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On a day like today, when the high will be around 9 degrees, and the high of the next 7 days here in the Twin Cities will be +4, I am reminded of how fragile my existence is.
This is for those of you who live in particularly harsh climates.
Would you be able to survive, if our power went out for weeks or months in the brutal cold of the middle of Winter?
I am a moderate "prepper", but even I don't know if an EMP went off and our electricity and everything went out in a time like right now (the high for the next week will be 4 degrees above zero) that I would be able to make it.
It's never good to be too dependent on the "system" and these brutally cold days and weeks in Winter always remind me of that.
Sure I would. I would throw another log in the woodstove in the shop (which has a propane stove) and live large. *shrugs*
On a day like today, when the high will be around 9 degrees, and the high of the next 7 days here in the Twin Cities will be +4, I am reminded of how fragile my existence is.
This is for those of you who live in particularly harsh climates.
Would you be able to survive, if our power went out for weeks or months in the brutal cold of the middle of Winter?
I am a moderate "prepper", but even I don't know if an EMP went off and our electricity and everything went out in a time like right now (the high for the next week will be 4 degrees above zero) that I would be able to make it.
It's never good to be too dependent on the "system" and these brutally cold days and weeks in Winter always remind me of that.
if someone is reliant on mains power and dosent have a back up system "just in case" then they ARENT a prepper.
Where I am, it’s usually in the teens during the day, singles or below at night.
Over the next few weeks it will gradually begin to warm.
You get used to it, the cold, the snow. I’m out all year in shorts and a T.
Wood stove is an absolute must. It’s life or death if there is an extended power outage, AND fuel supplies are hard to acquire, like Hurricane Sandy for example. A generator is no good unless you can fuel it. I like living where we have harsh winters because it keeps the cidiots away.
A few years ago I lost power for four days in the dead of a brutal Ohio winter. Living in the country and surrounded by little else but bare fields, the wind was relentless and quickly brought the temp inside the house to very cold conditions. I sent my wife and daughter to her parents in another town until the power came back on. Fortunately I was able to borrow a small generator from a friend so I had power to the fridge, one light, and a small electric heater in the bedroom.
Incredibly, everyone on the other side of my road had power! At the end of the fourth day the power came back on and believe it or not, the breaker on a pole on the other side of the road not 75 yards from me just needed to be reset. I couldn’t believe it!
Are there places (on grid) in the US where "power goes out for months" at a time?
Having retired from a electric utility in Florida... 6 weeks was the longest I recall. hurricane related. Some small coastal areas that were destroyed, did not even get power back until FEMA or the State authorized new equipment. Rare.
We practiced for catastrophic events of 3-6 months. In most scenarios it was about 're-routing' or mobile equipment installs. There are certain assumptions/parameters you can not escape from. There is no 'total' plan.
MTSilvertip said---"True, however using the flowerpot to catch and then radiate out the heat in a very small space has the same effect as a kudlik which is an Eskimo oil lamp used to bring up temperatures in an igloo. Better than nothing.
I've used a small popcan alcohol stove in a snow cave while winter camping. Amazing the difference a small amount of heat can make."
Thanks for the info.
"This characteristic type of oil lamp provided warmth and light in the harsh Arctic environment where there was no wood and where the sparse inhabitants relied almost entirely on seal oil or on whale blubber. This lamp was the single most important article of furniture for the Inuit peoples in their dwellings.[6]"
On a day like today, when the high will be around 9 degrees, and the high of the next 7 days here in the Twin Cities will be +4, I am reminded of how fragile my existence is.
This is for those of you who live in particularly harsh climates.
Would you be able to survive, if our power went out for weeks or months in the brutal cold of the middle of Winter?
I am a moderate "prepper", but even I don't know if an EMP went off and our electricity and everything went out in a time like right now (the high for the next week will be 4 degrees above zero) that I would be able to make it.
It's never good to be too dependent on the "system" and these brutally cold days and weeks in Winter always remind me of that.
I am near you and have been thinking the same things these past few days.
Also not sure solar or wind would keep me alive for long.
I am near you and have been thinking the same things these past few days.
Also not sure solar or wind would keep me alive for long.
The main drawback to solar or wind is that they're not "on demand" power. It can only be collected when the sun shines and the wind blows. Battery storage is limited so you have to have a generator backup.
This morning when I got up it was -28 with a wind of 14 miles an hour. That's a wind chill of about -55 degrees.
I'm completely off grid, so my heating sources are wood and catalytic propane. It's been cloudy the past week, so very little solar power, but when its this cold getting a generator to run can be difficult. So I have propane lanterns and Coleman lanterns for light.. As a plus, they put off a lot of heat.
Cold at these levels will kill quickly so you better have some means to stay warm.
The main drawback to solar or wind is that they're not "on demand" power. It can only be collected when the sun shines and the wind blows. Battery storage is limited so you have to have a generator backup.
This morning when I got up it was -24 with a wind of 14 miles an hour. That's a wind chill of about -55 degrees.
I'm completely off grid, so my heating sources are wood and catalytic propane. It's been cloudy the past week, so very little solar power, but when its this cold getting a generator to run can be difficult. So I have propane and Coleman lanterns. As a plus, they put off a lot of heat.
Cold at these levels will kill quickly so you better have some means to stay warm.
RE the flower pot Hunted with an old guy about 30 years ago.He took the chimney off the oil lamp and placed a 2 LB coffee can full of holes in it over the lamp and it instantly became radiant heat.Kept the tent warm enough to not freeze our supplies.
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