How to Thrive (as much as possible) in a power outage
I have a friend who repairs equipment at electrical power plants. One regional plant currently has 12 turbines down. At another he was called out to do some repairs but the necessary parts are not available for 6+ months. So his team did their best to jerry rig it and it will run at 40% load until then. This is a crisis waiting to happen.
In February 2021, there were widespread power outages in the Texas ERCOT power grid that resulted in power outages for Texas, and many of us were affected as Texas tapped power from the SPP grid in the midsection of the country, causing brownouts and power outages.
My family and friends in Texas, and especially in Houston, had many issues that February. It was an extended cold spell, and the power was out almost a week. Pipes froze and cell towers ran out of backup power, so mobile phone communications went out as towers lost service and remaining ones were overloaded.
After that episode, in early Spring 2021, our local/regional energy company had several mandatory power outages during the work day that affected several of my team members at work. Our local power co-op had outages as well, but at least they were reasonable enough to do those at night or on the weekend.
We don’t focus on the negative or hysteria on Thriving the Future and Thriver.News. We look at problems and ask “how can I Thrive in these situations?” So let’s dive into some options.
Two is One and One is None?
The prepper adage: “Two is One and One is None” may apply here, but not with just stacking similar solutions. It’s not about buying multiple generators. Instead, look at your power needs and apply solutions to specific problems.
I will look at several scenarios and possible solutions, including:
- Scenario 1: Short term planned outage – Battery bank with inverter and charger
- Scenario 2: Outage of unknown duration – High output inverter that can be hooked up to the car
- Scenario 3: Power outage due to ice storm or hurricane, with downed power lines and longer duration – fire up the generator.
(Those of you who listen to The Survival Podcast have heard several of these).
Scenario 1: Short term planned outage
The power company is going to do an outage in the middle of the work day that will likely last 1-2 hours. This is no big deal if you don’t work at home. That is a limited length of time, so the food in the freezer and refrigerator shouldn’t be affected. I should not need to fire up the generator for this scenario.
But I work from home, so I needed internet and laptop power at least. I could use my phone as a hotspot, but I preferred to have a way to recharge it.
(Remember, the number one need that Hurricane Harvey evacuees had in 2017 was the ability to recharge their phones).
A battery bank, and a way to recharge it, can help in these short term outage, especially a planned one (although I have seen planned outages go well beyond the planned timeline). I don’t need to fire up the generator or hook up an inverter to the car – at least not yet.
My Battery Bank
My battery bank consists of:
Two marine type batteries that I got at Tractor Supply that are wired together:
A Black and Decker charger that also shows the charge. This for recharging afterward.
A small 750 watt inverter:
Jumper cables with the clamps taken off one end and replaced with battery cable lugs. This is used to hook up the battery bank to the inverter.
Extension cords – preferably the flat ones that go under the door and allow the door to be closed:
Scenario 2: Outage of unknown duration – initially use an inverter
If an outage lasts longer than my battery bank, I can start up a small generator. But that won’t run my refrigerator. The refrigerator doesn’t need to run constantly, but it should be run for a short period of time every 4-8 hours. For that I use an inverter hooked up to the car, running in the driveway.
Scenario 3: Power outage due to ice storm or hurricane, with downed power lines and longer duration.
In Wichita, KS in 2005, we had an ice storm that snapped trees and took out power lines. My house was without power for over a week. We had a wood burning stove for heat, and plenty of firewood. We took showers at the gym. It was cold outside so we moved the refrigerated and frozen foods outside. We flushed the toilets using buckets of water poured into the tank. Afterward, we hauled away seven truckloads of debris from downed trees.
For an ice storm like this, or an outage with a longer duration, there are several options.
I can start up the generator, but I better have a lot of fuel to last a whole week. If the outage is affecting everyone then gas stations may not be able to pump fuel.
Check out the Thriving News article – Ice Storms are Coming. Is Your Generator Ready? for more detail on checking your generator and getting ready for the season.
Is the outage localized or is it regional?
If the outage is just on my street, due to an ice storm and downed power lines, I could rely on friends or family for a place to stay during the outage, and periodically come back to run the wood stove to keep the pipes from freezing in the house. In the 2005 ice storm, my teenage daughters could not take the periods of silence and ended up staying with friends of the family.
Backup comms
When cell towers lose power, they go on generator or battery backups. If their backup diesel generators run out of fuel, their batteries can only last a few days. If they are not reset then mobile phone coverage will be out, or overloaded and spotty. In the 2021 power outage in Texas, the cell towers ran out of backup power and many people could not contact loved ones.
Have backup forms of communication. Mike from Paratus Radio and I talked about backup comms on Thriving the Future Podcast Ep. 47 – Community Comms.
Have a plan! If something happens and comms go out unexpectedly, have a plan with your family so that you know where to meet up if you have lost communication and cannot contact each other. Also have backup emergency contacts.
Plan ahead and practice your preps
The biggest lesson to take away from this is to plan ahead and practice your preps. That generator doesn’t do any good if you don’t know how to use it. Many generators require a break-in period, and even an oil change (!) before you should put a load on them.
Practice with your equipment when the weather is good. As Toolman Tim said on Thriving the Future Podcast Ep. 116: “You don’t rise to the occasion, you fall to your level of training.”
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What I really liked:
- The Backyard Forest Garden e-book
- Agroforestry
- Restoration Agriculture: Designing Your Perennial Farm presentation from Permaculture Voices by Mark Shepard
- Permaculture Thorns, A Book About Trying to Build Permaculture Community, by Paul Wheaton.
- Plus 2 books by Nicole Sauce.
