We had a beautiful day yesterday...followed by a 12-hour power outage(!).
It was nearly a hundred degrees yesterday then at around 3:30pm there was a massive windstorm followed by a power outage that lasted until about 3am. We have never had a power outage that lasted longer than an hour so this was quite shocking for us. We did the following:
- Kept the doors and windows closed to keep the cooler air in the house and keep the hot air out.
- Broke out the battery bank (300 WH) that we keep with our emergency supplies and started experimenting with it. We hooked up a small fan to circulate the air which had a nice cooling effect; the big fan we had drew too much power and we wanted the battery bank to last as long as possible. We hooked up our big TV to the power bank but it too drew too much power so we set up the smallest TV in the house and were able to watch TV in the evening for a few hours (thanks to an over-the-air antenna; if we relied only on our wi-fi/cable TV we would have had nothing to watch since that was out).
- I was able to cook dinner because our stove is gas (using a match to light the burner) and wash dishes (also a gas hot water tank). I had bread rising and ready to bake but while I could have lit the gas oven with a match, the temperature controls were electronic so that wouldn't work. I ended up flattening the bread and making a kind of Indian fry bread which didn't come out too well (doughy and scorched).
- Hubby was able to play a couple of hours of online poker using his laptop which was fully charged and using his cell phone as a hot spot.
- We used several flashlights that we had on hand to light our way through the house and while cooking.
- We slept downstairs in the living room because the second floor of our house was HOT (heat rises and all that I guess).
- I also read a book for a while (I need to build up my library of real books again), listened to a portable AM/FM radio, and tried to listen to a battery-operated short-wave radio (reception was not good).
- The battery bank lasted until about midnight then no more fan, fortunately by then it wasn't so hot.
- I kept using my cell phone to check outage reports, the news, and the local subreddits to see how others were faring.
- We didn't need to use our portable battery banks to charge our cell phones because they are always charged up in the morning, but it was good to have these on hand as well.
- We didn't go walking or driving around like many of our neighbors did because we didn't want to add to the fray--downed trees, four-way stops at all traffic lights, etc.
- Fortunately the power came back on around 3am and we woke to a cool house.
- If the power would have remained out, I would have charged up the battery bank with solar panels but that takes sun (it was pretty overcast today) and a lot of time (several hours for a full charge).
- There were cooling stations set up for those who needed it which may have been an option if there was a long-term outage.
- Overall, it was an interesting experience. My next purchase will be a 1000 WH battery which will last much longer than the small battery bank we have. We may also consider a larger battery to dedicate to the refrigerator since it started to lose its coldness later in the evening.
