A wide variety of natural disasters can cause long-term power outages. Things like tornadoes, hurricanes,flooding, lightning, ice storms and blizzards can take out the power for hours or days at a time. Even something as simple as a blown transformer or a car running into a utility pole can knock out the electricity in an entire neighborhood for a day or two.
We are all dependent on electricity, so a power outage of more than a few minutes becomes pretty annoying. As the duration of a power failure stretches beyond an hour, there are more severe problems that can cause things to get expensive or dangerous:
  • During the winter, a power failure normally disables your home's heating system. As the house cools, (depending on where you live) it can become uninhabitable. In addition, frozen pipes can cause thousands of dollars in damage.
  • A power failure means that refrigerators and freezers stop running. In the summer, frozen food melts and can make a real mess. If you have invested in a side of beef, losses can reach $1,000 or more during a multi-day power failure.
  • If you have a medical condition that requires special equipment, a power failure can create a life-or-death situation.
  • If you live in a rural area with a private well, a power failure cuts off your water supply.
It is now easy to buy an emergency power system to avoid all of these problems. In this article, we will look at several options and also discuss different ways to wire them into your home so that you will never have to worry about a power failure again.­ ­