I live in the N. East of the US and extreme weather conditions cause electric brown outs plus long time failures. Wires strung on wood poles are at best antique. Now we have a new club known as Pole Wackers , those drivers who refuse to to abide to travel bans, will not allow extra time to safely make it to work or slow down. I am forced to buy generators to protect my home from damage. Forget AAA because may tow operators no longer use this service. What suggestions do you have to help solve this ongoing problem ?
Fragile Power Grid
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I’m not sure which problem you are referring to. Have your utility company bury the lines. It will cost a lot of money and time. Stay at home when it’s bad. Move to a warmer climate.
Generator is the best thing you can do. It's not feasible to bury so many lines in rural areas.
This is nothing new, people have insisted in driving in terrible weather at inadvisable speeds forever. They end up hitting things, emergency services usually need to respond to fix their self inflicted problem and they will do it again. Every now and then, the driver doesn't get so lucky and pays the price.
I picked up a generator probably 10 years ago because we'll lose power a few times per year and plan to transition that to a whole house generator in the next few years. Don't rely on anyone else to solve your inconveniences, plan out what solves them for you and follow through on it.
This is nothing new, people have insisted in driving in terrible weather at inadvisable speeds forever. They end up hitting things, emergency services usually need to respond to fix their self inflicted problem and they will do it again. Every now and then, the driver doesn't get so lucky and pays the price.
I picked up a generator probably 10 years ago because we'll lose power a few times per year and plan to transition that to a whole house generator in the next few years. Don't rely on anyone else to solve your inconveniences, plan out what solves them for you and follow through on it.
I actually have to second the peace-of-mind that comes with having a whole-home generator. We got ours about 9 years ago, after a heavy ice storm knocked out our power for the entire week between Christmas and New Years, with inside temperatures dropping to the mid-30s (F). All around us, neighbors were getting their power back…but we happened to be on a tiny section of the map that was scheduled for power restoration after a full week. (The night the power went out, Consumers Energy literally posted on their web site that it would be a week before we had power at our address.)
After moving ourselves and our pets out for that week, I swore I was never going to be at the mercy of the electric company’s scheduling ever again. Now, if power is out for longer than about 15 seconds, the generator automatically kicks in.
After moving ourselves and our pets out for that week, I swore I was never going to be at the mercy of the electric company’s scheduling ever again. Now, if power is out for longer than about 15 seconds, the generator automatically kicks in.
We don't loose power often, by the last time was 20 hours and we nearly lost the refrigerater and freezer items. We decided to get a generator and installed a transfer switch that's enough to power the refrigerator, some lighting circuits, and sump pump. It's good peace of mind. Whole house generator would be better. Some day.
If I lived where there were frequent power outages, since I cannot control the power companies or poor weather drivers, I'd definitely go for a house generator. I'd opt for a full house generator if I could afford it. If not, the smaller ones are economical and capable of running the critical electrical devices in the house.
When I lived in the Colorado high country and the power went out (which was often) we just put everything out in the snow to keep it from spoiling. We would cover with a tarp to keep the sun off. No critters about to worry that time of year. Wood stove for heat and cooking. Oil lamps for light. We went on as normal.
Keep bitching at the power company to bury the lines. It doesn't do a lot of good but will make you feel better.
Generators are a good way to go but they cost lot and you don't use them that much.
Generators are a good way to go but they cost lot and you don't use them that much.
Generators are the way to go but I usually opt to pack everyone up and head off to a motel.
Generators are like insurance policies. Up front costs and maintenance costs but you don't use them much. When you need it though, the cost complaints just melt away when many around you are scrambling. If you have neighbors you like, you can also be a source of assistance in their time of need.
The couple hundred we spent initially has paid off in preserving food and entertainment/charging while without power and we've lent it to friends/family when they lost power while we maintained it. We can heat with a wood stove and cook with propane oven so the only real loss is water (private well), sump pump, and just all power convenience along with having to keep gallons of fuel around for the generator. It will be worth another couple thousand in the near future to make it even more thoughtless a process and run off the propane tank already on property.
The couple hundred we spent initially has paid off in preserving food and entertainment/charging while without power and we've lent it to friends/family when they lost power while we maintained it. We can heat with a wood stove and cook with propane oven so the only real loss is water (private well), sump pump, and just all power convenience along with having to keep gallons of fuel around for the generator. It will be worth another couple thousand in the near future to make it even more thoughtless a process and run off the propane tank already on property.
There are always solutions, but usually frown up on. Generators seems like second best solution.
All of our residential utility lines are underground, as it is weathery like that for 6 months of the year here. Even though it's icy for half the year here every year, there is still dozens of cars in the ditch every time it snows, lmao. Body shops keep busy.
There are about 240,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the United States and millions of miles of distribution lines carrying electricity to our homes, schools and businesses.
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Inside most cities, and in wealthier suburban areas power lines are buried.
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The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Statistics reports 1.42 million miles of roads, or 35 percent of all roads in the United States remain unpaved as of 2012 (Source: Public Road and Street Mileage in the United States by Type of Surface
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As soon as all the roads are paved, then maybe we can work on burying the power lines.
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Nationally, roughly 25 percent of new distribution and transmission lines are built underground, according to a 2012 industry study. Some European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, have made significant commitments to undergrounding.
Burying power lines costs roughly US$1 million per mile, but the geography or population density of the service area can halve this cost or triple it. In the wake of a statewide ice storm in December 2002, the North Carolina Utilities Commission and the electric utilities explored the feasibility of burying the state’s distribution lines underground and concluded that the project would take 25 years to complete and increase electricity rates by 125 percent. The project was never begun, as the price increase was not seen as reasonable for consumers.
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Civilization costs a lot of money.
How much civilization do you want to pay for?
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Inside most cities, and in wealthier suburban areas power lines are buried.
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The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Statistics reports 1.42 million miles of roads, or 35 percent of all roads in the United States remain unpaved as of 2012 (Source: Public Road and Street Mileage in the United States by Type of Surface
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As soon as all the roads are paved, then maybe we can work on burying the power lines.
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Nationally, roughly 25 percent of new distribution and transmission lines are built underground, according to a 2012 industry study. Some European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, have made significant commitments to undergrounding.
Burying power lines costs roughly US$1 million per mile, but the geography or population density of the service area can halve this cost or triple it. In the wake of a statewide ice storm in December 2002, the North Carolina Utilities Commission and the electric utilities explored the feasibility of burying the state’s distribution lines underground and concluded that the project would take 25 years to complete and increase electricity rates by 125 percent. The project was never begun, as the price increase was not seen as reasonable for consumers.
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Civilization costs a lot of money.
How much civilization do you want to pay for?
suggestion over all. Let it fall apart, that's the only way people will widely enough accept the upgrades that are super expensive and extensive to make it some what less gratuitously vulnerable. Personally my suggestion is to become obsessed with the colonial period of American history so when the power goes out you can at least feel some connection to how the people that came before us lived.
My favorite power outage of all time. I had just gotten fallout 4 which I hate to admit how much I like that game, and was getting my first chance to just play it in peace for a couple hours. The power goes out before I saved the freaking game. Had to wait for three or four hours and this is when it becomes great. Some idiot ran into a telephone pole three or four blocks away after leading the police on a medium chase.... I don't even remember the guys first crime but I remember thinking I got caught doing that a few times and had the police tell me to stop it! (basically the idiot multiplied his problems many times).
Run your house off your electric car. simple.
It is somewhat shocking when one realizes the fragility of pretty much everything in society and how quickly it could all go sideways.
Exactly. Ours is a whole-home unit, powered by natural gas, sufficient to keep every appliance, computer, and gadget running in event of an outage. It even has an outlet on it, so the neighbors could run an extension cord to their house as well!
It wasn’t cheap. But I was looking for an automatic, worry-free solution that would keep the house going. And we’re in a place that used to be operated as a B&B, so we actually have two furnaces and AC units, two water heaters, along with 3,400 SF of living space.
Move to state with more favorable power grids is about the only thing you personally will be able to do.
Florida was home of the rickety crappy looking power poles, old school with the tar dripping down them, for the last 3 years there has been a massive effort to replace all of those with hurricane stable concrete steel reinforced poles, you see the crews out everywhere year round.
Our electric company is FPL - Florida Power and Light, even 50 yrs ago we used to call it Flicker Plunder and Loot.
Florida was home of the rickety crappy looking power poles, old school with the tar dripping down them, for the last 3 years there has been a massive effort to replace all of those with hurricane stable concrete steel reinforced poles, you see the crews out everywhere year round.
Our electric company is FPL - Florida Power and Light, even 50 yrs ago we used to call it Flicker Plunder and Loot.
It could have all been paid for a thousand times over with a fraction of what has been pissed away on waste, graft and corruption for decades at every level of government.
Yup. A car battery with a power converter will run your furnace motor for a couple of days.