Guest post from Jenn of Hang On, Baby, We’re Almost… Somewhere.
When a storm blew through the DC area and left millions without power the week before the 4th of July, we were among the millions. I am thankful that, for us, the outage ended relatively quickly — in 72 hours. Still, in three hot summer days, we learned some lessons that I think speak to my budget-aware side.
1. Without an Air Conditioner or Electricity, Our Day Revolved Around the Sun
Our awareness grew of the time of day, position of the sun, and maximizing light and air flow while minimizing heat. We all pitched in to manage our environment, raising or lowering shades, opening or closing doors and windows, re-icing the food we kept in coolers.
The day seemed more purposeful, less “Where does the time go?” than when we rely on a thermostat to control our temperature. I am using some of these techniques now to try to lower our electric bill.
2. Cold Showers Aren’t As Bad As I Thought!
Even in the hottest part of summer, I’ve always taken hot showers. I’m cold-natured, I’ve thought for years, and I need hot showers to stay comfortable.
Turns out, I live in a chilly climate, albeit an electrically-powered one. You plop me down outside for three straight days of weather in the upper 90’s (mid-30’s in Celsius), and I like a cool shower as much as the next gal!
3. Storm Shades Really Do Work
We discovered that the pulley-run storm shades that are on the windows of our home are one of the best ways to manage heat flow in the house. We loved them already because we can make our bedrooms almost completely dark even in broad daylight, but they made an enormous difference while fighting the heat.
Installing them here in the U.S. would most likely be expensive (we’re blessed that the home we rent already had them installed!), but similar methods can be adopted using things like blackout curtains, window film, and wooden blinds.
4. We Survived Just Fine Without TV.
My kids don’t enjoy TV as much as I thought they did, but my 10-year-old son does love the computer as much as we thought he did.
We talked more and were outside more, but we didn’t have to resort to major outings to manage to pass our time together. We just did simpler things, mostly at home.
All that focus on being kind to each other and building good relationships sure paid off when we didn’t have the distractions of TV, the Internet, video games, cooking, ironing, and laundry. That realization was the most valuable of all these lessons.
Jenn LeBow is a native Texan; lover of Jesus; happy wife of Honey, a Diplomatic Security Special Agent; mom of four (mostly) delightful kids: Cartwheel, 21; Einstein, 10; Blossom, 8; and Ladybug, 3; debt-free; and a voracious reader, whose appetite for books is reluctantly subjugated to other duties in her life. She blogs at Hang On, Baby, We’re Almost… Somewhere.
I’m in the DC area also, and we were without power for 3 days, though many of our neighbors went 5 days. We have a gas powered water heater so we still had hot water, but we weren’t interested in hot showers. A friend told us that it’s best to take a shower that is body temperature (if you can). With a cold shower, you body goes into the mode of trying to warm itself. Of course, without hot water you don’t have that choice, but we did find that body temperature showers worked well.
My wife and I were discussing last night how much we take electric for granted. We haven’t had any outages here in Kansas City but our electric has gone off-and-on (within seconds) twice in the past few weeks. There is no doubt there is a huge strain on the electric company and I wouldn’t be shocked if we had an outage.
The cold showers are awesome, especially after a run! We don’t watch much TV (however we do enjoy the Olympics)…so my biggest problem would be the lack of A/C. I get hot really easily and it would be a struggle but I’m sure we’d survive.
We have been without power in the winter due to ice storms and it is amazing how it makes you feel empowered when you can learn to survive without the basics. The first time this happened (it always goes out in our neighborhood due to huge trees that fall), my husband was gone for a week. Needless to say, my son was very apprehensive but I managed to keep us warm – even had to chop up wood. I kept us fed by our gas stove and invited all the neighbors over to eat with us. Our next door neighbor was pregnant and very appreciative of the food as she was panicking over keeping her baby-to-be safe. However, I really worried about those folks this summer – it is easy to keep warm with a fire, but hard to keep cool. Although when I was growing up, we had no air conditioning until I finished college…. so I guess it is all about perspective. We played outside all day and never noticed but we did have ice and water to use to cool off.
Yes, losing power has a way of simplifying your priorities. 🙂 When we lost power a few years ago because of a huge ice storm, even with a generator to keep a few lights on and the freezer running, we still spent our days using our time as wisely as possible.
Great post! Thanks for sharing!
The entire state of CT was out last year and it was cold. We had no electricity for a week.
We learned that our fireplace will only heat one room with a blanket across the door. That is if you stay up all night feeding it.
It will also eat up an enormous amount of wood.
We will loose all the food in our freezers.
Camping equipment comes in handy. Propane is you friend if you do not have a gas stove.
A generator can not be found anywhere in the state to buy. If you do have one you can not find gas to run it if you don’t already have it on hand.
It does take a few days for gas stations to get gas in their pumps. When you do find one that is open the gas hoarders are there with their containers and there will be fist fights at the pumps.
There will be no work for a week and if your company does not cancel via radio you have no idea if there is or isn’t work. We received a call on the 4th day to inform us that there would be no work on the 5th day and that was on our cell phone.
There will be little to no phone service including cell phones. The batteries died and it took a couple of days to get charging stations up. The phone lines were also down. Some roads were blocked. My daughter had so many trees and wires down it took a week to get them cleared. They walked out just to get warm.
Grocery stores are amazing. opening within a day, and tallying up your orders with calculators at some of the smaller stores. They also set up charging stations and welcomed all to come in and get warm.
Shelters are even more amazing and especially the volunteers running them.
We did not miss TV all that much but we missed the internet terribly.
We counted ourselves blessed for having city water, for those who have wells with electric pumps had no water at all.
When we moved to Texas 3 months ago, we brought our curtains but wanted to upgrade our curtain rods with something more sturdy. However, we just didnt have it in the budget. So, instead of just not using them, we hung them with thumb tacks. It’s not even very noticeable and it’ll work for now! Also, the curtain in the kids’ room was letting in too much light and they were getting up way to early. My brilliant husband hung a blanket up (also with thumb tacks!!) underneath the curtain, so not only are we keeping the sunlight out and the kids are sleeping later, but their room is much cooler!
Good for you Jenn! Looks like you determined to make the situation work for you & go with it. What a strength we can be to our family’s when we weather through life’s unexpected “storms”. Thanks for sharing your story! Have a lovely day. Ivy Jane
What a great point, Ivy Jane. Our attitude can make or break the attitudes of the whole family during something like this. Mama is the heartbeat of the home 🙂
We were without power a few years ago during a snow storm. The high each day was 10 degrees. We used our kerosene heater for heat. I closed all the bedroom doors, moved our queen mattress in the living room to sleep on. The four of us (husband, me, and at the time 1 and 4 year old) slept together. We would turn the heater off while we were sleeping. Then in the middle of the night I would wake up and run it for a few hours while I read. Then turn it back off and go to sleep until morning. Since our water is gas we still had hot water. But we only took a shower twice since it was too cold to take our clothes off. The girls played a lot and I read a lot.
Reminds me of a book series I read several years ago by Terri Blackstock. The first was called Last Light. It was about a world that lost power and all that transpired because of it. It truly made me thankful for running water and not having to find a water source then drag the water back home and purify for our use. Also, for the ability to flush the toilet and do laundry. For being able to go to the store and buy clothes for my growing children instead of bardering with neighbors for a winter coat. Also, shopping at the grocery store for items my generation has taken for granted and most have no clue how to make(including me) especially with out an oven.
It brings your family even closer when you have a power outage during an ice storm in the winter! I’ll never forget all of us sleeping on the bed on top of each other to stay warm. The perk to losing power during the winter is that you can put your freezer and fridge items on the back porch outside and you have an instant refrigerator!
We were without electricity from June 29-July 7. We have a well, so without electricity, we didn’t have water. I can do without power, but I have to have water. We went through my stored water in 3 days. We lost the food in our fridge and freezer so it was an expensive lesson, but I am trying to learn from this outage so we will be better prepared in the future.
Have you called your insurance company? They might pay for the lost food. My plan pays up to $1000 for lost food during a power outage.
Thanks Amber! I didn’t call the insurance company since we have a high deductible, and I didn’t want to risk them raising our insurance rates.
We have a generator now, so I am starting to get better prepared.
check your insurance contract, but some companies don’t apply a deductible to food spoilage, or they apply a separate lower deductible for that coverage. also many states to not permit surcharges or non-renewals due solely to weather-related claims. and if you do decide to put in the claim, make sure they know that you have a generator now – it makes you look responsible for having taken action to prevent a similar claim from happening again.
I live near DC and luckily we didn’t lose power during that storm!
But when we do lose power, that also means no water for us! I can live with no power for a few days, but running water is a necessity!
We lost power in Columbus OH for 5 days. My home got to 96F even with shades drawn and windows open at night. Being that I’m 4 months pregnant and have a 5yo, 2yo and all electric house (no gas), we had to evacuate. My DH stayed while the kids and I went up to his parents’ home.
We learned some of those same lessons, albeit in opposite circumstances. We lived through the ice storm of 2009 in NE Arkansas. It’s amazing what you can live without 🙂
We had a severe ice storm here in 2004, and we had to stay with friends because our house dropped below freezing. We also lost power for 5 days in 2008 when Hurricane Ike went through OH. We stayed home that time though, because the weather was mild and I wasn’t pregnant! We’ve also had other, shorter outages ranging from hours to a day or two. Not sure why Columbus Ohio has such unreliable electricity. I grew up in the boonies of Michigan and our power never went out in the 18 years I was there.
Jessica, that’s too bad that you were one of the families who lost power for that long. I live in Hilliard, and we didn’t lose power at all but many of my colleagues who live in Columbus did. I kept thinking of all the families affected that whole week. I couldn’t imagine. We lost our power 2 winters ago during that horrible ice storm. I agree with you……the Columbus area does seem to have quite unreliable electricity. We’ve lost our power (albeit very briefly) more living here in the last 3 1/2 years than I ever did growing up in Pennsylvania.
It was not fun! My son turned 2 on July 1st, and we had to cancel his birthday party. My parents were coming from out of state and had to cancel their trip and the respite caregiver they use for my severely handicapped sister when they travel. They work at minimum wage jobs and it’s hard for them to get weekends off, and they were looking forward to seeing my kids.
And since we were ready for a birthday party, my fridge was full and so was my freezer. I make my own cakes and such, so my fridge was full of eggs, butter, milk and party foods because I’d just done the shopping. My freezer was full of meats to grill and ice cream for the party. At least my little man was too little to know what he missed out on, but my 5yo had a HUGE tantrum over canceling her brother’s party!
It really is amazing just how much a single day without electricity will do to bring a family and even a whole community together! As pailful as it is to be without electricity in the modern world, it does genuinely have some very positive effects.
It’s also a valuable lesson on just how important it is to prepare for an emergency. You learn very quickly the importance of having extra non-perishable food, non-electric lighting, a battery operated radio, and other needed supplies on hand.
I know what you mean about the TV. When the power goes out and I have no computer access, I try to figure out what people did all day years ago. It’s good to go electronic free occasionally to remind oneself.