posts/Six-Days-in-the-Dark/

[giscus[bot]]

posts/Six-Days-in-the-Dark/

On Tuesday, April 29th, 2025, a major storm system rolled through the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania region and beyond, leaving widespread damage—and six powerless days for my family. I did a lot to prepare for emergencies, but this week has shown me where the holes were in my planning.

https://tonyyo11.github.io/posts/Six-Days-in-the-Dark/

[rtrouton]

I've been on this same journey of how to make sure your family is OK even when the sky falls in and it is a hard road because you spend a lot of time and money preparing for something which you hope and pray is never needed. As part of my journey, I've done the following at my house:

1. Installed solar panels
2. Got a house battery which is integrated into my existing electrical setup.
3. Got a hybrid EV where the car can run off of the battery alone for at least a while.
4. Bought a bunch of food and other supplies that can sit on shelves for years.

What I learned along the way:

1. Emergency food packs seem like a good idea, but if you really look at what's in them, chances are you can pick up equivalent shelf-stable foods from your grocery store or Costco for cheaper. That makes a difference if you're planning to rotate your food periodically off that shelf and need to keep spending some money on this.

2. Having a battery for the house that's essentially plugged in all the time and automatically kicks over when the power goes out is pretty awesome. No fumbling in the dark while you try to connect up your backup battery.

3. A house battery doesn't necessarily mean that you need to power the whole house. Figure out what your essential needs are and get a battery sized for those. It may be less expensive to get a battery sized for those essential loads. After all, during an emergency, not having your electric stove may be fine as long as you have a microwave and a hot plate. Ditto for no AC running, but you can be running a fan instead.

4. Having a hybrid EV where the car can run off of the battery alone, combined with the solar and house battery, means you have a car you can fuel up at home even if the gas station is closed. Having it be hybrid means you're not dependent on even that; as long as you have gas and/or electricity your car will be able to go.

Meanwhile, aside from the food sitting on a shelf, I'm using all of this every day. It's not just for a disaster, which means that it spreads out the costs further and cuts back on the "but what if I never need this?" issues.

[MagicFab]

Interesting, can you share your choice of battery and car ? Did you research and choose those by yourself ?

[tonyyo11]

I forgot to actually reply to this, Rich.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
I think I will start saving or trying to save, to go ahead and get a whole home battery backup. I opted against it previously due to cost since it would require having to rewire my home and replace my breaker box, among other things, and because it has been my hope to buy a bigger home. 850 sq.ft. is not a lot of space when you have three kids.

During our outage, I rented a full-size pickup truck, and now I see why people log these things. I want to trade in my minivan and replace it with a Hybrid EV Pickup, lol. But then again, I would once again need to replace my breaker box and install an EV charger.

My emergency food storage is in a big ole storage tote marked "To Go," so I can grab it in one sweep, load it into my van, and leave if the need arises. But we are now also planning on stocking more short-term "stay in the house with no power" emergency supplies.
If you keep some "these are absolutely mandatory" food items, I'd love to know what you have on your list so I can get an idea of what options we should probably have as well.