Outage musings

Posted on by

We had a couple very, very brief power outages here over the weekend. They didnt disturb my life too broadly because 1) they were of fairly short duration..only an hour or so, b) I’ve long reconciled myself to the notion of how to live with minimal or zero grid delivery, and III) I have some backup systems in place.

There’s been a bit of a Streisand Effect on infrastructure disruptions. Our electrical, water, gas, and other utility distribution networks have always been, for the most part, unguarded and completely vulnerable to even the mildest attack. But…such attacks, at least as reported, were few and far between. But when they do start getting reported, it gives someone somewhere the bright idea to go cause some mayhem and they wind up shooting up a power transformer, busting up a rail switching system, or punching a hole in a pipeline just because.

And, as we’ve made our infrastructure more connected and more complex…well…As the patron saint of engineering said:

The point being, in this world we live in…where everyone with a grudge, real or imagined, is just a .30-06 or a backhoe away from turning off the power and water…things like electricy, gas, and water are going to be less certain than they are now. Add in the age and inadequacy of many region’s infrastructure and you have a recipe for more frequent disruptions, not less.

As far as electricity goes, years ago I evaluated what I considered absolutely necessary for my security and safety in terms of power. I have kerosene and propane for heating, lighting, cooking, and that sort of thing. My critical must-have electrical needs are to keep my frozen food frozen and to keep me security cameras camming. Thats about it. And those needs are easily met with a little ol’ EU2000.

My smaller electrical needs are things like flashlights, radio batteries, cell phone charging, and that sort of thing. Those are met pretty easily by rechargeable batteries and a small solar panel..although I can recharge off the EU2000 if I really need to.

After the freezer and security cams, anything else is a luxury. But the important thing is that at some point you need to sit down and examine what exactly are your must-have’s that will require electricity. For most of us, its going to be freezers. For some it’ll also be well pumps and maybe pressure tanks. Some folks in particular situations will also need sewage pumps. Or perhaps you’ve got a medical situation that requires electricity for a treatment device. There’s no shortage of things that are ‘must have’s when it comes to electricity. You just need to figure out what yours are and then plan accordingly.

As I said, power outages are just a minor hiccup for me…I know exactly what my needs are (freezer and cams) and what my ‘I can get by with less’ things are (everything else). But you have to at least have an idea of what you do and don’t need before you start shopping around for things like generators and kerosene lamps.

 

21 thoughts on “Outage musings”

  1. My lovely bride agreed that this was the year for a standby generator. Being a slippery fish I turned that into a bigger generator than originally planned, an extra 1000-gallon propane tank (full, no less), redundant piping and valving so we can run anything from any of our propane infeeds, a soft-start device for the heat pump (went from 69A to 24A) and “hide it and quiet it” landscaping.

    But I bought too much capacity. So I bought a cable to feed the neighbor from one of our “RV outlets”.

    I love my wife; she tolerates my foibles. And backup power is done and dusted. Until we do solar in 2025.

  2. Consider adding a few more 2000+ Watt inverter generators to your stash. Costco sells a Yamaha powered unit that is around $500 on sale and has been completely reliable.

  3. In the 1990s I had a very off-grid cabin near Darby, ID…. And a PV system with a China Diesel (lister) generator as backup. Great units, but no longer available in the US as not meeting EPA regulations.

    I was wintering in (not exactly by choice, I had gone to finish a thesis for a masters degree) and that generator was great. It ran for two weeks straight, no issues at all. I shut it down after that for an oil change, etc.

    Anyway, neighbors (about four miles away) were on grid power, and the only indication I’d have of their having power outages would be when their lights didn’t come on at night. It was great.

  5. I take it you are a Trecker as well. Good science fiction is so hard to find. Thought you would be more of a Tremours guy. You have so much in common with Burt Gummer. But Star Trek or Tremours. I have most of movies.

  6. In reading this article it occurs to me that there are some RV refrigerators can run on electricity or propane. Might be something to look into, that way if the power goes out all one would have to do is switch over to the other fuel.

  7. Ma Bell is being a real bitch lately. We have kept our land line, but find that many times when we pick up the receiver, no dial tone. WTF – I know we paid the bill but when you can’t count on that dial tone working, issues can result. We complain – they fix but its only temporary I think. I don’t have the time to constantly check to see if its working – I work 12 hours of the day five days a week.

    I live in south Texas, so A/C in summer (about six months of the year with two months of uncomfortably warm and ALWAYS humid) is not a luxury. When A/C broke a couple of weeks ago, it got to 95 inside the house. Pretty hard to sleep in that. Heat waves will cause deaths even with electricity working. CPAP operation and Refrigeration is also a priority.

    • The phone companies REALLY want to get away from providing wired services – especially to less dense locations. A mile of phone cable costs the same in Del Rio, Tx as it does in NYC, in NYC there can be thousands of people on it: In Del Rio, maybe ten.

      So, they are ‘gently’ trying to convince people to quit…

      • Thanks for the response ER-Doc. That makes a lot of sense, something my wife remarked to as well. In our office of 12 people, I am one of two which still have a land line in their home. Everyone else gave it up and don’t appear to have regrets. We may decide to do this as well.

        • The only reason I had a land line in my last house was for faxes.

          While I still (technically) have fax capability in a printer, I don’t use it, and cannot recall the last time I needed to. So I don’t have a line for it in my current house.

      • In the early 00’s, Pac Bell shut off my phone and sent me a refund check for the current month.
        I had a personal cell phone in addition to a work issued one, and pretty much never used the land line. The neighborhood was mostly 4+ bedroom houses, and they all had two lines available since new. We had an additional landline cable run to the house a decade earlier, giving us 7 lines total, IIRC.
        Although they said nothing, I assumed there was an increased demand for lines to accommodate internet sites and growing children, and they sure weren’t making any money from me.

  8. What would you recommend for home video security, I am in the country, 10 secluded acres of hardwoods and hills. what kind of system do you use, wired or wireless, do you cover stuff away from house or just close to house and drive, what would be cost range, I am a disabled vet and cost is always top priority for purchases. I am a complete luddite when it comes to this kind of stuff, so use small words, thanks for any helpful advice.

  9. Oh, and we have fiber optic for phone and interwebs, landline just became too unreliable, and they kept taking longer and longer to fix when broken, and kept raising the price.

Comments are closed.