Power Outage: What to do Next
While you might have had the power go out in your area a number of times in the past, were you fully prepared and knew what to do during the situation?
Not taking the proper precautions and actions before and during a power outage can have some costly consequences. Not only can the quality of life in your home change, but the safety of your family members and some of the contents and appliances could be affected too. Power outages seem to often be the result of a strong winter storm, a hurricane, or other weather-related causes.
We can try to protect our families by having our homes as well prepared for outages as possible, particularly if we know in advance on the news or social media from forecasters that low temperatures, winds, and freezing rains are in store. What we as homeowners can’t foresee is an outage caused by what some local authorities and officials call domestic terrorism since it appears as an intentional crime.
Recent Power Grid Hit
As an example, most of you should have heard about the significant power outage in Moore County, North Carolina that started over the past weekend. The outage was caused by gunfire sustained, not at one power station, but at two substations owned by Duke Energy, one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., and a utility that is part of the nation’s power grid.
There is still a lot of investigative work to be done since no suspects or a motive have been found at this point, but state investigators have called a state of emergency, set a curfew, and involved federal authorities, including the FBI. More on this recent localized power outage later.
Preparing before a power outage takes place will keep you out of the dark and prevent you from scrambling to adapt to your new environment. Let’s take a look at ways you can prepare for a power outage, and what steps or actions need to be taken. Stay safe and use these tips!
How to Be Prepared During a Power Outage
Be Prepared Beforehand
Are you prepared for a power outage? How about a power outage during a significant crisis? Not having a plan before the situation presents itself can prove costly. Here are a few ways you can continue to eat meals, stay warm, or deal with injuries during a serious power outage.
Have an Emergency First-Aid Kit on Hand
Having a first-aid kit on hand for any emergencies isn’t hard to put together. Most power outage cases may not require one, but you never know when you’re going to need it and what effect the blackout might have on life and limb.
You want to have some first aid supplies handy since you don’t know when local or state emergency responders might be available to help specific residents. You just can’t count on a swift response. General public safety is their first concern, so when they get to your area often is an unknown.
Here are some of the basic, but best first-aid kits for you to consider putting in your home.
Back-up Cooking Method
If you don’t have a gas stove, how do you plan on cooking meals for what could be days on end with a power outage? Having a camping stove is a great way of cooking any small meals or boiling hot water. I have a small butane countertop stove I’ve used from time to time, and I love it. You can cook on your BBQ, but they aren’t efficient when it comes to boiling water. Butane Stove with extra Canisters
Stock up on Blankets
Power outages can happen not only in thunderstorms but in wintery blizzard-like conditions. It may take a while for full power restoration in your area, so being able to keep family members warm is critical. Since in most power outage situations we end up having to shelter in place, having extra blankets, a change of dry clothes, and other personal protective gear available is very important.
Storing blankets in the closet is not a bad idea. Circumstances like this will arise, and remind you why you have them tucked away in the first place.
Know What to Do When Circumstances Get Ugly
Check the Circuit Breaker
Hopefully, the power going out is due to fuses or breakers that have short-circuited in your home. This can be a much quicker problem to solve.
Check your main electrical panel and see if there are breakers or fuses that have caused the power to go out. Flipping a breaker switch or replacing a fuse might be all you need to do. Even if you’ve installed a power generator, if the breaker has flipped or is broken, doing the necessary repairs at your home is a much easier task than having to run the generator.
Check Your Neighbors’ Homes
If your circuit breaker was not the issue, go check on your neighbors’ houses and see if their power is out too. If that’s the case, you are dealing with a bigger issue that may cover a larger area than your neighborhood or even your zip code. If all the home or street lights are out along your street, there is a more general outage that needs to be investigated.
Call the Electric Company
Get on the phone and call the electric company and report outages that you see around you. Remember to be patient, it might take a moment to get through. Chances are, they’ve had a number of calls from your neighbors already. Request an outage status report so you know how big of an issue you’re dealing with and how long it may be an issue.
The utility may be able to pinpoint how wide-ranging this outage is by generating an outage map based on the phone calls and reports received. That is how they go about getting the repair crew out on the road to help restore the power as soon as possible. You don’t want to be making critical decisions based on rumors you’ve heard, get the facts from those in the know.
If your power is out you won’t be able to use the browsers on your laptop or even reports on your TV from national sources like CNN or FOX News. If you have a battery-operated, solar, or crank radio you may be able to stay in touch with the outside world. It’s always a great idea to have extra batteries of all kinds in your home, just in case.
Be sure and sign up your cell phones for REVERSE 911 in your city and county.
Turn off all Appliances and Lights
To avoid any power surge damage to appliances like TVs from getting zapped when the power is restored, go ahead and turn off and unplug everything. The last thing you need is to miss a future game day or have to replace some expensive home-based appliances and equipment because of power outage damage.
If you haven’t done so already, have each of these items protected by a good quality surge protector. Some are specifically designed to protect major appliances and are worth you paying some extra money. If you’ve had frequent power outages where those surge protectors have already saved the day, you might want to check with the manufacturers or user manual to see if you think they are still going to do the job “next time.”
Grab Flashlights/Bright Lanterns
I’m not sure why it is, but most of the time it seems that the power goes out during the middle of the night. Gather up flashlights and bright lanterns, like a camping lantern, to help give you some visibility.
Try to stay away from lighting candles as we used to when we were kids. Candles increase the chances of fires if knocked over or played with by children.
Keep Refrigerator/Freezers Shut
Whatever you do, keep the refrigerator and freezer doors shut at all times. You can’t be sure how long it will be until the power is restored. It could take several days. Most freezers can store food for up to 24-36 hours or longer when you keep the doors shut.
Limit your Flushing
Sometimes the city’s power outage will affect the water system pumps. If they aren’t working then water can’t be pumped to your home and the toilets you use. If that happens, try to limit your flushing if at all possible. You may end up having to use some of your stored water to perform the flushing needed. There’s a saying I’ve heard from some plumber friends: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” Having a bucket handy to flush the body waste using stored water may prove to be a blessing.
Other Tips for Dealing with a Power Outage
Stay Hydrated
Have you noticed that we forget to take care of ourselves during a calamity? Remember to drink plenty of liquids to stay hydrated during a power outage. The power can be out for any period of time, stay hydrated. If you’re concerned about the quality of water coming through those taps, have some backup means to filter the water since boiling it may prove difficult.
Wintertime Power Outage
During a winter power outage, not only does the cold affect you and your family, but your home’s pipes as well. You don’t want your pipes freezing and bursting, especially if you’re not home. Don’t forget to report an outage as mentioned above!
Leave a small stream of water running in the kitchen sink to help with this. You can also have your pipes insulated beforehand to help prevent frozen pipes, particularly those pipes exposed to your exterior walls.
If your power is out for an extended number of days during the winter, it might even be better to store your foods outside to prevent spoiling of the food in your fridge or freezer, if it’s cold enough. If you decide to empty everything out, be sure to leave your refrigerator doors open while the power remains out.
Know When to Evacuate
Are you in a dangerous situation while the power is out? If so, for your own safety, get out! Extreme cold temperatures can be life-threatening, even inside the safety of your own home.
Go and stay with friends or family during this time. Don’t remain in such a helpless state if you have options. This is especially true if you have young babies or an elderly family member. Better safe than sorry.
You may be familiar with the situation in Texas a year or so ago. They had a terrible winter storm come through that laid down some very heavy snow in combination with high winds. The local power grid went down, leaving thousands of families in dire conditions.
The total time of restorations of power to large areas was longer than anyone ever expected. Those managing the grid, local utilities, and other agencies were criticized for not being well prepared, and families lost members due to the conditions. Who knows when you might end up as the last customer to have power back up and running. All the more reason for you and yours to be as prepared as possible.
Tips for Using a Generator
Some people are under the impression that a backup generator is going to have all your electrical appliances up and running, just like normal.
Generators are great for keeping your refrigerator running, a few lamps on, or fans blowing. That’s about all.
Never plug a backup generator into a wall outlet. This can be extremely dangerous, for not only your family but also the utility employee that’s working on getting your power fixed.
Dealing with an electric outage is no fun, but generators can help if used following proper safety precautions.
Blackout Events/Power Grids/Internet Fiber-Optic Sabotaged
I quote NERC “On May 1, 2012, FERC and NERC issued a joint report on the September 8, 2011, Southwest Blackout Event. On the afternoon of September 8, 2011, an 11-minute system disturbance occurred in the Pacific Southwest, leading to cascading outages and leaving approximately 2.7 million customers without power. The outages affected parts of Arizona, southern California, and Baja California, Mexico. All of the San Diego areas lost power, with nearly 1.5 million customers losing power, some for up to 12 hours.”
I quote, The New York Times, “The chain of events is not in dispute: Shortly before 1:30 a.m. on April 16, 2013, one or more people methodically cut communication cables near a Pacific Gas & Electric substation in San Jose, CA, sprayed more than 100 rifle bullets and knocked out 17 of the station’s 23 transformers before fleeing and avoiding capture.” The FBI was involved in this one as well.
I quote, CBS News “FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — People across northern Arizona couldn’t use the Internet, their cellphones or landlines for several hours Wednesday after someone vandalized a fiber-optic line that brings communications to a large part of the state, officials said.
Businesses couldn’t process credit card transactions, ATMs didn’t function, law enforcement databases were unavailable, and even weather reports were affected in an area stretching from north of Phoenix to Flagstaff, about 100 miles away.” This was in the year 2015, and CenturyLink was not prepared for this.
Sign Up for Reverse 911
Google your city and state followed by Reverse 911. For instance, I would put, South Jordan Utah Reverse 911. Then follow the instructions.
I live in Salt Lake County in the state of Utah, so I would Google: South Jordan Utah Reverse 911. YOU MUST GOOGLE YOUR CITY.
I quote PHONE # REGISTRATION, Emergency Notification System (ENS) However, because the system uses the region’s 9-1-1 database, only landline numbers are automatically added to the system. If you have an alternative telephone system provider, such as a cable network, a Voice over Internet Protocol provider (VoIP), or a cellular telephone, and would like to be notified via that provider, you must register those telephone numbers. Similarly, if you would like to receive an email notification, you must register the email addresses at which you wish to receive the notification.
“Lights Out” by Ted Koppel
Please order this book by a well-known TV reporter, Ted Koppel, “Lights Out”, it’s not a fantasy book like “One Second After”, this one is the real deal, my friends. I have the audible and have now listened to it at least 18-20 times and I learn something new every single time.
Three Main Power Grids In The US
I quote, Electric Choice, “There are three separate grids that actually come together to create the United States complex full network. There is the Eastern Grid, the Western Grid, and the Texas (ERCOT) Grid, with the Eastern Grid being the largest of the three.”
Power Outage Tips to Remember
- Your full freezer won’t go bad right away, rely on the generator if you have one.
- Anything battery-powered is better than not having any sources at all.
- Be sure to try and report downed power lines, if possible.
- Keep extra batteries on hand.
- Keep cell phones charged.
- Check on family members and neighbors to make sure everyone is ok, especially the elderly ones who are most vulnerable.
What are some things we do know about the North Carolina power outage?
Because of the possible domestic terrorism element, even the White House has been involved as extra resources are put to use. Some of the gunfire damage is fairly easy to repair, but other items damaged are going to require pretty sophisticated repair work. Substations have some fairly large equipment pieces that can’t be easily repaired or replaced, and it could take a while to accomplish what’s needed.
Originally there were over 45,000 customers affected, but by Monday morning they had restored power to approximately 7,000, leaving 38,000 customers subject to the cooler temps seen in December each year.
Substations are part of the critical infrastructure that helps make up our nation’s power grid. There literally are megawatts of power that go through them on their way to your neighborhood and home.
That’s one reason why solar panels for home use, and even in an industrial setting, are a hot topic of discussion. Some people are working to be “off the grid,” and that’s why many families, government facilities, and businesses are researching if solar power is the answer for the future.
My only concern is what happens when the battery backups to these solar panels no longer work.
Final Word
Power outages can be extremely frustrating to deal with, and it seems they always come at the worst possible times. These are some ways to make sure you make the best of your situation. Based on your own personal experience, what other things are important to consider when you’re dealing with a power outage for an extended amount of time?
Please keep prepping, we must be diligent. May God bless this world, Linda
Copyright Images: Winter Snow Deposit photos_22397709_s-2019, Power Grid Station AdobeStock_372874217 by Lukas
Backup generators are a great prep, but folks need to know how much fuel they use and how much power they will produce. And to make things even more complicated, you need to know the continuous power available AND the surge rating. Why? Well, when a motor or compressor starts up it takes some extra juice to get started – depending on the device that can be up to 3 times it’s normal running load.
Most portable generators are fairly low capacity, but can run for a good amount of time with limited fuel. For folks with a larger budget, you can get a whole house standby generator wired in by professionals that will safely disconnect your house from the utility and give you independent power (until you run out of fuel.) I am fortunate that my home is connected to the natural gas infrastructure, so I was able to get a home standby generator that is piped into the utility lines. For folks not connected to the utility gas lines, you have to get propane or diesel tanks depending on the type of generator and you have to worry about getting fuel in an extended event.
And speaking of extended events, every generator has a maintenance interval where you need to shut it down and replace the oil and filters at a minimum. Portable generators may need their oil changed every 50 hours of runtime, larger generators will have longer intervals (my Generac needs an oil change every 200 hours, but they recommend checking the oil levels each day just in case…) So if you want to be prepared for a week or more, make sure you have enough oil and filters on hand to properly maintain the generator.
Of course it’s also prudent to plan on how to do everything without power for when the generator stops working for whatever reason – lack of fuel, worn out, damaged by EMP, etc.
Hi DMWalsh, oh how I love your comments! A generator is not in my budget, but this comment will help those who have one or may thinking of getting one. I always thought about what to do when the fuel runs out, so I haven’t had a generator on my wish list. You really do need to think about maintenance, etc. Great comment, thank you! Linda
Hey, DMWalsh and Linda: My husband and I were concerned about fuel for our generator(s), the 2nd of which came for free because my husband had been at his job for 30 years! Anyway, my thought was what good is a generator if you cannot buy fuel for it? So….we bought a Vevor 35 gallon fuel caddy for storing gasoline for our generators. Do I recommend this company? No, I do NOT! Well, actually, the caddy itself is quite nice looking, fire engine red and all. BUT the caddy came missing the instruciton manual and three crucial parts. Although their customer service people are quite nice, we are still waiting since we ordered on October 31st, to receive the rest of the parts, some of which were shipped and one of which is still coming in the “mail” (today is December 7th!)
So, if you see this fuel caddy on Amazon, buy it there rather than directly from Vevor company. At least Amazon Customer Service will take care of any missing parts and/or problems for you might away or refund your money. Vevor customer service is trying their best, but this company is quite incompetent to send you a caddy with a big sticker that claims you MUST follow the instruction manual exactly when putting the caddy together. Yet, they did not include an instruction manual!!! THEN we discovered 3 crucial pieces were missing, so they kindly sent us a DHL package which contained 2 of the 3 missing parts. Now, we are waiting for the next DHL delivery of the final missing part, but who knows if that package will contain the right part or not!! See if you can get a fuel caddy with wheels somewhere else or this one from Vevor via Amazon or some place that has an air tight guarantee in case you have a “missing so many pieces” experience like we have had. Otherwise, I don’t envy you going through all that we have been though and still waiting!
Hi Joyce, boy, is that ever frustrating! It’s hard when you are trying to get the deal put together and the manual and the parts are coming by boat! I always tell Mark when the things I order online are over a week late, they are coming by boat, an inside joke! LOL! I have my fingers crossed you get the final pieces for the purchase!!! Linda
Linda: I didn’t even mention the two-three times we asked them to do their job and get us the missing parts and they tried to tell us they would give us XXX no. of dollars if we would fix the situation OURSELVES! Say what? Any parts with “threads” or grooves coming out of China will not match up with any American-made parts we could buy over here. Say WHAT? Are you kidding me?
Hi Joyce, say what???? Is right? Oh my gosh!!! They think money will fix it, oh my gosh!! What a hassle for you and your family!! Linda
dmwalsh568: you have great info. I recently had an advertising client (heating/plumbing category) who had great big boxes of Generac generators delivered to his biz while I was talking with him. Office mgr did the checkoff for the delivery. I was definitely curious as he sure didn’t put this on his ad. Turns out he got the contract to set up generators for more than a dozen township offices. For more urban folks, a township is the smallest govt entity in most states: below towns, county, city, state, feds. However, a township office is where people vote, can make laws for residents in it regarding property rights, atv/snowmobile trails and laws, as well as gun shooting rules. Lol, even what a person can do with a driveway or to make a new one. In the case of my ad client, townships ordered these generators to make sure they could continue to do biz at hand in case of electrical outage. Client told me that the propane tanks ordered were the size of a small one-story house: at least 5g gallons in connecting tanks. Lol, yea, because generators use a lot of fuel for very little output. Hey, my client told these township supervisors they’d be better off using solar panels but the salesperson before him did a better job…my client accepted the order because his job is making money for his company. I did ask if he had a generator: yes, for his shop but not for home: a couple solar panels to run lights, appliances. 2 wood burning stoves for heat. I found his opinion interesting.
Hi Wendy, great comment. Thank for sharing this information. Very interesting, thank you! Linda
Love these tips!
Hi Jess, thank you so much, I really appreciate your comment. Linda
Sitting in the dark, cold, hot, bored, thirsty, hungry and restless sucks. It’s easy enough to prepare and make it less stressful. And battery/solar/hand cranked flashlights, radios and fans don’t cost a whole lot, but are sure nice to have when power outages happen. These items do go on sale, so shop around to save money.
If you can buy or build a battery backup unit, use an inverter for your car or have a generator it would a Godsend along with some way to cook in a blackout. We have a generator to keep the fridge and freezer running or an A/C unit when it’s too hot since we are often victims of hurricanes which are always followed by extended power outages. Of course it does require fuel and maintenance.
Hi Frank, I love your comment as always. You are so right about the inverter for your car as a backup unit. I’m glad to hear you have a generator. You are so prepared and as always I love your comments. Those simple cheap luxuries with batteries would truly be a Godsend. Thank you, Linda
Frank: After traveling to Puerto Rico shortly after Hurricane Maria (as a 1st responder), I learned that the MOST valuable equipment to handle the heat was actually having battery-run fans. We slept on the 3rd floor of a school in 96 degree weather, which also was very humid. I did not think my heart would survive it, but with those little fans, I did just fine and slept well, too. All you really need is a small supply of extra batteries, and those fans ran all night without fail and often into the next couple of days on one set! Some models only use 2 D batteries, too! After I got home from P.Rico, I gave my sister and her 2 daughters each one of those battery-operated fans for when their area is hit with hurricanes (Gulf Coast in FL). They have LOVED these fans: https://amzn.to/3VGjTwz Don’t wait too long, though. The price is great right now, but as soon as a hurricane strikes, they become twice the price and/or go out of stock almost immediately!! These little fans are GOLDEN!!
ACTUALLY, to tell the truth, I think these little fans ran every night, all night long for a WEEK on one set of 2 batteries! Just don’t quote me, as that was several years ago now!
Hi Joyce, either way, they are great fans!!! Linda
Hi Joyce, oh that is such a good suggestion! I have two small ones very similar that I use all the time. Great idea!! Linda
Oh Yes! I have a couple of battery powered fans. They’re awesome… they provide so much relief. I have visited and lived in Puerto Rico and without air conditioning it’s too much.
And now I’m here in Florida and I still can’t stand hot and humid days, but I used the fan after one of the lest hurricanes and boy did it help. I am even thinking of buying more if I see them marked way down.
Inverters, generators and such have their use and their place, but batteries can be purchased pretty cheaply and I often buy mine at Dollar Tree. And they can last for 2 years or more easy. I don’t know why some people seem to look so negatively on them. They last for years and even 2 years AFTER they are “expired” they still work.
Hi Frank, it was hard storing batteries when I lived in the desert. I had never had trouble until I lived there. Now, I’m back up north and my batteries last much longer. Those battery-powered fans are awesome! Linda
The first thing I do is fill up my backup water barrels.
I have stored water that if ration properly will last me
45 days. The water here runs for about 30 minutes
after the power goes out. Then start setting up the
water catchment system.
No water no life!!
Hi Garrett, you are so right “no water no life!” I wish more people had a plan to store water. Great comment, Linda
I always feel bad for people caught in a power outage for weeks/months on end, and usually this seems to be hurricane areas. I’m Up North so people think we have power outages often due to winter storms. Or that the storm areas affect all of us. In MN, we have many electric co’s, many sources of power. In my case, I’m in an electrical co-op where we generate power to use and sell to others. In the last 10 years, us members voted to put all lines underground, and to Harden Off our production grid. I only had one half hour last winter with outage, due to a motorist hitting a power box, lol, also catching it on fire!; Literally, our system re-routed power very quickly. Our system automatically sends a message to customers with info as to an outage, and a time as to when full power is anticipated. I would worry about these computer things except for the fact that my co-op is hardened off. My co-op Still worries about hackers…those guys seem to always be ahead of us, so my co-op still sends info about what to prepare for ‘just in case’.
HI Wendy, oh my goodness, you are so lucky! I love hearing about power co-ops. Where I live it is controlled by the government and they have no vested interest to lower our bills. You are so blessed! Linda
Linda,
Great information as always. Anyone using a backup generator for their whole home (ie., more than fridge/freezer, lights, medical devices and maybe a TV or radio) should have a transfer switch installed by a professional electrician that automatically cuts power to the grid. That way no poor lineman gets electrocuted by power being backfed into the grid while he’s working to restore power.
Also, if you have GFI type receptacles in your kitchen, bath, etc., make sure they haven’t been tripped.
And as far as I’m concerned, anyone shooting at transformers is a terrorist and should be treated as such.
HI Ray, I totally agree!! Thanks for the tip on the transfer switch to be installed by a professional electrician. Regarding your comment on the GFI, I had to help so many neighbors figure out how to “push the button” on those. I was very surprised that a few people knew nothing about them. Linda
Yeah North Carolina incident is laughable and political. It’s a soft target a kid with a 22 can take out. I used to teach these soft targets to my soldiers. Hit enough of those giant pieces and you’ll cause a major problem because they don’t maintain a lot of them and they come from South Korea and that takes time. America is soft on infrastructure security. It’s just the nature of the beast and the trade off for what we have.
We turn on the battery lanterns break out a game. If it goes longer than an hour and we get notified as to when it’s estimated to come back on by text and email and I’ll fire up the generator maybe. I keep 30+ gallons treated with PRI-G and do a monthly test and keep extra oil on hand.
Once we even just moved into the camper. It’s setup to run on heat with phone charging etc on propane and batteries. I can get 15hrs with batteries and 3 overnights on attached propane with heater, cooking and fridge without cracking open my emergency stuff.
If we stay in the house I’ll run the solar lights from outside or chemlights to the bathroom. The trail of porcelain happiness for the wife.
This time of year I’ve got a edc light in my pocket (olight baton) and a light on my cap visor anyway so I can feed and shut up coops etc.
If it’s cold I’ll kick on the fireplace and get the blower going. Front half of the house stays warm and back half will be a buddy heater sitting on an upside down sheet pan to deflect the heat away from the floor.
I have 600 gl water stored with 30 of being inside so I can work with that easily.
BBQ grill still works so I’m gonna eat lol
Hi Matt, you are so prepared, I love it! I got the giggles over the trail of lights to the trail of porcelain! That’s one thing I miss my fireplace with a wood-burning stove. I love lanterns to play games with, everyone should have two or ten. It depends on how your roll. You could easily BBQ your venison, etc. Scrambled eggs, you are set! I love it! Linda
If you haven’t read “lights Out”, please do so, it will change the way you do things.
Hi Janet, thank you so much for recommending that book!! I wish I could get my family members to read it. It’s so frustrating if they would only read it once they would get the drift. It will change the way you do things for sure! Linda
I can’t get people to read it either. I have no idea why not.
Hi Janet, I’m glad to hear it’s not just my family or people I know. Linda
I thank you Linda for all you research and wisdom. We live in New York, about 21 miles from the Niagara Power Vista, and two of our children are closer. I don’t have any information on the security measures and I wouldn’t know where to begin. At this point, all we can do is continue to prepare, as best we can. Our whole house generator provides peace of mind. It doesn’t run the washer, dryer or our electric oven, but our stove top is gas. My husband thinks we have more back up batteries than a small hardware store and I even have two backup batteries for my electric scooter.
If anyone is considering the world greatest blankets for perfect Christmas gifts, check out Lucy’s Toys. We have several and nothing will keep you warmer, and still looks like new 15 years later.
Again, my thanks to you, Harry, Matt, Ray and all others whose knowledge have given me peace of mind. God Bless America and keep us safe.
I on a lark bought a smallish solar generator. It wont run freezers or any other high electric appliance. BUT it will run 2 electric blankets for a few hours or one for most the night. Hubby and I get cuddly then LOL. Thank you again for this wonderful newsletter!
Hi Hazel, I bought one of those smallish solar generators for my son-in-law for his CPAP, it worked the entire night! Thank you for your kind words! Linda
I recently saw an idea about putting a small pop-up tent right on a bed as an extra keep-warm layer for sleeping. Seemed as if it would be great for kids–camping indoors!
And an idea for freezers–if you put old blankets (in our case, horse blankets!) over the freezer the moment the power goes out, it will add a little insulation. Sure can’t hurt, and we never lost the contents of a freezer in all these years.
Hi Rhonda, oh thank you for the reminder about the tent on the bed to stay warm. I like the horse blankets for the freezer, LOVE IT! Linda