Have you ever experienced a power outage?
Chances are almost certain that you have, even if only for a little while. In moderate temperatures and so long as it comes back on within a short time, it is little more than an annoying nuisance and is most often soon forgotten.
But what happens if it goes down in the dead of winter and it is below freezing – and electrical power is required to operate your heating system along with almost everything else you use in your home? Then what?
How about if it goes off and stays off for 24 hours or more – or several days?
It could be even worse and be off for weeks, and someday who knows – it may even go down for good and never come back up!
Recently my wife and I got a taste of what it feels like when it is off for more than 24 hours and the temperature is near and at times below freezing. We had a little ice storm and though it wasn’t enough to make national news it was more than enough to break enough tree limbs to bring the power company to its knees.
This is even more ironic since the main power plant for my area is a very short distance from our home, yet we were among the very last to have service restored.
Thankfully we had a couple of brand new Mr. Heater Portable Buddy propane heaters still in their boxes sitting in my shop. That was the good news – the bad was I hadn’t gotten around to getting any fuel for them. So I headed off to the local Walmart not sure if I would find depleted and empty shelves or shelves full of canisters. Luckily I found they were fully stocked with full shelves and I proceeded to load up my cart.
I also bought an adapter hose so that I can hook up larger tanks if I need or want too.
As soon as I got home I opened the box and pulled the little heater out, quickly read through the directions. Pretty simple really, just screw on the 1 pound bottle hand tight – not loose or overtight, check for leaks – depress and turn the knob to the Pilot marking and depress it and we had fire. Then I turned it to high for a few minutes to start warming up the house, then down to medium and eventually to low.
Though the little heater is quite powerful it is beyond its capability to heat the whole house, especially with a stairwell off our den and much of the heat going upstairs. We closed the french doors shutting off the kitchen, dining and living rooms which we allowed to drop to just above freezing temperatures while we heated our little den to a very comfy and cozy temperature and kept it there.
Upstairs was quite comfortable too – and a good thing as we have cats, two of which basically live upstairs and the third one (Bella) loves to hang out in my chair in my office anyway.
I still have several full bottles of fuel and will be buying several more – just to be prepared. I am also going to get at least one larger tank to use with the adapter hose. In that case, the tank will be kept outside, the hose ran through a window that will be barely cracked open and towels will be used to seal the small gap. Putting large tanks inside a home is a BAD idea, though I know some people do it – I won’t. It is far safer for the tank to be outside in my opinion so that is where it will be.
Even though we have a spare heater I will be ordering a couple more – one as another spare and one for a detached outbuilding that is small enough and very well insulated so that it could be kept very warm with minimal fuel for a very long time – just in case.
What about YOU?
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