Those are very good points EB! Thanks!
Those are very good points EB! Thanks!
Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day!
Light a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!
Cat's are food... not friends!
If you're going to fight, then fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp into Noah's arc... and brother, it's starting to rain.
This is something I think I will do very soon. If you know that within 2 hours of loss of power your freezer goes above 32 and the fridge moves over 40 you know you will need to begin using food very soon.Originally Posted by ElevenBravo
to reiterate EB's post... it depends on your fridge! opening mine in a planned manner, I have kept milk 'enjoyably cold' for 4 days during a +30 power-outage, just by opening it once a day! Again as per EB's point, I will no longer consider this as possible with my current fridge, until tested!
Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day!
Light a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!
Cat's are food... not friends!
If you're going to fight, then fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp into Noah's arc... and brother, it's starting to rain.
With the area I live in, I think my biggest concern would be power outages due to winter storms. Since it would be a winter storm, Im not too worried about food spoilage, since I could simply put the frozen food outside in the snow and it would keep. As far as maintaining heat within the house, I have a spare generator with plenty of fuel to run it enough to heat the house that way if needed. I can also rely on wood stove and the smaller kerosene stoves if needed. Since we keep a good supply of food on hand, and We also keep about 300 gallons of water available, I think we would be fine. The problem lies I think with either neighbors or non-prepping friends coming to us for help, while we wont turn them down, I would have to refine my plans on what Im willing to distribute as far as that goes.
RELIGION IS LIKE A PENIS
Its fine to have one,
Its fine to be proud of it,
But please dont whip it out in public and start waving it around,
And PLEASE dont try to force it down my children's throats.
An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
Let's see here...an unexpected catastrophic event and how to deal with it? The wife's pregnant and I've had a vasectomy...I would reach for the shotgun and then...oh...different Cato event. Got it. Here is Southern Middle Tennessee, we don't have to worry about a lot of the country's bigger problems. No hurricanes, no volcanos, usually get enough rain, so no fire storms, or droughts. We are very susceptible to tornados though, but not in my exact location. We usually don't get much snow, except for the big one Gran Pappy tells everyone about that comes once every 50 yrs or so. But unlike our brothers and sisters in northers climates, we can get enough snow or ice to knock out the power, but still be just enough above freezing to ruin everything in a freezer. I bought a generator last year when just that scenario happened. The power was off over 24 hrs, looked like the power would be out for days, and had a freezer full of black angus...wife's brother has a meat processing shop. So I buy a generator over the phone at Lowes, and while driving there, there are trees and power lines down everywhere. I'm thinking if the power is on in two weeks, we will be lucky. I get the genny and 15 gal of fuel,and get on home ASAP. I start unpacking it, and realize the lights are on in the garage where the freezer is. I check the freezer...-10. So, I have a generator now...just in case. If nothing else, she's pretty to look at.
Just a thought...Besides storing drinking water, I rinse out gal jugs of milk and store water in them. The door under the stairs is in my master bathroom, so I store them under there to use to flush the toilet if the water should happen to go out short term. I've got about 20 gal. Any one else do this?
Last edited by Domeguy; 01-13-2015 at 07:55 AM. Reason: Spieelang
Dome, I applaud your mission but, I wont use milk jugs.. Its terrible work to get all the milk residue out in order to use them for water storage. If you all drink soda in 2L bottles, I suggest that instead. Some water jugs would likely be best but reusing what would be waste is smart.
On the topic of flush water, I highly highly suggest connecting a rain barrel to a down spout, its not very expensive (wait, I think you live in a dome, may not apply to you). You will keep 55 gal of flush water.
On the genny... Im sure you were excited to get your prep, but burst the balloon when the power came on so quick... fear not, you will end up using the genny at some point. Remember to exercise it for about 15 min a week or every two weeks at least, to keep it in good operating condition. If you have a large propane tank for your house (we have natural gas), get the tri-fuel kit from US Carb, then you wont have to fret over having enough gasoline on hand, etc..
EB
We have been considering a generator. We rarely lose power, though back in the early 90's a windstorm took us out of the 20th century for 3 1/2 days. I do not think we need a generator to run everything in our home, as even in the coldest times we rarely get into the 30's. I have thought of one of the smaller Hondas that put out about 1500 -2000 watts. What I like is that they are relatively quiet, small and portable. My bro-in-law has one that we have used on camping trips with them. They have run their fairly large trailer with air conditioning, lights, fridge and at the same time kept our fridge online in our tent trailer. Most campgrounds have a restriction on running geneerators after 9 or so. That Honda is so quiet that this past summer we forgot it was running on two occasions.
A quiet genny will certainly not attract attention of unwanted bad guys who want to take it from me.
^2 on those Hondas! Awesome machines
Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day!
Light a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!
Cat's are food... not friends!
If you're going to fight, then fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp into Noah's arc... and brother, it's starting to rain.
Hehe, thats not camping.
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You want at minimum 2K, pref 2.5K... that would be enough to run a fridge, several lights and a box fan or three. A 1.5K might not be enough for the capacitive start of a fridge's compressor motor.
Mine is a 2.5, and Ive run my fridge, a portable AC unit and several lights and two fans for two days. It was expensive, but worth it! Temp was 110 degF outside... brutal with the humidity.
EB
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You want at minimum 2K, pref 2.5K... that would be enough to run a fridge, several lights and a box fan or three. A 1.5K might not be enough for the capacitive start of a fridge's compressor motor.
Mine is a 2.5, and Ive run my fridge, a portable AC unit and several lights and two fans for two days. It was expensive, but worth it! Temp was 110 degF outside... brutal with the humidity.
If all you want is a couple of lights and a fan, a 900w two stroke genny like at Harbor Freight works pretty good and last a long time on a gallon of gas!
http://www.harborfreight.com/900-pea...arb-60338.html
EB
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