What is in your power outage kit?

Hrafn

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In with “hookers and blow” before DT. Or Eric. Or whoever, you folk are so immature.
We don’t have one specific thing, but flashlights in several locations, usually a fairly stocked pantry, and then we’d need to evaluate based on how long the power was expected to be out.

We had a couple of power blips during the last heat wave, but all I had to do was switch from home internet to my work phone hotspot and let my team know I was working on battery power.
 

lizkat

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Bottled water in gallon jugs, at least 7 to 10 in the house at all times. Not just power outages the issue for me, it's the ancient village water system.

A deep pantry of nonperishables anyway, just because I live in the mountains and winter food acquisition / delivery can be an issue.

Lots of battery operated lanterns. Love the little Suaoki USB-rechargeable ones, have a few larger Colemans.

A piggy bank about half-filled with money for a genny hooked to the mains and my propane tanks, yeah. 2022 might be the year!

A woodstove in the kitchen that I do keep maintained but don't burn wood any more on a regular basis. Some firewood on the deck (and a piano in the living room LOL). That heat wouldn't keep my water lines in the cellar from freezing eventually but it used to heat the whole house during my waking hours, and so it would buy me some time in an extended winter power outage.

Keeping my mobile gear charged up so I have offline entertainment during power outages. Some older iPad / iPod touch models I've kept are still very handy as servers of my purchased ebooks, music, TV series and movies.
 

Renzatic

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Let's see...

...a couple packs of AAA batteries, candles, two flats of bottled waters, a couple dozen cans of black beans and soup, three multipacks of ramen noodles, and 3 Anker Powercore 26800 li-on battery packs.

That's probably enough to ride out a month of the apocalypse.
 

lizkat

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Let's see...

...a couple packs of AAA batteries, candles, two flats of bottled waters, a couple dozen cans of black beans and soup, three multipacks of ramen noodles, and 3 Anker Powercore 26800 li-on battery packs.

That's probably enough to ride out a month of the apocalypse.

Ya need some spinach or turnip greens in that pantry too, unless can count on no-pesticide-applied dandelion greens out in the yard...

Popeye and Olive Oyl - Eat Yer Greens.jpg
 

Clix Pix

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Flashlights, plenty of flashlights..... I also try to keep my iPhones and iPads charged up so that if there is a power outage I can still get online and/or received and make phone calls and texts. Also various odds-and-ends of nonperishables kept in the pantry so that I'll have something to eat if it goes on long enough that I'm not certain about the safety of the food in the fridge or freezer.
 

Renzatic

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Ya need some spinach or turnip greens in that pantry too, unless can count on no-pesticide-applied dandelion greens out in the yard...

Euugugghhghghgh. Turnip greens.

I like spinach alright, so long as it's leafy. Canned? Naw. I can't eat that.
 

lizkat

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Euugugghhghghgh. Turnip greens.

I like spinach alright, so long as it's leafy. Canned? Naw. I can't eat that.
In a pinch, canned spinach or other greens like that will do fine buried in omelets or scrambled eggs along with some other veggies or ham / bacon etc., or added to rice pilaf or even fried rice, soups etc. And it's as good for you canned as it is fresh, just needs to be disguised. :p It has vitamins A and C in it along with iron, potassium and calcium. Not likely anyone's first choice when fresh foods are on tap, but as a pantry backup for emergencies it's worth having a few cans for those swell mix-n-match "camping out in the house" adventures.
 

Renzatic

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In a pinch, canned spinach or other greens like that will do fine buried in omelets or scrambled eggs along with some other veggies or ham / bacon etc., or added to rice pilaf or even fried rice, soups etc. And it's as good for you canned as it is fresh, just needs to be disguised. :p It has vitamins A and C in it along with iron, potassium and calcium. Not likely anyone's first choice when fresh foods are on tap, but as a pantry backup for emergencies it's worth having a few cans for those swell mix-n-match "camping out in the house" adventures.

Pretty much anything goes along with eggs, and I do love me a good omelette. Problem is, how long will they last during a power outage?
 

Herdfan

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Whole house generator. I couldn’t survive another Katrina.

This^^^^^^

After the Derecho in 2012 when everyone was at Home Depot getting on a waiting list for small generators, I walked to the contractor area and they already had whole-house generators sitting on dolly's ready to go.

Now buying it was a different story. Went to the counter and they couldn't take CC's or checks because the system was down. So I called my wife and had her gather up all the cash we had, called my parents to borrow what cash they had and it was enough to buy it. But the whole time I was waiting for my wife to get there with the cash, I was pushing it around the store on the dolly so no one else could buy it.

Had it running off propane bottles in the driveway that afternoon. :)
 
D

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I don't have much of a kit. Power outages and severe weather are rare here, but in 2018 I related a story of when I was attending college and living with my friend off campus, a tree blowing in the wind during a storm severed the power line to our house and we were without power for 17 hours. I learned from that to always keep some kind of backup rechargeable power brick for my phone. (We thankfully had flashlights).
 

Herdfan

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I don't have much of a kit. Power outages and severe weather are rare here, but in 2018 I related a story of when I was attending college and living with my friend off campus, a tree blowing in the wind during a storm severed the power line to our house and we were without power for 17 hours. I learned from that to always keep some kind of backup rechargeable power brick for my phone. (We thankfully had flashlights).

Those for the most part are nuisance outages. During the Derecho we were out for 8 days, during Hurricane Sandy we were out for 5 days and this last ice storm was also 5 days. We would have been OK with a whole-home generator during Sandy and the last ice storm. But after the Derecho it was 95+ with 90%+ humidity. Just too hot with no A/C. I went and got the window A/C out of my office and took it to my parents and built a frame in a sliding door and then used plastic sheeting to build dividers in their house to keep as much of the cool air in a couple of rooms as possible. Got it to where it was comfortable for them. They had TV and the refrigerator running and were OK.
 

Pumbaa

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Funny that this thread would pop up just after I once again looked into buying a FM radio/powerbank thingie with dynamo crank charging or whatever it’s called. Not expecting to power anything but the radio with hand-cranking, but if things hit the fan a radio that does not rely on batteries would be nice to have.

Power here is very reliable, outages are rare and mostly over in a matter of hours at worst, and a water tower keeps the water supply reliable for a while.

Anyways:

UPS to shut down the homelab neatly.
Anker 13000mAh power bank to charge the phone at least a couple of times.
Solar panels to potentially charge the power bank a bit (got it for hiking, but hey, might work at home as well)
A bunch of AA and AAA batteries.
Battery powered radio.
Some flashlights with varying power sources (batteries, rechargeable via USB, dynamo).
A Hue Go lamp to provide light while the charged battery lasts.
Matches and candles.

Aiming to improve the water and food buffer. Heating could become a problem with an extended outage come winter but a bunch of blankets and extra clothes should make it manageable here for a while. It’s not Texas.
 

Alli

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Euugugghhghghgh. Turnip greens.

I like spinach alright, so long as it's leafy. Canned? Naw. I can't eat that.
The trick to eating greens is eating them southern style. Pile on the pepper sauce and crumble in your cornbread. I will eat any greens (turnip or collards) with enough pepper sauce.
 

Renzatic

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The trick to eating greens is eating them southern style. Pile on the pepper sauce and crumble in your cornbread. I will eat any greens (turnip or collards) with enough pepper sauce.

I dunno. I can't shake the feeling that it's just gonna taste like wet garbage with cornbread and Cholula.
 
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