What would you do without Electricity?

[amranch]

Howdy,i live on the west coast,i wouldn't freeze to death,also have small gen & vehicle chargers & adapters,oil lights,propane stuff,etc.

[spud]

Spud...good questions. As for us we wait for an hour or two. If in the middle of the night an alarm goes off (quiet) and let me know power is down. My job to deal with it. In the mornig I get up and tend to the German Shepherds. Then cross over the grass to the undergound diesel 40 KW generator and fire that puppy up.... Ahhhh, the power. Now for the Starbucks coffee fresh ground in bed for my wonderful lovely wife She loves that. But of course if it fails, the 17,000 KW back up unit is ready to be put on line. Alas if that fails, the 8,000KW diesel back up unit is fired up. If it fails?? Bad news on the coffee deal. How long can they run on our fuel reserves...? Two years at least as needed, as planned for. Yes we can run the A/c, hot tub, ovens and other fun stuff. We do this every year when the tower trees come down on the feeder lines to our ranch. Be prepared, as they taught me in the "Boy Scouts". Generators rock.... spud

[canid]

yeah, if you ended up having 3 generators fail at once, likely there are worse problems than a power outage. heh.

[Ole WV Coot]

Hey Wareagle, don't tell anybody but we stole some from Ohio. I know this is shocking to everyone but we can generate a few good men to go across the Big Sewer and "borrow" watt we want. Next trip is to Ashland Oil and "borrow" some gas.

[bulrush]

I also have a touch-tone telephone, not cordless, which gets its power from the phone line.

Someone mentioned they have a rotary phone. In Michigan, all phone equipment the phone companies use has been converted to touch-tone, rotary is no longer supported. Is that true in other states too? This was completed several years ago.

[BraggSurvivor]

I dont think they are supported but will still work, around here anyways. Have you ever tried to find a rotary lately?

[canid]

i don't even see them at thrift stores or garage sales anymore. i think they've become that most special kind of obsolete; collectible.

[BraggSurvivor]

There's gotta be a Grandma out there that has one.

My buddy is into retro and tried to find one for his house. Five months later found it for $45.00. What a rip for and ugly phone.

[BraggSurvivor]

If all else fails I'll call the kids in for supper with one of these:


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[Rick]

The answer is, yes they do. (See, Coot know what he's talking about). Rotary phones worked with mechanical, rotary switches. When touch call rolled out, DTMF converters were added to the mechanical switches to convert the touch tone back to mechanical pulses (and you thought you were so up to date). Today's digital switches will accept either touch tone or rotary inputs and both work just fine.

Having said that, there could be exceptions out there. A lot of companies manufacture central office switches so there may be some odd ball I don't know about. But the phones will certainly work with the major manufacturers.

Now, I just need to figure out how to make my magneto and common battery phones work.

[Beo]

Smoke signals is waaaaaaaaaaay easier.

[Rick]

To your answer question, Bragg. Not much. I have kerosene lamps and a kerosene heater. I also have a propane heater and way too many propane tanks. I have a large box fireplace that I can cook over if I had to and a good supply of wood. Plenty of candles. Several camping stoves (wood, alcohol and iso-butane/propane mix). 50 gallon hot water heater, two 5 gallon storage cans or water. A lake with a over 100 miles of shore line just down the road if I need more. My little sweetwater filter will pump it dry (Okay, enough for us to drink anyway). Plenty-o-food to last several weeks. If it turned bitter cold, I have canvas tarps I could seal off whatever part of the house I needed to.

[BraggSurvivor]

To your answer question, Bragg. Not much. I have kerosene lamps and a kerosene heater. I also have a propane heater and way too many propane tanks. I have a large box fireplace that I can cook over if I had to and a good supply of wood. Plenty of candles. Several camping stoves (wood, alcohol and iso-butane/propane mix). 50 gallon hot water heater, two 5 gallon storage cans or water. A lake with a over 100 miles of shore line just down the road if I need more. My little sweetwater filter will pump it dry (Okay, enough for us to drink anyway). Plenty-o-food to last several weeks. If it turned bitter cold, I have canvas tarps I could seal off whatever part of the house I needed to.

Wrong post I think Rick. Good story though.

[Rick]

Right thread, wrong author. Sorry.

Beo - ..........

[crashdive123]

What would you do?
It’s going to happen. Sooner or later, the power will go off, and you won’t know when (or if) it will come back on. This doesn’t have to be the work of evil-doers, either. It could be a sudden ice storm that brings down the power lines. It could result from other severe weather such as a tornado or hurricane, or from a disruption caused by faulty power company equipment, or even something as simple as a tree branch falling on your own personal segment of the grid, or yes even a SHTF scenario. The effect is the same: everything electrical in your home stops working.
For most modern Americans, the loss of power means the complete loss of normalcy. Their lifestyle is so dependent upon the grid’s constancy that they do not know how to function without it. How do you cook a meal if your gas stove has an electric ignition? How do your children find their way to the bathroom at night if the light switches don’t work? How do you keep warm if your wood heat is moved through ducts by an electric fan? What do you do with a freezer full of expensive meat? How do you find out what is happening in your area with the TV and radio silent? What will you drink if your water comes from a system dependent on electrical pumps?
So what would you do, or what will you do?
I'm just curious.

I live in a climate where too warm is more of a concern than too cold. I've got gas for the generators, batteries, lanterns, candles, flashlights, crank radios, small fans to help keep cool. We can run the AC off our larger generator but porbably wouldn't in order to conserve fuel. We already use battery operated candles for night lights - for longer term would probably use light sticks (big supply on hand) to conserve batteries.

[Rick]

Florida does funny plumbing. I've seen it get down to freezing in the Tampa area on rare occasion. They have plumbing running inside the outside walls and they generally have water running inside the walls when that happens.

[crashdive123]

Plumbers get pretty busy around here when we get a hard freeze. Mostly the off-grade homes with the uninsulated pipes beneath them.

[spud]

Spud... Now I was kidding a little about any generator failing right off the bat. Don't get so serious In the long haul over several years of a resulting disaster where no power was available or always on... multiple generators are just a move in the direction of...wisdom. If on goes down...got parts? Get parts? Not hardly. So hook in the back up. Simple as that. Our whole group runs deep on redundant back up. Do you? If you are on watch or whatever and must fire your weapon...then it fails or breaks...what then. Got back up right there, same gun, same mags, etc.? We do as we see the lives of our group more important then what it costs to back up all systems we can. Same for generators...we all want good clean water and plenty of it. The bottom line here is... if it is worth doing at all, it is worthy doing right, with back up. Everything breaks. Take care....

[canid]

who's serious? i try to be a smartarse whenever possible, don't mind me

as far as redundance goes, i've had that fail on me in the past. almost got me killed, but oh well, you can't win 'em all.

[Rick]

I like multiple backups, too. But then you have to have so many of those beep beep thingys going at once it's hard to hear. And just a bit annoying. And, of course, if one person stops....well...it's sort of a slow motion pile up. Nasty.

I'm glad you're all right Canid. Sounds like that could have been very bad.