Preparing for a winter storm...

[hatfielj]

What is everyone doing to prepare for the winter storm hitting the US this week? There's a good chance of major power outages in many areas, especially in the southern US due to ice accumulation.
I live in Cincinnati, where we expect possibly 12 in of snow.

We are fortunate enough to have a whole house battery backup system with 2 Tesla Powerwalls. This can provide whole house power for a day or two depending on what we leave turned on. But, with our furnace running, it's not likely to last that long, especially since our solar panels will be covered in snow.

If we run out of powerwall power, we also have a Kia EV9 that has the ability to power appliances with an extension cord plugged in. I would run an extension cord to my tank in that scenario and keep the vital things running. If that runs out, we could run our F250 as a generator. It has a power outlet in the bed that could keep the tank running, though this would be my last resort as I don't want to leave an engine idling for hours and hours.

Even though we have some good options here, I'm still quite nervous about losing power. It never feels like you can be prepared enough.

 

[Waters]

Fortunately I was able to add a whole house generator after numerous power outages with my last couple of SPS tanks. In the past I have spent many nights outside starting up and running a portable generator (which I do highly recommend....you can run them forever as long as you have access to gas). Why does the power always seem to go out at 2 in the morning??? I am in Ohio also but right on the lake....for once being closer to the lake will actually benefit me. We are pretty used to snow and cold though......the issues are going to be primarily down south unfortunately.

 

[Project1004]

Little over a year ago when I moved into my new home, I had external generator inlet and interlock installed for power outage emergency. I bought me a 8500w inverter generator which should be efficient enough for kitchen and fish tank mainly. As we burn wood for heat. I was planing on going up north this Sunday for work but I went and delayed it for one week to make sure my family is taken care of. I have portable 30Gal gasoline tank filled and many smaller containers ready and 200G propane tank in the back of the house which is not being used since I stop running the central heat. But I don’t have the connector to the generator. I am under impression using gas will be more efficient as gasoline can go bad over time in the generator. Bleeding out the fuel when powering off would be ideal I heard. I never had to use it in last year and four month as it never had power outage. (Had few incident of flickering but never real outage). Knock on wood.

Hope everyone is safe thru this major storm.