How to Prepare for a Winter Power Failure Before it Happens

The Halloween storm of 1991, the perfect storm, the storm of the century. Guess what, it’s a new century, and it could happen again. Most of us remember that snowy Oct. night when the snow kept coming, and coming, and coming. Here in Duluth Minnesota it amounted to 3′ of snow in about 24 hours. When it was all done we were buried up to our waist in that heavy white stuff.

All that stress on power lines and poles, you know there where power failures. We’ve all experienced them, an ice storm goes through and down the wires come. With downed lines and poles return to normalcy can easily take a number of days.

In Northern Minnesota having two sources of heat, one that doesn’t require electricity is considered a normal precaution. Fire places, wood stoves, almost every home is equipped for the eventual electrical failure. My preference would be a wood stove, as I love the ambiance, smell, and comfortable heat of a fire burning in the stove. Unfortunately I live in the city and with firewood not being readily available I have a gas fireplace. It does have a circulating fan, though it is perfectly safe to operate it without the fan. It’s just a little less efficient.

If your home is not equipped with a back up source of heat you do have some possible choices as secondary sources of heat. The standard warning issued every winter is do not use your cooking gas stove to supply heat. An open flame is always a dangerous situation and an unvented source of heat can also create carbon monoxide, an odorless gas which is often a silent killer.

There are kerosene heaters manufactured today that have tip over protection and work in a catalytic manner, supposedly safe to operate unvented and indoors. I would recommend having a window cracked to allow some fresh air into the room if you chose to use one of these. They are efficient and use a relatively small amount of kerosene.

Another type of catalytic heater runs off propane. Smaller ones have a small disposable gas container attached to the side. If you choose to hook the heater to a larger propane tank, be sure to run the hose outside and leave the propane tank on the outside of the house. Again it’s a good idea to have a window cracked open for fresh air.

If you have a generator available, portable electric heater are another option. Not as efficient as heating elements are heavy users of electricity and most portable generators would be able to handle one or two portable heaters at the most. Again keep the generator outside, and run a power cord into the house.

Remember, during the day, the best heater is the sun. Open the shades on the south side of the house and close all the rest. If your house is well insulated you probably can get by without any additional heat during the day when the sun is shining brightly. If your stuck for the night, collect all the blanks and sleeping bags and concentrate on keeping one room warm in the house. People are a good source of heat, if everyone hangs out in the same room you’ll be surprised how warm you’ll stay.

Power Outages, a good time to get to know the family again, break out the board games and hot chocolate and make an enjoyable time together out of what some would consider an inconvenience. What ever attempts you take to stay warm, think first, is it safe. Safe and cold sure beats warm and dead every time.