I never legitimately considered how dependent our family is on electricity until the power went out while we were in a January blizzard.
All of us were left without running water, lights, internet, cable and refrigeration; Even worse, we had no heat, then without electricity, the furnace won’t beginning up.
When the outside temperature drops down to several degrees, a reliable source of heat is a necessity, i was absolutely concerned about our water pipes freezing and the safety of our family, then the power business didn’t seem to have any method how long it would take to restore power in our area. I considered bundling up the family and driving to a hotel. However, the power was out in a widespread area and none of the local corporations were open, however plus, there was a travel advisory. The weather conditions made it dangerous to drive. I was reluctant to risk icy roads and zero visibility in hopes of finding a hotel with vacancy, but all of us ended up going without power for nearly 24 hours. It could have been much worse. I decided to take proactive measures to avoid being at the mercy of another outage in the future. I contacted a local Heating and A/C business who specializes in generators. A standby generator is now permanently installed outside of the apartment and is attached to our electrical system. It senses any interruption, automatically transfers power and is up and running within hours. All of us don’t even need to be apartment to beginning the generator, because it runs on natural gas, there’s no worry over refueling. The generator is powerful enough to handle all of the household appliances, including the furnace, sump pump and water heater. I can be sure we’ll still have access to heat and all of our current conveniences if the power should go out while we were in another blizzard.