How To Hunker Down When The Power’s Out
Winters across the U.S. are full of wild weather: arctic air, blizzards and ice storms, to name a few.
These storms can cause disruptions to life and extended power outages. Here are some life hacks that are good for your home, should you lose power during a winter storm.
Brenda Sherwin stands in her kitchen at dusk, illuminated by battery-powered lanterns. She and her husband haven’t had power since early Monday morning. Four days is not the longest they’ve been out of power, though. The couple had no power for 10 days after the ice storm in 1998. Sherwin, who runs a daycare in her home, said, “The worst part is not having coffee.”
(Staff photo by Brianna Soukup/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
First Things First
I have to place a disclaimer here: This article is about heat preservation, and will discuss ways to make life more bearable when you are in your home when the temperatures fall.
If your home drops below 60 degrees, you may want to consider seeking emergency shelter and take more active precautions.
For more information about generator safety, here are some links:
(MORE: Portable Generators | How To Protect Family From Carbon Monoxide)
Ways To Preserve Warmth
Let’s get into how you can save heat, even if you do not have a generator.
A big trick to hold the heat in is to keep your blinds closed and your curtains shut.
I know what you are thinking: the sun should warm us up, right?!?
Well, partially. But the problem is your windows.
Windows, especially ones that aren’t double-pained, actually serve as a place where cold air is able to enter your home and warm air escapes.
Next up on the list, gather in a single room with the family. The combined heat will help to keep you warmer.
Also, use something like a towel to cover the bottom of the door. This allows you to trap more of your natural body heat in the room.
It also wouldn’t hurt to gather on a higher floor in your home. Heat rises, after all. This is something we meteorologists talk about all the time. Warm air rises, cools and condenses to form precipitation.
While you hopefully don’t have precipitation in your home, you can utilize a similar idea by doing this tactics to preserve heat on a higher story in your home to help to use nature to your advantage.
And that ties into my next step. Reverse your ceiling fan direction. When ceiling fans spin clockwise, the fans actually return the warmer air trapped above the fan back to the ground.
Fred Rohr, 76, and wife Erika Rohr, 72, are waiting out the power outage in their basement with a wood-burning fireplace. Fred Rohr had surgery for cancer in September and continues on chemotherapy sessions but is content to wait it out in their Scarborough home. Photographed on Dec. 26, 2013.
(Rick Madonik/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Also, it’s important to wear layers of loose-fitting, warm clothes. And have plenty of snacks handy.
Candles don’t hurt, either. Just make sure you put them out before you go to sleep.
Earth’s Refrigerator And Freezer
So the power is out. You want to keep your house as warm as possible. But you also need to keep your perishables cold.
Well, look outside! You have the largest freezer you can find!
Just be sure to watch out for sunshine on certain products like medicines.
Ice storms left many trapped in their homes with no heat or power in Canada on Jan. 6, 1998.
(Photo by Christopher J. Morris/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Preparation Is Key
With blizzards and ice storms, sometimes it can take a long time to restore power. Repairs to damaged lines can be difficult for crews to fix, as roads can stay icy until temperatures rise consistently above freezing.
The key is to get prepared early. Make sure your portable power pack is charged, and make sure your flashlight has good batteries in it.
Be sure to have plenty of food that doesn’t need to be refrigerated: granola bars, nuts, etc. Also, if you have a family, have extra formula, diapers and pet food ready.
Finally, checking weather.com and The Weather Channel app frequently to see updates on the forecast is helpful.
Rob Shackelford is a meteorologist and climate scientist at weather.com. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia studying meteorology and experimenting with alternative hurricane forecasting tools.
