas grill.
And one or two catalytic dish heaters to add to the the top of them. Used to have those when I lived in a much colder climate and they are helpful if you have to work in the super cold garage.
Another item on my list is to upgrade the stoppers on the tubs so they will hold water for more than half hour.
Great post!
I will only disagree on gas fireplace with ceramic logs.
That was the most useful thing for me that probably helped to prevent attic pipes from bursting.
I kept chimney closed and that did the trick.
As I said in a different thread, this has to be done carefully.
This could bring carbon monoxide in the house, but it is fine for a couple of hours.
It actually brought some areas upstairs to 75-80F from 50F - just in two hours...
That was worth the risk.
If you have carbon monoxide sensors you should be safe.
We fared relatively well - no damage other than a few dead plants, despite losing power for ~36 hours.
Things I'll do to prepare for the next big winter storm:
-Insulate pipes in the attic. We didn't have any pipes break, but probably would've if the freeze occurred while we were away from the house.
-Keep a couple of 1/2 and 3/4" Sharkbite fittings handy for emergency plumbing repairs for myself or neighbors.
-Next time, if there's multiple days of solidly below-freezing temperatures in the forecast, I'll just shut off and drain the plumbing ahead of time so that I don't worry about pipes freezing. We left our water main on until Wednesday and were nervous as to whether the low flow that we were experiencing was due to a leak/frozen pipes or an issue on the City's side.
-Keep at least one electric space heater on hand in case we lose natural gas (unlikely but it does happen...see note below).
-Add a tri-fuel carburator to my portable generator for the ultimate in redundancy.
Things that worked well:
-Plenty of food and bottled water on hand.
-Filled bathtubs with water for flushing toilets as soon as our city water pressure started dropping.
-Drained sprinkler backflow preventer - no issues once water came back.
-Had a water main "key" handy to quickly shut off water for us and for several neighbors.
-We managed to save more plants than we lost, mostly by covering them with old curtains and stringing old-fashioned C9 Christmas lights on a few of them for a bit of heat.
-On Wednesday, our cell service dropped to almost nothing, but was still able to communicate via a $20 ham radio. An impromptu "disaster net" popped up in which folks from all over the city were reporting on the status of their utilities, which stations had gas, whether anyone needed help, etc.
-3500w portable generator + interlocked power inlet on the breaker panel worked perfectly, allowing us to keep most of our 4500 sq ft house running. We couldn't run any 240v appliances and had to be careful not to run too many items at once, but we were able to keep the lights on and run gas furnaces, two fridges, coffee pot, microwave, garage door openers, TV, etc with no issues. It can't match the convenience of an automatic standby generator but is far cheaper to buy and maintain. Plus, with a tri-fuel carburator it offers superior redundancy. We never lost natural gas to the house, but a couple of neighborhoods just south of us did lose natural gas for ~6 hours on Tuesday, which would've rendered a standby generator useless.
Really good list. How much does a 3500W portable generator usually cost?
Also, were you able to run your AC unit in heat mode from it? Or did you have to use an electric space heater.
Also, a good point you raise about folks losing natural gas. I wonder how that would affect my water heater and HVAC unit, both of which run on gas for me. Would I have to somehow realize that the gas was out, and immediately go to the attic and put both in 'Pilot' mode or 'off' mode?
This event was actually a huge blessing in disguise for my husband and I. We bought a little piece of land in January that we are planning to build on, hopefully, beginning of 2022. We had already talked about doing solar panels with a battery back up, but while our power was out for a couple days last week and we were sitting on our sofa wrapped up in blankets we had a lot of time to discuss our very changed priorities. We are probably going to install a generator, as well. I already planned on having a fireplace which I was feeling very frivolous about being that I will probably only use it a handful of times here, but having a secondary heat source will be worth it. And, of course, gas range and water heater again. Without those two items, our couple days without power would have been even worse. We were at least able to have hot food and take hot showers. Our PEX plumbing performed well. We only had one line freeze which was our hot water line to our kitchen sink. That's the only plumbing on an outside wall. We kept the water dripping and my husband thought he had the handle far enough over to keep the cold and hot water dripping together but it looked like it was just the cold. The hot water line thawed fairly quickly after power came back on and things started to warm up a bit. We had no busts and haven't noticed any leaks, so we will definitely be plumbing with PEX again on the new house. May look at insulating a little bit on outside walls.
We are planning to make this new house as self sufficient as we can afford.
The plan was for a duel fuel - gas and propane. As for piping up to house gas utility, that sounds expensive.
If you have a connection for a grill, or similar, you can use that for the generator. We have an outside connection for the dryer(small house, dryer is on the back porch) that could be used for a generator. Any plumber can put in a connection for a NG powered generator.
If you have a connection for a grill, or similar, you can use that for the generator. We have an outside connection for the dryer(small house, dryer is on the back porch) that could be used for a generator. Any plumber can put in a connection for a NG powered generator.
Nope, don't have one but it might be easier to justify the expense of installing one with the weekly or so usage of a grill than the rare long term outage.
Really good list. How much does a 3500W portable generator usually cost?
Also, were you able to run your AC unit in heat mode from it? Or did you have to use an electric space heater.
Also, a good point you raise about folks losing natural gas. I wonder how that would affect my water heater and HVAC unit, both of which run on gas for me. Would I have to somehow realize that the gas was out, and immediately go to the attic and put both in 'Pilot' mode or 'off' mode?
A 3500w generator like ours starts around $300. If we ever decide to upgrade it would NOT be to a bigger generator, but instead to a ~3500w inverter generator. These are quieter than regular generators, use less fuel, and put out "clean" power that has a lower chance of damaging electronics (although the "dirty" power from our old-fashioned generator didn't seem to hurt anything).
This experience provided a good test of what a 3500w generator could run. In our case, it included the lights (mostly LED), two fridges, plus any two of the following at the same time:
-Furnace (gas)
-Coffee pot
-Toaster oven
-Microwave
A larger generator would allow you to run more items at once, at the expense of additional fuel consumption. Our 3500w ran ~12-14 hours on 4 gallons of gas. A 10kw generator consumes roughly double.
As with most people, we set up this system with summer power outages in mind more so than winter storms. If we need it in the summer, we have a window AC that will hang in our bedroom and at least be able to keep that part of the house cool. Running even a single central AC would require a ~10kw generator.
I'm jealous of those who already have a conveniently-located exterior natural gas hookup. Unfortunately, the breaker panel/generator inlet and natural gas meter are at opposite ends of our house. If we ever remodel our back porch/patio area, I'll hire a plumber to tap into our fireplace natural gas line and add an exterior NG outlet for a grill or to run the generator.
My neighbors who lost gas didn't lose it completely. They just noticed that the flames in their stoves and fireplaces were very weak and their gas furnaces were running but putting out little heat. If they had completely lost gas I guess they would have to relight their pilots.
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