5 days without power

[MoparOrNoCar]

Like 5 years ago I moved from brooklyn to my pop's old summer home upstate. Came up in February to take a job at a farm. 1200 foot driveway up a mountain (foothill technically) covered in a winter's worth of snow.

Heat and hot water were out and couldn't get the local dudes to climb up to me. Well they probably would have because I was in a bad position but it's usually their policy not to. I was at work most of the day so I figured I'd just brave it till the snow melted.

Anyways, fuckin 15 to 20 degrees inside the house. Slept in like 8 layers and 10 blankets. It was weird cause that many blankets are heavy as fuck. Had to melt snow for water on a campfire outside. I learned real quick that if you melt snow fast in a pot it tastes terrible, scorched. Dont know why, I should probably look it up. It's interesting. Had no tv and a few DVDs. I had conan the barbarian on repeat pretty much lol.

I'd wake up everyday and couldn't wait to get to work to get warm even though it was outdoors haha.

The place had never really been used during the winter so I didnt wanna fuck with anything until it warmed up a little. Pipes etc


Wow that was a fucking essay. A shitty one. Sorry if you read all that.

Nah that was a good read bro. I've made longer posts about a nickel I found on the ground.

 

[PG29 red0 Jr]

So you have an electric pump for your well, but could not power it with the generator?

When the generator was running low on gas, could you not either siphon gas from a car or pull the fuel line to the fuel rail to refill the generator?

I have never had a power outage more than a few seconds at my current house, but with all the racing I do I have a few generators.

If my power went out for a period of time, I would:

1) Make a dead mans cord (male on both ends)
2) Shut the main on the fuse panel
3) Shut the breakers other than kitchen and mechanical room (if I need the furnace).
4) Backfeed house with small inverter generator.

If I needed to run it longer than 8 hours, I would have to siphon gas from one of the 5 vehicles I have.

For water, I could always pull out the bottom drain port on 50 gallon water heater.

I was at a cabin last month in the UP of Michigan without any water. I brought 3 gallons of drinking water, and then was filling a 10 gallon garbage can with snow and letting that melt for additional non drinking water.

After 3 days of snowmobiling and not showering I heated 3 gallon of water and washed up with a wash cloth and soap and then poured the hot water on my head like a shower. That felt wonderful.

 

[Fuzzybabyducks]

Most we lost it for was a week. We got a freak storm in October and all the leaves were on the trees . Pretty much knocked out the whole state . Haven’t lost power even for an hour since

 

[MoparOrNoCar]

So you have an electric pump for your well, but could not power it with the generator?

When the generator was running low on gas, could you not either siphon gas from a car or pull the fuel line to the fuel rail to refill the generator?

I have never had a power outage more than a few seconds at my current house, but with all the racing I do I have a few generators.

If my power went out for a period of time, I would:

1) Make a dead mans cord (male on both ends)
2) Shut the main on the fuse panel
3) Shut the breakers other than kitchen and mechanical room (if I need the furnace).
4) Backfeed house with small inverter generator.

If I needed to run it longer than 8 hours, I would have to siphon gas from one of the 5 vehicles I have.

For water, I could always pull out the bottom drain port on 50 gallon water heater.

I was at a cabin last month in the UP of Michigan without any water. I brought 3 gallons of drinking water, and then was filling a 10 gallon garbage can with snow and letting that melt for additional non drinking water.

After 3 days of snowmobiling and not showering I heated 3 gallon of water and washed up with a wash cloth and soap and then poured the hot water on my head like a shower. That felt wonderful.

Why backfeed the house? Unless you had a pretty substantial generator, I can't see it being any benefit over just plugging your stuff into the generator directly.

 

[PG29 red0 Jr]

Why backfeed the house? Unless you had a pretty substantial generator, I can't see it being any benefit over just plugging your stuff into the generator directly.

No, not a substantial generator at all. I think about 25 amps of 120 is all I can get out of it.

I have not way of getting to the back of the fridge where it plugs into the house. The furnace is direct wired to a switch on a 1900 box, so I would have to add a cord. It would just be easier to backfeed I assume.

 

[FyrFytr998]

30 mins without power and I’d be eating my own arm

How would you be able to chew all that Sherbro Alpha Male muscles and sinew?

Why backfeed the house? Unless you had a pretty substantial generator, I can't see it being any benefit over just plugging your stuff into the generator directly.

Before I installed the back feed system it was a mess of extension cords running all through the house. Quite the tripping hazard. Also, as I stated, you'd be surprised just how little generator one needs to power a whole house. MY little 5500 watt gasoline can handle not only my whole house, but my parent's in law apartment as well as long as we keep the surges to a minimum. Yet every sales man that has come to quote me a permanent system is always up selling me to 10kw to 15kw systems.

 

[eighterumg5]

Oh. You should've titled this thread 5 days on a generator.

I've been 5 days without power. There is a night and day difference.

Shoulda woulda coulda

 

[eighterumg5]

which mountain range are you in? i did that once, but that was on purpose as i was in the rainforest on vacation. a totally different experience than being stuck in snow lol.

Cascade mountains in Wa. State

 

[igrofungus]

My house has a battery backup. About 16000 Duracell AA’s hooked up in series to a transduction nominal switch will power my house for two weeks approximately. Only had to use it once. Life saver

 

[IIIIIIII]

Cascade mountains in Wa. State

ah, right on man. i was thinking colorado, but nope lol.

 

[My name is]

I'd probably invest in a generator

 

[HYBRID_CFC]

Just went 5 days without power and without running water. All while stranded from a snow storm. (Yes, in the mountains) we were pretty prepared. My wife did awesome with meals and such. And my 6 year old did great as well. So my sherbros, question time: I like to be prepared, I'm always open to advice and more knowledge. How would you handle no power or water for awhile and what would you need during those times. And yes I'm drinking....

If I had the ability to have a gennie, I would but I am a apt dweller so it is a no go.

I always have at least 8 cases of 24 bottled water on hand at a time. Along with that, a few bulk packages of Emergency water as well. I bought some compactable containers that can be stored easily if need more water from the tap. I have a shit ton of MRE/Dehydrated food stocked up, as well as some pasta and canned soup/goods. A Jetboil along with the simple fuel tablets with a cooking kit in case I need to boil water for the Mountain house/72 hour kits.

it's the best we can do being in a suburban 1000 sq apt.

We probably have enough to last us a month or so ... probably more if we had to ration.

 

[PRIDEWASBETTER]

Just went 5 days without power and without running water. All while stranded from a snow storm. (Yes, in the mountains) we were pretty prepared. My wife did awesome with meals and such. And my 6 year old did great as well. So my sherbros, question time: I like to be prepared, I'm always open to advice and more knowledge. How would you handle no power or water for awhile and what would you need during those times. And yes I'm drinking....

Did that during Hurricane Florence. We cooked everything on the grill using gas and used minimal power to save fuel for our generator, which ran out on day 4. Luckily, the gas stations started to open up under watch from the national guard.

 

[MoparOrNoCar]

No, not a substantial generator at all. I think about 25 amps of 120 is all I can get out of it.

I have not way of getting to the back of the fridge where it plugs into the house. The furnace is direct wired to a switch on a 1900 box, so I would have to add a cord. It would just be easier to backfeed I assume.

I gotcha. Hopefully you're using a transfer switch because that could be pretty dangerous otherwise.