Product Review Monday

Today's product review will focus on power outages, and what to do about them.

When we moved here about four and a half years ago (in mid-December of 2020), we quickly learned the electrical grid in this area is very fragile. Anything seems to knock out power: a wind, a snowfall, a Tuesday. To that end, and because we were concerned about keeping me available for my online job, we needed a dependable backup to run my laptop in the event the power went out on a workday.

Enter a backup power source called AllPowers:

This gizmo is the size of a car battery and provides 600 watts and almost 300 watt-hours. It will power my laptop for, I kid you not, about four days of continuous use. (Trust me on this.)

Indirectly, it also charged our wireless hotspot backup, which was plugged into the laptop during my workdays.

This battery powers more than my laptop, of course. It will power anything you plug into it (personal electronics, LED lights, etc.). When using it for my laptop, I have not had anything else plugged into it since I wanted to make sure I had sufficient dedicated power for my computer. However the manufacturers say the battery can charge up to eight things at once. The unit has the advantage of being portable and relatively lightweight at about 13 pounds. We keep it fully charged at all times.

The exact model we purchased is no longer available, but a comparable unit by the same company has the same (or better) specs. Highly recommended if you depend on your computer for employment and live in areas prone to power outages.

Buoyed by the success of this battery backup, we went up a step and got a larger version, a VTOMAN. This unit provides 1500 watts and 828 watt-hours. It weighs about 31 lbs. and can be charged a number of different ways (electricity, solar, car charger, etc.). It's large enough to power bigger appliances, such as a refrigerator or chest freezer, for a limited period of time. (Keep in mind a fridge or freezer can keep food suitably cold/frozen, if the doors aren't opened, on as little as an hour of electricity a day if need be.)

The advantage of this unit is its portability. It's not something you want to sling in your backpack and take hiking, of course, but Don and I took it with us on our second honeymoon trip as an emergency source of power without an issue. Highly recommended.

And finally, we bought yet another battery backup, a spectacular purchase called a Bluetti. This workhorse is much heavier (about 70 lbs.), but it's a giant when it comes to running household appliances during outages.

Again, the exact model we have has been upgraded to a newer type, one that offers a 2400-watt output and over 2000 watt-hours of use.

This Bluetti has saved our fanny any number of times. Last year, during a particularly bad series of storms with a resulting multi-day power outage, we used it to keep our fridge and chest freezer cold.

We also took the opportunity to recharge it using our generator; not because it needed recharging, but because we wanted to test whether charging it with the generator would work. (It did.)

There are multiple types of battery backups on the market, but these are the ones we've used (a lot!) and can attest to their quality and usefulness.

(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, I earn a small commission.)

Happy charging!

Product Review Monday

By popular demand, we're continuing our "Product Review Monday" series. Up to this point, it's been "Book Review Monday," but we're expanding somewhat to profile some favorite products besides books.

So today, let's examine a great light source during power outages.

Our favorite go-to light source during power outages is the kerosene lamp. I've been in love with kerosene lamps since I was a teenager, and in fact still have (and frequently use) a beautiful lamp my parents gave me when I was sixteen.

But as much as I love the ambience they give, kerosene lamps are not ideal. They require care (so as not to be knocked over), they're potentially dangerous (fire!), the light is not overly bright, and some people are sensitive to the odor, even when using lamp oil instead of kerosene. Plus, of course, you need kerosene (or lamp oil) for fuel.

When we moved here to our new home, it didn't take long to learn power outages are very, very common. A windy day, a snowstorm, a Tuesday ... outages can last anywhere from a few hours to several days.

The logical question that arose during this realization is: What happens if there's a much longer power outage? Do we have enough kerosene on hand to supply all the lamps for a long time?

It was about this time we started searching for an LED light source, something portable, easy to handle, and off-grid. There are numerous options on the market, but we ended up purchasing something called a Dynamo hand-crank solar powered lantern.

This item had extremely good reviews, so we purchased one to see how we liked it. In fact, we liked it so well we purchased four more, and keep them in various locations around the house (and Older Daughter keeps one in her car for roadside emergencies).

This lantern is ten inches high and lightweight. While we usually keep them charged up by electricity, they can be charged a number of ways, including a USB port or a car charger. They have a solar panel on the top (ours still has the protective clear plastic film over it)...

...a AAA-battery case at the bottom...

...and best of all, an option to hand-crank the lantern (one minute of spinning the crank will give about 5 to 8 minutes of light, depending on how fast the crank is turned).

Fully charged, the lamp gives 16 hours of light at the lower (60 lumens) setting, or 10 hours of light at the higher (120 lumens) setting.

These are, unfortunately, a Chinese-made product, so I don't know what (if anything) the tariffs situation will do to the price. Also, be aware a number of different names appear to be on the lantern: Aeptek, Whetstone, etc., but the product is identical.

(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, I earn a small commission.)

We have used these lamps extensively during power outages. They're easy to grab when moving to a dark part of the house at night (bathroom, closet, etc.), safe for children and pets to be around, and provide very decent light. It's not the warm yellow light of a kerosene lamp, but instead the bright white light typical of LEDs. However it's plenty bright to read by, do household chores, or place in a bedroom for children to see.

They are also, in my opinion, an important addition to our emergency inventory. Highly recommended.

In like a lion

Whew. March has come in like a lion! Let me catch you up on the last few days.

We knew we were going to be hit by a storm on Thursday with high wind and heavy rain. We were used to high winds in our last home, but it's far rarer here in our current place. The weather report said power outages were "expected." Accordingly, we battened down the hatches.

This meant catching up on laundry...

...bringing in the high-profile cushions from the porch rockers (except, crucially, the seat cushions with I naively thought would be fine) ...

...and filling water containers. We always keep stored water, of course, but I filled up two 50-gallon barrels in the barn (we drain them during the colder months lest they freeze) and topped off some water pitchers in the kitchen.

Don, meanwhile, is in the process of building a shed next to the barn. He frantically worked to get the roof on before the storm came in. He got as far as getting the plywood on top and the tar paper nailed down, but that was it.

The storm rolled in just at the start of my workweek, when I'm literally glued to the computer for three days of 11-hour days. For this reason, when we first moved into this house and realized how unreliable the power grid is during any adverse weather, we have full battery and internet backups for my laptop.

The rain held off, but the wind picked up, stronger and stronger. Sure enough, about 10:30 am Thursday morning – long before the wind even reached its peak – the power went out. I plugged my computer into the battery backup...

...and connected into the wireless hotspot (since our regular internet was down).

My workday proceeded fairly normally, just doing my online job, but Don and Older Daughter were trapped in the house and frankly bored. Don couldn't do any of the outdoor projects he wanted, and Older Daughter couldn't get any work done on the shop tools (since they're electric). They got a lot of reading done.

The wind was the highest we've ever seen here. This little outdoor carpet on the back porch kept getting blown off – literally – so I finally anchored it with a bag of dog food.

We have a small table on wheels on the front porch, and we forgot to lock the wheels. A gust sent the table spinning into the rails...

...and flung both a snow shovel (that had been leaning against it) and a thermometer (that had been resting on top it) to the ground below.

And it ripped off all – all! – of the tar paper Don had stapled to the roof of the new shed off. We saw pieces everywhere.

Around 3 pm, the rain moved in, and it grew so dark outside that it seemed like evening. This is how dark it was inside the house.

When evening came, we lit lamps.

We wiled away the evening reading books and talking. Because it was chilly on her side of the house, Older Daughter opened the connecting door and let Frumpkin (her cat) wander around.

The next morning, concerned that the refrigerator was getting too warm, Don used our Bluetti to power the fridge for an hour or so, just long enough to bring the inside temp back to safe levels.

He did the same thing to the chest freezer.

Then he hauled out the old military generator we bought from a neighbor a few years ago, and recharged the Bluetti. It wasn't really that the Bluetti needed recharging so much as Don wanted to see how well it worked to recharge the battery pack. (Short answer: very well.) We've bought new generators over the years, but nothing beats this old workhorse. As with any power outage, it's a good opportunity to test our preps.

The yard was soggy with the previous day's downpour, and littered with branches.

The wind had ripped the netting off the blueberries and peach trees, and toppled the cattle panels. We got out there and pulled everything back together.

As the day progressed, since Don was listening to the scanner, we learned power had been restored everywhere except around our place. Sure enough, late Friday afternoon we saw the power company's vehicles driving around the neighborhood, as if looking for the source of the disruption. (For the record, these workers are among the greatest unsung heroes of our society.)

Thanks to their dedicated efforts, power was restored around 2:30 on Friday. Suddenly life was back to normal.

For a couple hours, anyway. Late in the afternoon, a sudden microburst of wind hit us so hard, the house literally shook. It picked up one of the porch rockers and flung it across the deck.

The seat cushion was blown to the ground below. Note to self: Next time, remove all the seat cushions when it's windy.

Things were calm for about 24 hours. In the interim, we made sure our battery packs were re-charged.

Then last night, after dark, a sudden burst of rain started dumping on us. The temperature dropped and the rain turned to snow, blowing sideways in the wind. Within half an hour, three inches of snow had been plastered everywhere.

This morning revealed another winter landscape, and the temperature had dropped to 22F.

I should add that none of this weather drama – outside of Thursday's wind and rain – was predicted. Go figure.

So yeah, March is coming in like a lion. But hey, at least we're not in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where people are experiencing a blizzard described as "as bad as it gets."

Preparing for power outages

Recently Don attended a meeting in a nearby town during which, among other things, a representative from the regional power company warned about power outages next summer.

Intentional power outages.

What the power company rep was referring to was preventative power shutdowns, famously practiced by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), the power supplier for a large portion of California. After the devastating Dixie Fire in 2021, the blame for the fire was pinned on PG&E after some trees fell across power lines. PG&E has been blamed for earlier wildfires as well. As a result of all the fallout, litigation, and massive payouts, PG&E began practicing planned power outages in specific areas when conditions were ripe for another repeat of hazardous circumstances (i.e. high heat, strong winds, dry conditions). These planned outages can affect millions of people, sometimes for days on end.

Anyway, the local power company rep said they would be engaging in similar planned outages starting in the summer of 2024 when conditions are ripe for wildfires. Based on what happened with PG&E, I can't really blame them.

But why next summer? Why not this summer?

Aside from political considerations, apparently planned shutdowns aren't something that can be implemented without a proper notification system in place. Obviously there are people for whom a power outage can be life threatening, so the power company wants to make sure all customers are adequately notified in advance if those outages are deliberate.

However it means we must be ready for them.

We're pretty much ready to handle winter power outages. Since we have a woodstove and our chest freezer is outside, winter outages never really bother us. We can crack open our chest freezer at night and close it during the day and everything stays frozen. We can empty the refrigerator into coolers outside and not have any food go bad.

But extended summer outages are potentially more troublesome. Our biggest vulnerabilities during summer power outages are water (since our well pump is electric, and we need more than we have stored to handle livestock and garden), refrigeration, and keeping the contents of the chest freezer frozen.

Well, these are issues we're already addressing anyway. This just puts a fire under us to move quicker. Besides, with the increasing strain on the U.S. power grid in general, having more backups in place is, we feel, wise.

More projects to plan!

Last bit of winter

I woke up at about 4:45 am yesterday morning to a distant beeping. "Power's out," I mumbled to Don. The beeping was the sound of the backup battery on his computer. He stumbled out of bed, turned off his computer (which stays in a state of hibernation overnight), and came back to bed.

But I was covering for a coworker yesterday, so I had to get ready to do my job without electricity. I can start working whenever I get up, so I got up at 5 am. (That's what comes from being an early bird.)

Why did the power to go? No idea, but we're getting a last blast of winter and received about five inches of wet heavy snow overnight. Doubtless a branch came down on a power line somewhere. If there's one thing we've learned since moving to our new (to us) home, it's that every snowfall is an excuse for the power the go out. Accordingly, we've put all sorts of backups in place.

Take this LED camping lantern, for example. We got some of these last year and they've proved to be excellent: very bright, and chargeable by a number of methods (electricity, solar, hand-cranked, etc.).

I also lit an oil lamp. This provided light at both ends of the house.

I used a barbecue lighter to light the propane stove and get the kettle started for tea.

Once the water was hot, I poured my tea, refilled the kettle, and set it on the woodstove. Unless it's cold enough to keep the fire going all night (and it wasn't), I always prepare the wood cookstove the night before for a fast light in the morning. I lit the fire to warm the house, and put the tea kettle on to heat water for when Don got up.

I plugged my laptop into the battery backup we keep on hand for just such an occasion. Used solely for my laptop, there's enough juice in this backup battery to let me work for several days.

Then I plugged the wireless hotspot into my USB port to provide internet, and got to work.

But the outside was too pretty to ignore. I know it's April and we should be looking for spring flowers, but winter wasn't ready to let go.

A neighbor's horse was in high spirits. 

The goldfinches seemed grateful for the easy breakfast.

You can see the buildup of snow on the pines.

Then I saw something amusing. Way down in the valley, a tom turkey, puffed up like a Spanish grandee, was strutting his stuff for the ladies.

Can't stop those hormones, no matter what the weather.