Do you know what to do if your power went out 5 seconds from now? 5...4...3...

I do. I have a generator ready and a pigtail on my furnace. I know that’s not code, but it allows me to run my furnace off the generator or even off an inverter and a battery for a short time. Then we can just run the inverter off one of the cars. We could probably keep the furnace running for like three weeks to a month if we cycle it carefully. Our kitchen stove is gas can be started with a grill lighter if needed. If gas service stops I have a stack of wood, fireplace and a small pot belly stove, a few propane tanks for cooking/running heaters etc… We’ll just put the contents of our freezer outside and pack a big cooler with stuff from the fridge and cycle ice from inside and outside. Plenty of extra water and a stand alone filter if we get desperate. Gassed up all the cars, even filled the boat’s tank. We have flashlights all over the house. My wife accuses me of hoarding them. I work in the power industry, you should take precautions like this. People don’t realize just how precarious this situation is. Especially when there were just people running around shooting at transformers and blacking out whole communities. The grid can’t handle any interruptions right now.

I have spent a stupid amount of my adult life with no power (hurricanes, weird storms, etc) so I am always prepared to a degree. No generator, but oil lamps, candles, wood stove, gas hot water, gas range, stuff like that. The longest I’ve been without power at this house was 4 days (thanks Sandy) and I did fine.

I loaded up up with various lighting items a few years back when California was having rolling blackouts. I have a couple of crank for power flashlights, a solar rechargeable lamp with a USB outlet for charging a phone. I gave everyone headlamps as stocking stuffers a few years ago, and this year everyone is getting a micro-lantern in their stocking.

But since I live in California, I don’t worry about freezing, just make sure my earthquake kit is reachable.

I would grab my smartphone. It has a torch function that is super bright.

I do not own a generator. My car does have gas… about half a tank, IIRC. I have flashlights in the kitchen pantry, they work, but not sure if the batteries are charged in them. They’re kind of sh—flashlights though. I definitely know where my batteries are, but do I have D-cells or C-cells? That’s a fair question.

However, there’s a couple things to note here. 1 – it’s daytime. Not really a problem. 2 – I live in a place where the power lines a buried and as a result, the power almost never goes out. I’ve lived here for 20 years I think the power went out for a couple hours… once. Am I complacent? Sure. But justifiably so, I would argue.

Yes. No generator but I am prepared. NO power for 12 days from Sandy although I did not stay home all that time. Sump pump has a backup system; flashlights, gas stove, gas fireplace.

Oh gosh don’t scare me like this! Our phones are charged up but I think our house would start getting cold because we have gas heat. Unless that would still work?

@RayaHope Your gas furnace likely needs an electrically generated spark to fire up, and the blower to distribute the heat throughout the house is probably electric as well.

Lost the power this morning went out at 8:42,.
Yes I know where three battery flashlights are and one hand crank, have eight or ten candles through out the house. Water is from the city.
Power came back on at 9:50.

I know where the flashlight is.
First, I would go out and check the power meter to see if it had power (readout) and if it didn’t, call the power company to report an outage.
Then fill one of my kerosene lanterns with fuel and light it as well as a couple of candles.
I have a camp stove that I can deploy on my pick-up’s tailgate. (The truck is parked just outside the back door on the car port.) I have plastic bottles of water that I can make coffee and what-not from.)

Lay down in bed, and wait for the power to come back on.

I actually have encountered your scenario frequently. Surprise power outage isn’t an uncommon thing here. So I don’t even have to think about it like you say. I just have to tell you what I usually do in the situation.

Good thing I’m always either with my phone or my computer so I still have a source of light with me. Usually when this happens I reach for my phone and just stay still in my place. I don’t panic because I know my eyes will adjust to the dark and soon I will be able to have a bit of vision.

My dad is the one that has control of the generator so I can wait for him to power it on. But he doesn’t always do that because the generator costs lots of fuel and we don’t always want to waste the power. So if he doesn’t use the generator he will just grab out big light. Often my parents would then call us to gather in a place. And that is when I have my phone ready. The gathering is meant to get us to stay in one place and wait out the outage, hopefully. Sometimes dad just hands us the lights we have a lot of lights in the house and I just go back to my room and wait with the light that I try to use sparingly.

I have lived through so many power outages that I essentially stop being surprised about it. When it happens I’m just like “oh not again huh?” There is just no fear at all.

@Mimishu1995 Does it ever get really cold where you are when the power goes out?

@janbb in my place surprise power outage happens the most in the summer, and the most likely reason for surprise power outage is the overuse of electricity, which is caused by excessive use of fans and air conditioners. So it’s more likely insanely hot when the power goes out. Sometimes my family has to stay up late outside our balcony because it is just too hot to sleep. Sometimes we have to resort to sleep without any cooling equipment other than homemade fans. And it is hell :(

Correction: I would only employ the kerosene lantern if it was winter. And only in the kitchen, for a bit of heat.

I’m quite used to power outages and also quite used to living without any power at all so I’d be lucky in that regard.

If the power went out where I am staying now and didn’t come back on, I’d just put my bluetooth headphones on and listen to music or do nothing when the battery died. Then in the morning I would put my solar lantern out to charge and my small usb solar panel to charge my headphones and my dumbphone and that’s all the electrical power I would need for both light and entertainment. The phone light goes between my cap and forehead as a headlamp when I need to do something. My solar charging lantern does the rest.

For cooking I have many ways. Since I can’t make a fire here cos it wouldn’t be allowed, I’d have to buy coals or otherwise construct a kerosene stove or otherwise fill up my 3kg gas cylinder and cook on that.

I could do that for as long as needed. I would even take it as a blessing in disguise or something and then enjoy it. Which I have.

^^ You must live in a warm climate. I hope we move to a warmer climate.

I live in Alaska and we’re right in the midst of a wind storm right now. I’ve learned to be proactive, keeping things charged up, having ample supplies on hand, etc. I even invested in some light bulbs that plug in and work like normal ones but stay on when the power goes out. Knock on wood, haven’t had to test them out yet but but I’m sure my area’s turn to lose power will eventually come around. I even have firewood in the fireplace just waiting to be lighted, one of the things I learned to do beforehand from necessity. Stay safe, everyone.

@AlaskaTundrea Good to see you! What kind of light bulbs are those?

Absolutely. I ran a generator cutover test yesterday as well.

@AlaskaTundrea Like you when I hear a storm is coming I keep one wood burning stove loaded and ready to go. If the power goes out I only have to light a match and I have heat.
I use the other stove in my basement to actively burn and heat the house .
It is 3:15 AM and I just woke up to use the bathroom (TMI?). Rather than immediately go back under the covers I tossed a couple of logs in the basement stove So the house will be nice and warm when it is time to get up.
I like the idea of those light bulbs. I have not seen that. I do have an emergency light that lights up when the power goes out but it is a plug in unit and not very bright.

@wearemiracles That sounds lovely! It is clear you live in a different climate! Right now the temperature is -15C with winds of 60 kph and gusts to 90 kph. I must keep the house warm so pipes don’t freeze.

@LuckyGuy I thought they do that with a fireplace and insulation and stuff? But I don’t know anything about electric heating beyond portable electric heaters. I do live in a warm climate. One of the few perks where I live.

There was one place I lived where pipes did freeze. I don’t know what temperature. I lived in a small 3×3 meter room with a corrugated roof and walls made out of thin MDF board with lots of gaps. I had to sleep in a sleeping bag indoors. Before my sleeping bag I would dress up like the michelin man and shiver all night and then have to have a bucket bath early in the morning. My body isn’t built for all that.

We installed a wood stove insert a few months ago. I wish it were bigger but it’s the largest one we could find to fit our oddly shaped fireplace. It will keep our pipes from freezing, and we are beyond thrilled. We have two married daughters living in town and if our power goes out they will come here.

We have a lot of seasoned firewood, a gas generator to run essentials, a hand crank flashlight, and candles for light, plenty of emergency food on hand, and a camp stove for cooking if necessary.

@snowberry It sounds like you are all set. I like hearing that.
I, too. have a camping stove for cooking or boiling water. My wood burner insert intentionally sticks out about 7 inches from the fireplace front so there is a nice surface available for cooking.
{Model: Lopi Freedom)

Ooh, @LuckyGuy, I had a Lopi in the Seattle house and I loved it! When I moved to CT I got a Vermont Castings and I love that one.

@janbb I imagine there are other places they’re available, but the ones I have are from JackonLux. They proved they worked last night when the winds took out the power in my neighborhood, too. I was lucky, only a couple hours outage, but just having that one bulb in a floor lamp made a world of difference. Now that I know they work, I’ll be putting the other three that I got in strategic places.

@LuckyGuy We looked carefully at the pellet stoves, but the reviews we found were mixed- either really good, or really bad. We didn’t want to risk the chance of really bad.

I really wanted a cooktop insert, but it wasn’t an option.

@snowberry I do not have pellet stove. I don’t like them. They are noisy and require power to run the auger, air injector, and the air circulater.. Plus, you can’t burn wood (and garbage) in them. You must use pellets.
I have so much free wood here. That is why I have a very efficient wood burner.