How long could you live without electricity?

JH

I lived through the ice storm of January 97 in Quebec. I spent 1 complete day without electricity. It was about 25F (-5C) outside, and I had no heating. That made me realize how dependent we are of electricity.

One year later, a second ice storm hit the Montreal region, and everyone was without electricity for many days to a couple of weeks for others. I wasn't affected by that ice storm since we had snow instead or freezing rain.

Everything today operates with electricity. Our grandparents were less dependent of electricity. They had enough wood to heat all winter.

Have you ever asked yourself how long would you be able to survive without electricity?

LyinEyes

Several years ago we had a major ice storm and our rural areas were not ready for it,,,,,, the ice on the pines, bent them until they popped . It was errie to hear a loud pop and then you would hear the trees falling like dominos in the woods by our house. Since the treees had not been trimmed back that year, there was major power lines down and we were without electricity for a week.

We could have went 45 miles to a hotel, but no one wanted to leave their homes, so we decided to tough it out. We had gas heating, and a gas stove, so we were able to cook and stay in a few rooms comfortably. We used candles and we gaged our activities by the sunlight. I have to say it was hard for the kids they missed cartoon network and really hated sitting in the dark at night, with nothing to do.

I got tired of it too, and the kids made it more miserable. But if it were just me, living in a log cabin somewhere with no electricity , I think I could do it as long as I had my music and many good books, and magazines. Life would be alot harder in many ways, but maybe more simple and good in others. I have always wanted to live more simple than the hectic pace we keep now. With electricity and modern conviences it is easy to get caught up in the rat race and time flys by so much faster. Without the tv, computer, movies to watch , etc. you find you have so much time for quiet time, to think or really get into a good book.

JH

It always frightened me to be without electricity, because EVERYTHING needs electricity to operate. I feel that we are so vulnerable without it.

Maybe some think that, never will they be without electricity, but in a war, that's the first thing that is destroyed by the enemy. If a damn terrorist blows up a dam, it could take months if not years to rebuild.

I think we are not fully aware of our vulnerability. Without electricity, wouldn't we be like blind men? The economy would be dead without electricity. Hospitals couldn't operate, industries would stop, and we would be like blind men.

Reading Zephaniah 1:17, it made me think of how blind we would be without electricity.

Zephaniah 1 17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD

blondie

We have batteries and a small generator (gas-powered). Otherwise we have candles and our campstove (gas) and gas grill that we can cook outside on. We have 2 oil lamps and 2 battery lamps. I can remember wearing two layer of clothes and putting 6 covers on the beds and sleeping in the warmest room. Sitting on the cold toilet seat can be hard.

I grew up in a house without central heating, wood cooking stoves, feather beds, and outdoor plumbing and chamberpots.

Of course, there would be no TV (unless battery) or computers (Unless battery driven laptops).

Blondie (who is not as ancient as it sounds)

LB

I have lived 11 days in my current home without water or electricity. It was winter, the pipes were broken and since we have a well it didn't matter if the pipes were ok since we couldn't pump the water. We have only wood heat so we stayed warm. I would go to our creek, break up the ice and melt it over the stove. We washed, bathed and cooked with that water for 11 days. When the thaw came I had about 20 areas of broken pipe to repair.

But I have lived much longer without electricity. I have packpacked for several weeks at a time. So the entire homestead was on my back.

But we do depend on the juice don't we? Turn off the lights and most people are lost.

no internet, yikes

liquidsky

untill the battery dies on my laptop.

Big Tex

I am very much a city cat. I have never been much for the outdoors and knowing how to start a fire without match (although I do know moss grows on the north side of trees so I won't get lost). If there was no electricity, I'd be screwed. Oh I would eventually adapt to life without it, but I wouldn't do well.

outoftheorg

I always try to prepare for the possible failure of electricity. We have electric central heat and heat pump with air conditioning and elec. cook stove. We also have a propane gas heater for back up, or if we only want to see the flames. It is like a fireplace in appearance and is 100% heat recovery. We have a small propane 3 burner cook stove for emergencies. We buy 1/2 of a steer for meat and have it butchered and wrapped. To keep the freezer and fridge. working without elec. we have a small 120v/240v gasoline powered gen. set.

So if there is a loss of power we are ok. Unless a tree falls on the house. Then it is all for naught.

Most critical institutions, like hospitals have backup gen. sets that start up and come on line within 5 to 10 seconds. if it is the latest design gen. set system. The older smaller hospitals have a gen set that maintainence can go out and start up. It will provide power in 5 or ten minutes.

When I worked for Caterpilar we installed 5 large diesel powered gen. sets. They bought a maintainence package, so we serviced them routinely. We guaranteed that they would come on line and supply voltage within 4 seconds of the failure. This was a very large hi tech mfg. company and any sustained loss of power would cost them millions of dollars.

If you are faced with this type of emergency, it is very inconvenient but it is certainly survivable. So I don't think we have too much to worry about.

I doubt that the terrorist threats we face would have the capeability to destroy a dam or the power house. There are 3 large dams with power houses within 75 miles from my home. All of them stepped up their security. When we drive by them we can see the security patrols. In an elevated level of threat they will step it up and stop and interrogate cars & especially trucks that come close to the dams. Even then, these dams do not give easy access to get close to them. The military found out how hard it was to destroy a dam in ww2 in Norway. They finally developed a bomb that would bounce 3 times on the surface of the water to actually hit the dam. Our satelite guided bombs now in use, would hit the dam for sure. But at least for now we don't face that threat.

There are a surprising number of things that were always in operation and now a few more to handle this kind of situation. I don't think we should worry ourselves too much over this. After all worrying will not stop anything. A little preparation even on a small scale will help. There are camp stoves using gasoline or propane and battery powered radios etc. Things not too expensive that will do a lot for us. If it is an act of nature or terrism. I think it is important that we do not become over anxious about the future. All it will do is make our lives miserable and cloud our ability to function. We can educate ourselves, take the necessary steps we can afford and then deal with it if it happens.

Outoftheorg

Princess

Steve bought a generator a few years ago and hired an electrician to install a transfer switch. We are able to run the furnace, kitchen, office (includes computer), washer/dryer, television and most of the lights in the house. If we run out of gas, we are sunk.

If we didn't have kids it wouldn't be as necessary but when the power goes out, the kids lose their minds.

kat_newmas

Actually for me, I love "roughing" it.... alot of things to do and learn, when one is not busy watching t.v. and playing video games. So as far as I am concerned, I dont care if they throw the proverbial switch tomorrow....

..... wait a minute.... that was before I found this site... I am so addicted to the loving atmosphere in here, that my @$$ is actually numb from sitting in front of this computer during my three day weekend. So I guess I didnt mean the first statement.... really.... hey, it got dark in here..... I DIDNT MEAN IT...

he he

How long could you live without electricity?

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