Ask Lemmy

My family probably wouldn't make it past 3 weeks. We are dependent on rechargeable electronic insulin pumps. Pumps last 3-5 days. Can be recharged on a laptop, maybe 2-3 times. Can recharge in the car a few times. Our real problem is no food.

You'd hear me shout, "again?! Damn it".

I got a bunch of antique lamps and a wood fired stove. I also got a generator for the fridge and freezer. So I'll be fine until the cannibals come knocking. If the town runs out of gas I'll just cook everything and invite everyone.

I could go up to six weeks without power or if there was some event that caused significant social unrest, provided I'm not murdered. I made it a habit during the first Trump admin to have an emergency food and water supply, largely because he really isn't a terribly competent leader, and then when COVID hit and people bought out everything everywhere, it just reinforced the importance of having supplies on-hand.

I have a 15kw three fuel generator. can run; liquid petroleum, liquid propane, or natural gas. I have mine setup for NG (endless) but have three 20 pound tanks of LP dedicated as backups in case NG goes down. should give me at least 48 hours of full power. if I cut all but the essentials it could stretch for a week and some change. longer if I don't run 24/7.

if that should breakdown I have a 6kw liquid petroleum generator that can power heaters and cycle through essentials. Gas station is within walking distance so I could run it indefinitely if need be. If they don't I can siphon from a spare car and probably run it for a couple days.

I would love to have a 50kwh lifepo4 system though. would greatly reduced the strain on my genny and would be even better with a small solar setup as well.

our heat is electric. building was built in the 70's during the energy crisis. wed be fucked. it needs massive renevation but if I could ever get the economic ducks in a row and do that I would like to have a batter system.

checks camping and hunting gear in closet

Yeah I'm good.

I have a small 2kw military surplus generator that's big enough to power my fridge, oil fired heating system and my computers. If I need to power a microwave or toaster oven, I can unplug the fridge or turn off the heating for a few minutes without an issues. The generator only uses about 3 gallons a day and with the heating oil tank, I have enough fuel for around 100 days. For those that don't know, diesel fuel and home heating oil are the same thing. Heating oil and offroad diesel have a dye added to indicate that it has no onroad tax applied.

A bunch of macho men gave me shit for only getting a 2kw generator when they had 10 to 15kw generators, but I know what I need and will enjoy not having to wait in line for fuel at the gas stations when there's a wide area blackout.

In theory pretty good. I have solar that does about 80% of my daily use. Battery backup islanded to the solar for the fridge and freezer and the electronics in the gas water heater. Plus a few outlets in each room. I've got a gas range and induction burner so I can cook two ways.

Pretty much comes down to water and food. I've got about 4 days of water and maybe a month of food. If the water keeps flowing I can boil it as needed.

Not connected to the grid. For my personal electricity use I'd be fine indefinitely with solar.

Got an old wood stove that's not really in use, but could be used for heat and cooking. Not entirely sure if could get dry wood quickly, but it probably get it to burn. I've done many a campfire with freshly collected wood.

I'm also vegan, so most of my protein sources are legumes, which are either canned or dried, ie shelf stable. I buy those as well as rice and other shelf stable things in bulk because there's only the tiniest little shop nearby and i try to stock up whenever I get to borrow a car. What I currently have would probably last me a month of normal eating, so i guess like two if i ration.

If I can shop for things, I could go on indefinitely. Thinking about it, it sounds kind of nice to literally not be able to work on my thesis and get to read and draw a bunch.

Not long. Maybe a few days to maybe a little after a week. We have plenty of canned goods, but who knows how long they'd last (from being eaten, not going bad). My family has a couple propane tanks, so that's the only reason we'd last a little while. Also, I'd be screwed because I go to routine appointments every once in a while to make sure my blood ain't too thin or thick because I'm on blood thinners. So fuck me, I guess.

Gas heaters work during an outage, but they use electric fans to distribute the heat.

We have solar panels, so we'd be good during the day, not so much at night.

Former communist country, business as usual even though it's been a while since.

No problem, happens all the time here. We have had "loadshedding" and random outages for years, so we are well prepared. All the lights in the house is solar, and I have two solar charged power banks (2kw units) for the computers and fridge (if required, the fridge can last two days or so without power, but this is only a problem on overcast days, which is not too often here (South Africa, near Hammanskraal)) recently we have been without water for days at a time, but for that I have 5000 liters of water and solar pressure pump, gas geyser in one of the bathrooms.

Storm Darragh took our power out for a week or so, and towards the end we had to top our batteries up with a genny, as the solar wasn’t quite cutting it with the lack of sun and bad weather. Not too bad though, there’s about 10 of us using the power, though we live a fairly low-impact life

Got a gas stove, gas water heating and hybrid car. Could probably survive indefinitely assuming I can still shop, if I can't then I would die even with electricity. Hell, i would be forced to finally revive my reading habits and work on my book backlog, maybe it would be a little good.

We have 2 cars so could load up everyone human, dog, and cat and go somewhere else, so I guess theoretically a lifetime.

Longest blackout I've experienced was 2 weeks and my WHOLE house was electric, well pump included. It was getting sketchy by the end, so I guess at least a couple of weeks here, longer if there is safe water.

It's not really possible in a tiny apartment building where we have virtually no control over utilities (besides paying for them). I have a bunch of candles and some canned food but that's it. Maybe 2-3 days

I recently moved, so not as well as at my old house which had solar and a whole house battery. We had several times where we lost grid power for a few days and it was annoying but basically fine. I had to turn off most electronics but we could keep the fridge and other important things going. The oven was gas so and I had a propane grill so cooking was sorted.

Now I’m in a five plex where everything except the water heater is electric and I don’t have my grill. I do have a small camp stove and a few fuel canisters. Mostly importantly I have a big camping battery and solar setup to run our CPAPs and keep the phones charged, plus a weeks worth of camp foods in our emergency bin. So, we’d be ok enough for a week.

EDIT: Water isn't big of an issue as you might think. In most places, municipal water will continue to work for several days from gravity alone, and often has its own backup power systems or is on a different supply from the city. At the old house we also had a backup 55 gallons in a long term storage drum with treatment tablets and a calendar reminder to swap it out on schedule. I never ended up using the water in an emergency but it's cheap insurance.

Depends if we can shop. We've got a couple weeks of canned food longer in rice and pasta and a gas hob so cooking isn't a problem. Could work through the fridge and freezer in a week before it all went off. Got plenty of books, boardgames and camping gear so we'd be able to keep warm and entertained. I need to get some more solar options ideally some big panels for the roof. Our heating is gas but I suspect that it wouldn't work without electricity. Luckily our living room has a gas fire.

my 800 gallon propane tank is more than half full. Since I switched everything but the generator to natural gas last year I can probably go several months if I can get food.

Solar + home battery, might need to ration it occasionally, but I'd be pretty OK.

A week or two, probably.

I have two wood stoves built for heating when the house was new in the 19~~0~~20s. I don't use them, but I happen to have a lot of scrap wood in my basement, so I can in a pinch. One of the chimneys are used for network cable runs, so they'll be destroyed in the process though.

In addition to the usual dry goods and stuff I have loads of leftovers from the Christmas dinner. Only needs reheating, which I can do on one of the stoves or this camping gas grill I have.

And if I need power for something critical, I have a 200Ah battery in my garage and an inverter I can hook up. The battery used to be part of the emergency power system of a ship, but it was removed due to drifting too far out of spec with its mate (24V system). So now I use it as an emergency start battery for my car.

If one likes to think about this kind of questions then [email protected] might be a place you enjoy as well.

It stays above freezing during the day here.

So, considering the house is dead, I'd probably pile into my car, grab a second car battery and tie it in parallel to my current one and just get some heated blankets and run them and the car when it gets too bad at night, then let the voltage rise back up while the car is running on occasion.

It's not ideal, but I'm poor and I wouldn't freeze. As for cooking, etc, I can get inventive with a propane tank.

Sucks. 2 charged laptops, one almost charged 10 Ah power bank, although it's old. My phone shows 58%, which under normal use with internet can be 2 days, far longer if left offline in standby of course, not... (checks, with a hard swallow) 8 hours of screen time. I also have a hand-crank radio + power bank, but I am not sure how much that can generate.

OK-ish, not ideal. Depends how long it'll take.