We will be tested very soon..!!!
- Thread starter J.H.
- Start date
Brett V
Solar Wizard
In the spirit of the original post, it’s a good time to evaluate your level of preparedness just in case. I took advantage of the warm day to give the pellet stove a thorough cleaning. Filled two gas cans yesterday at $3.08 a gallon, I already had five and was being lazy about taking the last two to the gas station.
Lavarock7
New Member
Every location has its' challenges.
Cold and snow? It gets cold here (I call night temps below 70 degrees F. freezing). We do get snow and have had blizzards in Hawaii, but luckily not near sea level. No heater or A/C here at home. Lava flows and VOG (volcanic smog) are common enough. I do not miss Georgia where we had 'water' weather (either hot or cold).
Our big issue for me is not generally the weather but in losing power. On the Big Island, there is one main road around the island and one road across it. Someone hits a pole and power, cable internet/TV and also landlines can go out simultaneously. A simple accident that closed the two lane road could cause a 170 mile (5 hour) diversion to bypass the accident.
Each island generates its' own electric and it is not shared to other islands because of logistics. Thus having solar panels, batteries, a generator and the grid available for input helps quite a bit.
Cold and snow? It gets cold here (I call night temps below 70 degrees F. freezing). We do get snow and have had blizzards in Hawaii, but luckily not near sea level. No heater or A/C here at home. Lava flows and VOG (volcanic smog) are common enough. I do not miss Georgia where we had 'water' weather (either hot or cold).
Our big issue for me is not generally the weather but in losing power. On the Big Island, there is one main road around the island and one road across it. Someone hits a pole and power, cable internet/TV and also landlines can go out simultaneously. A simple accident that closed the two lane road could cause a 170 mile (5 hour) diversion to bypass the accident.
Each island generates its' own electric and it is not shared to other islands because of logistics. Thus having solar panels, batteries, a generator and the grid available for input helps quite a bit.
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HighDesertDrifter
Teaching is a rare skill, Thanks to those who do!
IMHO it's best to turn OFF the propaganda / Hype machine and look out the window.
Well that's no fun.
Hogheavenfarm
Regulation Stifles Innovation
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2022
- Messages
- 457
we just came off a week of single digits and snow every few days, all gone now that it is 55 F outside, but it will be back. No worries, wood stove, fireplace, pellet stove and oil, even Kero if it gets bad. Have the old incandescent lights on in the chicken house for warmth. Plenty of food on hand, and had a big harvest this year, maybe I will shell some beans while rocking in front of the wood stove.
Philip53
10.4kw DIY Home Solar Sprinter Van DIY Victron
Nice to be prepared!
Where are you located - would help if you put your location in your 'signature'.?
I wonder if our cold season is milder this year. I don't know if that is a piece of it, or if I have just (finally) adjusted to life without hot water. In either case, I have been taking cold showers this year without the usual inner resistance/distaste. December and about half of January are usually our coldest parts of the year--and many heat some water on the stove to pour into their dipper-bath barrel. February starts warming again, and by March-April we are in the hot season. If it weren't for the rains that usually start mid-May, the summer months would be unbearable.
However, I'm not going to ask for any more winter here. No, with an uninsulated house, and no heating in either house or car, I'd be quite content to keep the temps above 80 F.
Dagoth Ur Does Solar
Solar Enthusiast
Well, if we get any kind of ice storm or other severe weather that causes any power outages, I'm certainly more prepared this time around. Already did the break in on my Champion tri-fuel generator, got an all-weather tent put on it, got a breaker interlock and natural gas connect installed. Have my older/smaller Predator gas generator around still as well, if anything happened with the new one. The Predator + portable power stations got me through several days of outage in the past, so I can always fall back if need be.
Also overpaneled my little 12V system recently, so it's doing better on PV production. Really looking forward to the day I can build a nice beefy 48V system.
Also overpaneled my little 12V system recently, so it's doing better on PV production. Really looking forward to the day I can build a nice beefy 48V system.
You’re a Norwegian in Thailand?
93 was not fun at all. I lived just outside Bham and was without power for 7 days. After 4 days of no power me and the wife left our frigid 1930's built rental house that had no insulation on my 3 wheeler and went to the inlaws house in walker county who had never lost power.Since I never leave home a blizzard would be kind nice I guess
93 was fun !
Since then ive always had a backup source of power and heating. or I should say multiple back ups. I learned that lesson first hand.
I remember seeing a foot of snow on the ground in Bergen, Norway at Christmastime in '93. Unusual, everyone said, for the coastal city. It was beautiful, though...made for some nice pictures.
Sonne
Solar Addict
Well it was delicious anyway……. (Purrrrr)
I'm at cheaha mountain and we are kind prepared for stuff around here
At the same time we never lost power but for short periods of time. That last big snow/ice storm we were out of power for awhile but 93 wasn't bad. Huge snow drifts but no power issues.
I was 25 at that time and newly married. We were doing good to afford utilities much less any preparedness. Nowdays is different story.I'm at cheaha mountain and we are kind prepared for stuff around here
40kw of backup batteries for inverters to power basically the whole place with. Multiple back up generators, and couple of chinese diesel heaters. We are good for at least a full week if something happened like 1993.
We are at the end of a dead end road with only 10 houses on it. Whenever anything happens we are almost always the last area to get power restored too. Just the little windstorm a few months ago dropped one tree on powerlines breaking them and cutting power to 6 houses. We cut the tree off the lines and still it was the next day before alabama power came back to just splice the line back together which took no more than 45 minutes.
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Mmmmmmmmm…. Recycling done right…!
Lavarock7
New Member
You may not want to visit the website SOYLENT.COM
wpns
Solar Joules are catch and release
Unfortunately, Soylent Green tastes like green vegetables (I was hoping for mint). Not something I eat on a regular basis so tossed it in the emergency food stash.
wpns
Solar Joules are catch and release
We call that the weatherman getting A Weather Woodie. 
. Especially prominent if it’s the first {storm, hurricane, snow, blizzard, rain, cold snap, polar vortex, atmospheric river, etc} of the season.
. Especially prominent if it’s the first {storm, hurricane, snow, blizzard, rain, cold snap, polar vortex, atmospheric river, etc} of the season.Heh, I remember back to about 1980 or so when central Minnesota saw about -40 F, with windchill of -70 F. No one stayed outdoors more than a couple minutes or so--and that was suited up properly at that. Winters have gotten much milder over the years, and it's rare to see the same temps as were common just a few decades ago.
Anyone here remember the snowstorm/blizzard in northern Arizona that literally covered people's homes overnight with snow? Imagine waking up to the discovery that one is buried by snow in one's own home. If the door opened outwards, good luck even trying to clear it. This Arizona event happened long before the rise of the internet, so it's unlikely to find much about it online...but if such an event were to occur again today, people would definitely be talking about disasters of "biblical proportions."