jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have a 5500W generator on wheels. It powers almost everything, including the furnace and the water pump. When I bought the generator, a "rebate" in the form of an electric connection panel was included. I plug in the gen right next to the elec panel, and the generator panel is installed next to that. I switch off the house breakers and switch on the gen breakers. Great system.

SteveFranz Loc: Durham, NC

Many hoggers mention filling the bathtub for a temporary water supply. Unless you have a tankless water heater, your water heater tank is a good supply of water (20 - 30 - 40 gallons) for use during an emergency.

I was visiting my parents on their farm many years ago. We had a major snowstorm that knocked out power for several days - no water, no heat. We huddled around the fireplace to try and stay warm & melted snow for water. Note - when the house is cold, it takes forever to melt enough snow for a useable amount of water. About an hour before power was restored I noticed their water heater - a 30 gallon tank of easily accessible potable water. DUH!

Canisdirus

Water heater is a good source.

I have my own wells...three of them...my main house well is perfect...needs nothing...no carbon filtering needed...water is perfect.

When I purchased this property they had the well water coming straight from the pump...which is fine...just a small bladder for pressure.

I however...in the vein of your post...added in a secondary pump and installed a 500 gallon cistern for the second pump to pull from.

Now when the power goes out for an extended period of time (hurricanes)...I always have 500 gallons of water sitting next to my pumps...ready to be siphoned off when needed.

But the water heater is a good source if you are on public water.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

No beer?

petrochemist Loc: UK

I used to live in a wood where power cuts were a fairly regular occurrence. Typically power was restored after around a day, but once it took a week :(
Note in the UK hurricanes etc are fortunately very rare!
When we lost power the heating (oil fired but with a pump), regular cooking (no gas available), lighting... all went.
A single fireplace to burn wood made a big difference, as did camping gas stoves from camping.
Mains water was never an issue, a relief since the well in the garden required electricity to operate.

Shortly after the long power cut I brought a small generator, but over 25 years later I've never used it. Somehow just having it prevented trees from bringing down the power lines till after I moved!

For the short term interruptions we now get, using a phone to find a torch & keeping fridge/freezer shut are generally enough. Quite often our immediate neighbour still gets mains when ours goes off (we seem to be fed from different directions)
A temporary extension lead across the fence has been suggested as a freezer top up, but has never been attempted.

I now have a Coleman style gasoline stove, but thats only been needed for camping (despite my getting free gasoline samples every year). It heats thing much quicker than the old butane stoves :)

With the steadily climbing cost of gas/electricity we're starting to consider restoring our lounge fireplace here to heat the house a bit this winter without the predicted £1000/month bills! It would even help clear up the garden :)

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

Or you can install a big generator that runs off the same propane as the heating system. Lol

Horseart Loc: Alabama

Freeze bags of water? In the freezer? With the electricity out? Assuming you have a generator...

Lucasdv123

We have natural gas for our stove,the 50 gallon water heater,and our heating.i have a 10 year old champion 4k that puts out a running 3.5k watts.it took me 2 hours to find out how to connect the generator to the heater.by that time during the 2021 freeze here in TX that froze over 200 people due to our power grid going out our inside temp was 58 degrees.as soon as I connected it the temp went to 74 degrees in 30 minutes. We ran that generator for 4 days.19 hours on 3.8 gallons of gasoline. It ran the fridge and some lights too.for the summer outages I have a 5000 btu and a 6000 btu window units.the 5000 btu runs on 500 watts and the 6000 btu runs on 650 watts with enough power left over for the fridge,freezer,some lights,modem,tvs,and chargers.i now have purchased a champion 4k hybrid inverter.when lots of power is needed it revs up and when very little power is needed it revs down to where you can't even hear it in the house while running outside.at full throttle it puts out about 64 dbs of noisy.

Lucasdv123

Forgot to mention that northern tools has a 4 d battery lantern that puts out 1250 lumens for $8.29 on sale now.you may have to order them online cause they usually don't have them at the store.they were on sale a month ago and I ordered 4 which by the way the cheap batteries in them were all close to dead so the store manager replaced all 16 batteries with the good one and I also picked up 3 eco lantern which are rechargeable or battery operated for $10 each a Sam's a month ago .costco has one that is solar for $19 but don't know too much about it.we have 4 lantern hanging around the house just in case of a power outage.

Horseart Loc: Alabama

Sounds like you are all set up. I lived in NW Tn. for 58 years and we had one bad freeze, an ice storm. Power out for 4 days. Only light snows there in all those years, but here in Alabama, where I have lived for the last 2 years, we have had 2 VERY light dustings of snow and those who didn't rise early didn't see them because they came late at night and melted as soon as the sun peeked out.