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Storm: 1, Mark & Tim: 0
Jan. 4th, 2008 06:53 pmThere was a major storm around these parts last night -- high winds, rain, etc.
We lost power just before 5AM and didn't get it back until about 5 hours later.
Here's a bit of the scorecard for what happened:
Emergency flashlights: We have several that plug into the wall so that they are always charged. Unfortunately, we left them in the "auto" position which means that they turn on automatically when the power goes out so that you have some emergency light if you're around and the room suddenly goes dark. We did wake up when the power went out (the smoke detector chirps when it switches from power to battery), we didn't get up & turn off all the emergency flashlights that had come on. So, by the time we got up, several of them had already drained their batteries.
The storm was the winner on that one. From now on, I think that I'm switching them all to "off", so that they'll charge when the power is on, but not automatically turn on when the power goes off. Sure, this time we could have gotten up to turn off all the flashlights, but what if we had been away from home? The only thing worse than coming home to a dark house is coming home to a dark house with exhausted rechargeable flashlights.
Radio: We do have an emergency radio, and the batteries did work. Unfortunately, the storm had knocked out the one station that we normally would listen to for information, so I was forced to scan the dial to find info.
The storm wins that one, too. I now have a list of radio stations for the area, and will make sure that I have a print-out of that put near the radio.
Phones: We do have a land line, and it did work while the power was out. Cell service was also available, but both Mark & I had cell phones that weren't fully charged. We could have charged them using the car charger, but it would be better to have them kept at a reasonable charge amount.
I think that we win this one, because we did have phone service and a way to charge the cell phones.
Food/Water: We're always pretty well stocked on this. However, everything would have to be eaten cold, as our only cooking option without power is the gas grill outside -- and it would be quite unpleasant to go outside to use that in the driving wind & rain.
We win on this one, but only because I have enough stuff that can be eaten cold. Eventually, we'll remodel the kitchen & put in a dual-fuel range, so we would have gas burners. In the meantime, though, I should get a camping stove.
Heat: Without power, we don't have heat. Luckily, it wasn't that cold outside, and the house had only dropped to 60F by the time the power went back on. But, if the power stayed out for another day, it would have gotten mighty cold in the house.
The storm wins this one. We need to get some kind of emergency heat system.
Light: Other than the discharged flashlights, we've got a ton of emergency lighting options, including small keychain lights that we have with us at all times as well as a candle lantern that I just bought for emergency preparedness.
We win this one.
Entertainment: There are plenty of books and games (and appropriate light for using such). My iPod was fully charged, so I could listen to podcasts & tunes for quite a while. I rarely put my laptop to sleep at night, however, so its battery was nearly drained by the time we got up in the morning. From now on, I think that I'll make sure to "sleep" my laptop, rather than leaving it on -- that's more energy conscious anyway. [For those who care, the reason why I haven't been using "sleep" before is that sometimes my Mac laptop doesn't find the wireless network when it wakes up, so then I have to reboot the damn thing, and that's just annoying.]
We win this one, although with a few minor changes, we could have a more enjoyable time even without power.
Overall, we did OK. We certainly could have survived an entire day without power, but it would have been iffy if we had to spend multiple days without power. Definitely some things to work on before the next time.
I'm curious how you all would have fared in the event of losing power for 5 hours (or for a day or two).
We lost power just before 5AM and didn't get it back until about 5 hours later.
Here's a bit of the scorecard for what happened:
Emergency flashlights: We have several that plug into the wall so that they are always charged. Unfortunately, we left them in the "auto" position which means that they turn on automatically when the power goes out so that you have some emergency light if you're around and the room suddenly goes dark. We did wake up when the power went out (the smoke detector chirps when it switches from power to battery), we didn't get up & turn off all the emergency flashlights that had come on. So, by the time we got up, several of them had already drained their batteries.
The storm was the winner on that one. From now on, I think that I'm switching them all to "off", so that they'll charge when the power is on, but not automatically turn on when the power goes off. Sure, this time we could have gotten up to turn off all the flashlights, but what if we had been away from home? The only thing worse than coming home to a dark house is coming home to a dark house with exhausted rechargeable flashlights.
Radio: We do have an emergency radio, and the batteries did work. Unfortunately, the storm had knocked out the one station that we normally would listen to for information, so I was forced to scan the dial to find info.
The storm wins that one, too. I now have a list of radio stations for the area, and will make sure that I have a print-out of that put near the radio.
Phones: We do have a land line, and it did work while the power was out. Cell service was also available, but both Mark & I had cell phones that weren't fully charged. We could have charged them using the car charger, but it would be better to have them kept at a reasonable charge amount.
I think that we win this one, because we did have phone service and a way to charge the cell phones.
Food/Water: We're always pretty well stocked on this. However, everything would have to be eaten cold, as our only cooking option without power is the gas grill outside -- and it would be quite unpleasant to go outside to use that in the driving wind & rain.
We win on this one, but only because I have enough stuff that can be eaten cold. Eventually, we'll remodel the kitchen & put in a dual-fuel range, so we would have gas burners. In the meantime, though, I should get a camping stove.
Heat: Without power, we don't have heat. Luckily, it wasn't that cold outside, and the house had only dropped to 60F by the time the power went back on. But, if the power stayed out for another day, it would have gotten mighty cold in the house.
The storm wins this one. We need to get some kind of emergency heat system.
Light: Other than the discharged flashlights, we've got a ton of emergency lighting options, including small keychain lights that we have with us at all times as well as a candle lantern that I just bought for emergency preparedness.
We win this one.
Entertainment: There are plenty of books and games (and appropriate light for using such). My iPod was fully charged, so I could listen to podcasts & tunes for quite a while. I rarely put my laptop to sleep at night, however, so its battery was nearly drained by the time we got up in the morning. From now on, I think that I'll make sure to "sleep" my laptop, rather than leaving it on -- that's more energy conscious anyway. [For those who care, the reason why I haven't been using "sleep" before is that sometimes my Mac laptop doesn't find the wireless network when it wakes up, so then I have to reboot the damn thing, and that's just annoying.]
We win this one, although with a few minor changes, we could have a more enjoyable time even without power.
Overall, we did OK. We certainly could have survived an entire day without power, but it would have been iffy if we had to spend multiple days without power. Definitely some things to work on before the next time.
I'm curious how you all would have fared in the event of losing power for 5 hours (or for a day or two).