11 p.m. I’m drifting to sleep from the glow of the television. A storm is erupting outside. Suddenly, the lights go out. Being the prepper that I am, it’s more of an inconvenience than an emergency. I wait for a couple minutes, wondering if it’ll come back on. It has been known to flicker in the past, coming back on within a few moments.
After a few more minutes, I get up and pull out the battery backups, one for each child’s room to plug in their devices and a lamp (they like a little light at night), the baby monitor, and our devices. I head downstairs and grab two of our larger battery backups to power the freezer and fridge.
Next, I like to watch something as I doze off. So I grab my laptop and login to our Network Attached Storage (NAS), also plugged into a battery backup, and watch some of the movies and TV shows that we have on it. No internet required.
Finally, I can get back to sleep knowing essentials are powered, at least until the morning. I wake up later to discover the electricity was back and reset everything back to normal, but it’s a relief to know that we can still have our needs and wants met, even without the grid.
When people think of a blackout, they think about bare-minimum survival. I want you to think bigger: keep your life as normal as possible, with or without electricity.
Preparing for “Normal”
I realize everyone has different budgets, needs, and potential restraints, but I also don’t want us to forget about our wants. If you want to make sure you have coffee, well it’s time to have a plan on how to boil water and make coffee when there’s no electricity.
Let’s talk about a few ways that we can be prepared for power outages based on your specific budget.
Level 1: Basic Budget Friendly
Maybe you just don’t want, or need, to power a lot of stuff. Or maybe your budget doesn’t allow for a $500 battery backup at the moment. Let’s talk about how to manage a power outage at this level.
Some basics would be things like:
- Headlamps
- Candles
- A small battery charge for your phone
- Lanterns
- Solar path lights
- Glow sticks
- Extra batteries
- Lighters/matches
These are easy to acquire and many of these items can even be found at the dollar store. Portable 20,000-mAh battery banks for your phone can run anywhere between $20 and $40, depending on brand. I believe I have seen some of these at $5 and below, too.
This setup will give you some light and charge a device one or two times. This is a great setup for anyone to have on hand, regardless of budget. Place these items in a blackout bin, in a drawer, or, my favorite option, inside of a hanging door shoe organizer.
I also suggest placing a lantern or headlamp inside of each room. I know we all have flashlights on our phones these days, but have you ever been caught in the bathroom without your phone and the lights go out? I have. Best just to have a light in each room, just in case.
Level 2: Ready to Power Something
At this stage, you’re ready to power a few things with a generator or a large battery backup. There are many options to consider here.
Is a generator right for you?
Pros:
- Can power your whole house if you need to
- Affordable for most people
Cons:
- Takes gas/diesel/propane, something you need to store
- Can’t be used indoors
- Can be loud, even the quiet ones
- Requires maintenance, kind of like a car motor
- Gives off fumes, which means you need to keep it far enough away from your home
Is a battery backup right for you?
Pros:
- Many have high enough wattages to run your whole home
- Connects to solar panels to charge
- Quiet
- No fumes, can be safely used indoors
Cons:
- Depending on what you want, they can be on the higher end
- They usually only last about 10 to 11 years because of the batteries
- Not ideal for places that don’t get a lot of sun for most of the year
How much power do you actually need? The better question is: What do you want to power, and for how long? Watts tell you how hard a device pulls. Watt-hours — watts multiplied by the hours it runs — tell you how much it actually eats. Battery banks are sized in watt-hours, so that’s the number to chase.
Let’s do some quick math on a few things you may want to power:
- iPhone Charger: 5 watts
- Refrigerator: 150 watts
- One LED lightbulb: 25 watts
- All at once: 180 watts
That 180 watts is the draw only if all three run at the same instant. To size a battery, multiply each device by the hours it actually runs.
180 watts x 12 hours = 2,160 watt-hours (2.16kWh)
That’s the worst case, because nothing runs nonstop. The fridge is the big draw, and it cycles. Maybe 15 minutes on, then 30 off, so it runs about a third of the time. Your phone charges for a few hours a day. A light burns maybe five or six. Count the hours each thing really runs, not the hours it sits plugged in.
A realistic day looks more like this:
- Phone charger for 4 hours: 5 watts x 4 = 20 watt-hours
- Refrigerator cycling over 24 hours (runs about 8): 150 watts x 8 = 1,200 watt-hours
- One LED bulb, 6 hours: 25 watts x 6 = 150 watt-hours
- Total for the day: about 1,370 watt-hours (1.4 kWh)
The fridge does most of the work here, as it will in almost any outage. Once you know your daily watt-hours, you know which battery bank, or banks, to keep on hand. Then, round up. Size for more than you think you need, never less.
For example, we have small battery banks of about 300 watts for each of the kids’ rooms, that will power a small light and charge their devices for a night. We have two 2,000-watt battery backups to keep our fridge and freezer powered. We also have a generator that is a 6,000-watt dual fuel that takes gas or propane. The propane stores much better, but the run time is about half as long as with gas.
Because we live in an area that gets a lot of sun year-round, battery banks make the most sense for us because we can always keep them charged with the power of the sun. When we lived off grid in Alaska, our solar setup was fantastic … in the summer. During the winter months, we had to use our Honda generator to power our batteries to literally keep the lights on.
Battery banks can range anywhere from $100 for 300 watts, up to $4,000 for 5,000 watts or more, and that’s not including the solar panels. The same can be said for generators, though. They have price ranges going from $400 for an off-brand Predator from Harbor Freight (which we have and is great, by the way). All the way up to thousands of dollars for a Honda (which we have also had and is also great). You could also opt for a whole house diesel generator that kicks on when the grid goes down, which can cost $5,000 and up, just for the generator, not including installation.
Now you just need to decide which options are going to be best for you and your practical needs during a blackout? How will you be able to safely store and rotate the fuel? Would a battery bank be a better option? Can you save for any of these options? Wait for sales? Find them used? Many options are available.
Level 3: I Never Want to Know There’s a Power Outage
When we lived off-grid in rural Arizona, we decided to run down to the nearby gas station that was about 5 miles away. The lights were off. We thought they were closed, even though it was during normal business hours. We walked inside and discovered there was a power outage. The clerk said it had been out for a couple hours.
We had no idea there was a power outage because we were completely off-grid with our whole home solar system. Anything we wanted to power (minus the air conditioning), was run off of a DIY solar.
You don’t have to go the DIY route. However, if you do decide to go with a company, make sure they won’t simply tie the solar panels to the grid but provide no batteries. This would essentially provide power back to the electric company and reduce your bill but won’t give you any energy when there’s a power outage because there are no batteries. The solar panels themselves can give great energy during the day when there’s lots of light, but without the energy being stored in the batteries, you won’t have anything during the night.
Whole house generators will flip on when the power goes out. In the case of generators, you would need the fuel supply to be stored safely on hand. There are even whole house battery backups that can be hooked up to a switch that will automatically flip when the power goes out, and it will also adjust for certain breakers to be on or off.
Comfort, Cooking, and Cleanliness
When you’re tied to the grid, a blackout takes more than your devices. It takes your heat, your AC, your hot meals, and your hot water. Plan for those too.
For temperature, reach for what works with little or no power. A swamp cooler handles dry heat well. Battery-powered fans and blackout curtains hold the cool in or the heat out. And plain layering in winter all buy you comfort. A wood stove heats a room and lets you cook on top of it.
For cooking, the rule that matters is indoors versus outdoors. Indoor-safe: an alcohol stove or sterno. Outdoors only, never in a closed garage or tent: a propane stove, a barbecue, or a propane grill. Anything that burns fuel and isn’t rated for inside puts off carbon monoxide. And that is what hurts people in an outage, not the dark.
Don’t forget washing if the water heater is down. No-rinse shampoo and soap, the kind nursing homes and hospitals use, keep you clean with no running water. They are a smart thing to keep in your preps.
No matter what level you’re at, there’s a solution for you. I know people who live completely off-grid in the far north and even without a lot of sun in the winter, they simply decrease their energy needs (place the freezer outside, etc.) and aren’t bothered by it at all. You just have to find what works for your situation.
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