I’m going nuts

[Starflowerpower87]

Today is a storm day, tomorrow is high winds and snow as well as the next day. I’m worried the power will go off and my food will go bad. It’s been a hard winter. I can’t take it anymore. Been inside too long.

 

[Judge]

Today is a storm day, tomorrow is high winds and snow as well as the next day. I’m worried the power will go off and my food will go bad. It’s been a hard winter. I can’t take it anymore. Been inside too long.

Every winter at some point I worry about the same thing. The cost of replacing more than a month's supply of food in the event of a long power outage. Not to mention the psychological toll of us all who so depend on electricity for just about everything these days.

When candles, books and blankets are all that's left to rely on.

 

[Xinyta]

It sucks getting cabin fever. Especially during the winter. And with the weather we have been getting. It's actually kinda crazy. One storm system after another. It's a bombardment.

It sometimes makes one wonder if it's mother nature, or someone with a weather machine somewhere.

 

[Rodafina]

@Starflowerpower87

That weather sounds a lot like it is here. It's wearing me out today.

Do you have any kind of unheated space in your place where you could let the winter temperatures chill your food if you lose electricity? Like a garage, shed or even a large window ledge where you could store a few items?

I've had to do that a couple of times - the ice and snow comes in handy.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Every winter at some point I worry about the same thing. The cost of replacing more than a month's supply of food in the event of a long power outage. Not to mention the psychological toll of us all who so depend on electricity for just about everything these days.

When candles, books and blankets are all that's left to rely on.

Good reason not to get rid of candles just because you have electricity or books just because you have e books.

 

[velociraptor]

Every winter at some point I worry about the same thing.

Can you invest in backup power? I have a Bluetti AC200L power bank I can run critical appliances off of, and a 2000W portable genset with inverter to recharge it. They're for my travel trailer, but I purchased the all-in-one power box rather than installing individual components so I could use it in my home in the winter.

 

[Aspychata]

I sit thru endless ways to make a heater out of tea candles, cook food using a stove made from bricks, watch people who buy solar screens from Harbor Freight store on YouTube and live happily ever after they power their entire house then think why can't l do that?

 

[velociraptor]

and live happily ever after they power their entire house then think why can't l do that?

I think some of those videos are rather misleading. Generating enough power from solar in winter is a nightmare. I'm prepping for winter camping next year using my slide-in camper and I'm not even going to bother installing solar panels on it. I'll just use the portable genset to re-up my batteries.

 

[Judge]

Can you invest in backup power?

Not as a renter.

 

[Jeff T]

Today is a storm day, tomorrow is high winds and snow as well as the next day. I’m worried the power will go off and my food will go bad. It’s been a hard winter. I can’t take it anymore. Been inside too long.

Would it help to put the meats and dairy outside the house in a protected way? If it's 28f and snowing outside, better than in a dead freezer in a 68f house?
Or a small generator on your porch can power the fridge- plug the fridge in via extension cord, run it for 30 minutes, then off for 3 hours? Starting wattage for a fridge is around 2200w depending on size. Seen a couple of used ones on craigslist here going for $125-200.......
Just an a couple of possibly useless ideas.

 

[velociraptor]

Not as a renter.

We're renting at the moment, but an entire home.

 

[vergil96]

My grandparents kept some of the food on the balcony during the winter.

An electric heater is good when regular heating fails, but when electricity fails and you don't have a fireplace then I don't know *ponders* How to safely use fire? You probably don't have a gas stove or oven if you just rent a room... Candles are useful as light but don't heat much. But some heat is better than nothing, I suppose? A flashlight is handy too.

 

[Crossbreed]

Before we got our backup generator, we could manually light our gas stove for cooking. (Its oven is electrically controlled, however.)

The smallest* whole-house, backup generator cost us $5K. A refrigerator full of perishable food costs us around $100 to replace, so backing up the fridge, alone, is not cost effective. We primarily got it to power the furnace,** my CPAP & the garage door opener (if my walk-in door is stuck shut).

*It does not support our air conditioner, washer & dryer nor microwave, but we can live without those in the short term.
**If heat is your only concern, there is a non-electric, NG room heater that you can get for around $1200, if I remember correctly.