Community Chat

[proudlyfromNJ]

I can't speak for everyone, but we have a well and cannot flush without electricity. The well pump needs electric to pump. We have a generator that works most of the house with natural gas . 

Our electricty goes out quite often. Often enough that most people in the neighborhood have a generator. 

[Marp]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

Wow - I just learned something in this thread. I haven't been a country girl for long. Had no idea you couldn't flush if you lost electricity. But you can if you're on a well? Or is that only with a generator?

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Well pumps that provide running water to a dwelling run on electricity so in a power outage you do not have running water.

Same with the blower on my fireplace.  I still have heat because the fireplace runs on propane but the blower that distributes the heat runs on electricity so does not work in a power outage.

[RoughDraft]

City kid here.  Fortunately, we seldom lose power and have both natural gas and, of course, electricity.  We have battery-operated candles, flashlights and lanterns all over the place and a natural gas fireplace.  Knock on wood, the longest we've lost electricity is perhaps an hour during extremely severe storms.  Our city has a program where trees growing around power lines are trimmed back every few years in order to keep them from crashing down on the lines.

[Moonchilde]

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@Marp wrote:

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@Moonchilde wrote:

Wow - I just learned something in this thread. I haven't been a country girl for long. Had no idea you couldn't flush if you lost electricity. But you can if you're on a well? Or is that only with a generator?

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Well pumps that provide running water to a dwelling run on electricity so in a power outage you do not have running water.

Same with the blower on my fireplace.  I still have heat because the fireplace runs on propane but the blower that distributes the heat runs on electricity so does not work in a power outage.

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Thank you, @Marp, I'll have to remember that ;-(

The power goes more in the winter and when it rains more, but it'll usually go for only 30-60 min. most of the time. I can probably manage that long, lol.

[beautiful_dreamer]

Some good ideas. Hard to imagine winter weather right now tho, lol.

[Financialgrl]

If finances are an issue, you can get a manual transfer switch and it's much cheaper. Most in this thread sound like they have whole house generators which are automatic.  If it is cost prohibitive (it was for me at the time) you can look into a manual transfer switch. 

A manual switch requires a portable generator - I kept a 7000 watt key start with battery backup plugged into an outlet in the garage. The electric company wired the house with a manual transfer switch.  If they call for a storm, the night before, we'd roll the generator from the garage down to where the transfer switch is located and if we lost power, move the generator away from the house and hook it into the "plug" that the electrician added to the side of the house.  It was wired into our circuit box and there's a sequence you go thru to disconnect from the electric grid to run your generator.  This option is fine if you have a fuel based run home (propane, natural gas, oil) but not so great if your home is all electric.  When I checked back in 2010, an automatic whole house generator would have been close to $10,000 for me, whereas it was $1800 total for the 7000 watt generator and the manual transfer switch I ended up getting.  Our electric company installed a type transfer switch that allowed you to run any of the circuits in your box as long as you did not overload your generator wattage or the switch's capacity  and the electrician calculated that for us (we could run everything in the house except washer, dryer, dishwasher, central air and stove bc ours was electric).  I couldn't cook but I was able to warm food in the microwave and cook meals with a crockpot plugged into an outlet.  I would rather have had an automatic transfer switch at the time but for the amount of snow and times we may need it, I couldn't justify the extra cost - so it's an option also!

[Marp]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@Marp wrote:

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@Moonchilde wrote:

Wow - I just learned something in this thread. I haven't been a country girl for long. Had no idea you couldn't flush if you lost electricity. But you can if you're on a well? Or is that only with a generator?

---

Well pumps that provide running water to a dwelling run on electricity so in a power outage you do not have running water.

Same with the blower on my fireplace.  I still have heat because the fireplace runs on propane but the blower that distributes the heat runs on electricity so does not work in a power outage.

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Thank you, @Marp, I'll have to remember that ;-(

The power goes more in the winter and when it rains more, but it'll usually go for only 30-60 min. most of the time. I can probably manage that long, lol.

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We can lose power both summer and winter but the outages usually last longer in the winter as they are often caused by ice on powerlines.  Most of the time the outage is no more than a couple of hours but I always keep water ready to use for flushing, clean up, etc. as some outages have unexpectedly lasted many hours.

Having three cats I have a continuing supply of cat litter jugs that are perfect for water storage.  Easy to store and not too heavy to handle.  It only took one time getting caught unprepared to learn to keep some water at the ready.

[colliegirls]

If the power is out more than one night, we go to a hotel!  Being without power for a long time makes me very irritable!!