Tag Archives: lights out drill

Our “Lights Out” Checklist

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preparing for lights outThe lights go out. What do you do? Let’s assume you’ve already sat there for a few moments, possibly in the dark, and they haven’t come back on yet. Do you know what you need to do in a power outage? Do you know what you need to get? Do you know where everything is located? And, the biggest question, does everyone else in your family also know your plan?

This is our plan, specific to our home. I’m providing it as an example of the items you may want to cover in your own plan. (It’s easy to procrastinate, I’m just now writing down our plan after we’ve been living in this house for over two years.)

LIGHTS OUT CHECKLIST

Is the power really out?

    • Check the fuse box to be sure everything is turned on correctly, and none of the breakers are tripped.
    • Look around the neighborhood, is everyone’s power out?

    Light

    • Get a flashlight and/or headlamp, located near the door in the mudroom.
    • Turn on the battery bank‘s inverter, if necessary reset the inverter (the manual is hanging on the side of the bar refrigerator).
    • If the battery bank doesn’t work, use the 800 amp inverter with the truck’s battery(s)(it’s located in the truck box) — connect it directly to the battery, and run extension cord into house.
    • Unroll the extension cord that’s already attached to the battery bank, it’s located on the wall beside the utility sink in the laundry room. This will be your central power outlet(s).
    • Get the lamp out of Sarah’s office, and the other lamp from the rec room, and put them in central locations.
    • Get the battery-powered lanterns out, located in the black box under the pool table, and put the batteries in them (stored with the lanterns). Put the small red one in the bathroom, keep the larger two available for use where needed.
    • Use caution when choosing to use fire for light. If candles or kerosene lanterns are used, place the fire extinguisher nearby. Long burning candles are in the cupboard in the workshop, kerosene lanterns are on the shelf in the bar.

    Heat

    • Unplug the furnace from the wall and plug it into the battery bank extension cord (this will power the blower, the furnace runs on propane).
    • If the battery bank is depleted, the furnace can be plugged directly into the generator.
    • Get the Buddy Heater (and it’s batteries), and a small propane tank, from the barn. Put the batteries into the Buddy Heater (for the blower). Attach heater to tank and turn it on, once running turn on blower (follow directions).

    Food

    • The microwave, plugged into the battery bank, can be used for short periods of time to heat food. The microwave can also be plugged into the generator as needed.
    • Propane grill, on the patio.
    • Propane stove, in the barn.
    • The Volcano Stove can be used with propane, or charcoal (outside, or in the garage/barn with door open).

    Water

    • Remember once the power goes out the well no longer pumps, there is less than 25 gallons of water in the pressure tank.
    • Bring in the 5-gallon yellow Igloo jug from the barn, also bring in a 5-gallon water jug. Put the Igloo on the kitchen table and use for drinking and cooking.
    • Only flush when “needed”; refill toilet tank with 3 gallons of water from the rain barrels or the pond.
    • Use hand wipes/disinfecting wipes for cleaning as needed.
    • The well pump can be plugged directly into the generator; the plug is near the pressure tank (use 220 volt cord).

    Entertainment

    • Board games.
    • The battery bank can run the TV and the DVD player.
    • Reading.
    • Electronic devices can be charged with the battery bank.

    Other things to remember

    • Open the refrigerator and/or freezer as little as possible.
    • Keep outside doors closed to maintain heat.
    • There is additional drinking water in 2-liter bottles on the top garage shelf.
    • Keep cell phones charged.
    • The landline phone will work, but only the one in Sarah’s office.

    Again, this is our list. We’ll test it next weekend when the girls are here; we’ve done this before, in suburbia, but it’s been a while and a lot of things have changed. Afterward, we’ll make changes as needed,  print it up, and post it where it can be found.

    make_a_listMake your plan. As we know, power outages tend to come during the worst of times. You may have a plan in your head, but what if you’re not home? Creating a plan doesn’t cost you anything — just innumerate the things you already have.

     

    (Note: The items highlighted in red are links to previous posts I’ve written on those topics)

    What We Did This Week To Prep 6/15/12

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    Ryan and I spent more time working on the rabbit hutch, or I guess I should correctly call it our ‘rabbitry’. It’s covered now, the top row of cages are hung, and our does have moved from the garage and are now in their new home. As planned I put it where we can see it through the kitchen window, kind of the “in sight, in mind” concept. This is their second week on fresh grass and clover, we’ve doubled the amount and they seem to be handling it well (poops still solid). Next week we’ll start pasturing them. We told the kids they could name these rabbits (since they’ll be the parents); then Ryan, in his wood shop class, made some nice signs with their names on them for the rabbitry (we’ll get them stained and up this week).

    I mentioned, during our last ‘lights out drill’, that we couldn’t get the garage door to open manually when the power was off. We pulled the red handled cord and nothing happened, we shined the flashlight around and tried to figure it out and couldn’t see anything wrong, we pulled harder and still nothing. At that point we gave up and continued with the drill. Yesterday I went out to figure out why it wouldn’t open (as I mentioned, the garage door opener was recently replaced), eventually–it took longer than it should have–I figured out the manual disconnect handle had been tied off to the wrong spot. I moved it over to where it should be and now it works just fine. Look around your own homes and double-check the little things, make sure you not only know how to open/close/shut-off or whatever but you actually do it to make sure it works (except don’t shut off your natural gas, that’s a hassle to relight). If this had been a true emergency there would have been the associated increased stress level already, and the door not opening would not have helped; a stressful blackout emergency is not conducive to calmly trouble-shooting something that is not working properly.

    A couple of months ago I went to a friends semi-official/developing prepper group. Mike is doing a good job getting people together on a regular basis and slowly exposing them to prepper ideas and concepts (this month, our second get together, I taught first aid to the group). The first get together, he did a short presentation on home safety items: backup/emergency lighting, fire extinguishers, smoke and CO2 detectors, escape ladders, etc. We had everything thoroughly covered at our home, except the escape ladders. We have two bedrooms with windows that are about 14 feet off the ground, not impossible to hang and drop from but we figured it’d be better to have the escape ladders. We bought two ladders (about $30 each) and will practice with them soon, and then store them under the beds near the windows.

    What did you do?

    (Monday: NO POST – we’ll be in Las Vegas on vacation with friends)

    Teaching The Kids (& Learning More Myself) – Lights Out Drill

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    When the lights go out (power failure) it tends to be during the worst times. Hopefully each of us has a plan, for our household, about what to do for light, heat (or cool), backup power, and entertainment. But does your family know your plan? Unfortunately many of us have a loose plan in mind and assume we’ll figure it out when it happens. But what if you’re not home or unavailable to help?

    This week, during a calm time, we had a “lights out” drill. Sure the power was out, for real, in January, but Ryan was the only one of the kids at our house during that time (the girls were with their mom, and chose to stay there). The girls insisted that they’d be fine and had been through it all before, but I asked them to humor me.

    We waited until it got dark, so things would be a more realistic. I started by showing them where the circuit box was, and briefly explained it’s function and how to reset the circuits. We then turned off all the power (except to the refrigerator). I had them go get flashlights, carefully because it was now dark; they thought that was easy because they all know the flashlights are kept in the table drawer.

    When they returned to the garage, I tried to show them how to open the garage door manually if the power was out. (Let me preface this by saying we recently got a new garage door opener.) I pulled the red cord to disconnect the garage door opener and it wouldn’t come loose. Sarah and I spent a few minutes trying to figure it out and were unable to get it to release or open the door. At that point we left it for later–and I still need to figure out why it didn’t work–but that was much better time to find out it didn’t work, then to find out when we NEEDED to get a car out of the garage and the power was out.

    I then gave them a brief overview of our inverter and battery bank (with some hands-on) and showed them how to: check the battery levels, connect to to the inverter, turn it on, and reset it if necessary. I showed them which extension cords to use, how to plug-in the furnace, and then pulled the extension cord into the house. We discussed what we could power with the battery bank: lamps, TV/DVD, phone chargers, limited microwave, and what couldn’t be powered: refrigerator, oven, dishwasher, Tivo, coffee maker. We plugged in the standing lamps (with the LED bulbs), so we had light again. For practice, we got out the kerosene lanterns and lit them (and got out the fire extinguisher and set it nearby, just in case). Sarah then plugged in the TV and DVD player and we watched the movie Up, while the “power was out”.

    After the movie I turned the power back on; I figured they already knew how to sleep in the dark. I finished up the following morning having Ryan make coffee without power, he used the hand grinder and the french press. I had meant to pull out the generator that morning and show the girls how to use it, but I forgot. Next time.

    (Funny story though: A few weeks ago I got out the generator, in the middle of the afternoon, and started it up for our quarterly testing. One of the neighbors was working in his yard and asked if our power was out. I told him we were just practicing and checking the equipment, he replied, “That’s probably a good idea, easier now then when you really need it.” I couldn’t have agreed more.)

    Our lights out drill went well. I tried to keep it simple and relatively painless. The kids were pretty good sports and are now more familiar with our procedure.

    Teach your kids–and spouse–the skills you know; you may not be around when they are necessary. And remember, “To teach is to learn twice.” (- Joseph Joubert)

    (Friday: What We Did This Week To Prep)

    Winter Power Outage = Good Chance To Test Preps

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    Weathering The Storm 

    Western Washington had a pretty good storm last week. I realize, in the larger category of “winter storms”, this wasn’t anywhere among the worst. That being said, it was a big deal around here – we don’t have storms like that very often. What started off as a good amount of snow coming down, transitioned into an ice storm. The tree branches were weighed down and many broke, taking down power lines and causing a power outage that affected close to 300,000 homes.

    We were one of those homes, our power was out for about 36 hours. So when life gives you lemons… I figured this was the perfect opportunity to test our preps! At 7:30 am, as Sarah and I were in the Jeep driving back from the train station (the trains were cancelled because of frozen switches), I got the call the power was out. As I drove up to the house, even though I knew the power was off, I still tried to use the garage door opener (habits). First lesson of the power outage: make sure everyone knows how to manually open the garage door.

    Since we have had a couple of “lights-out” drills we knew where to start. We:

    1. ‘Fired-up’ the battery bank and, using a volt meter, checked and recorded the starting voltage (12.6 volts).
    2. Ran a 50 foot, 14-gauge extension cord into the house and plugged it into a surge protector for inside use.
    3. Connected another extension cord to the natural gas furnace to run the blower*.
    4. Put a temperature probe inside the deep freezer (in the garage), with one end out so that it could be easily read, and recorded the starting temperature (10 degrees).
    5. Brought lamps, with low energy bulbs, into the main room and plugged them into the surge protector.

    The battery bank operated well that day. My parents, visiting from Colorado, were able to appreciated all our preps. My mom was especially grateful to be able to blow dry and curl her hair (before leaving to see more family) – she felt this alone justified all our preparations. We had heat (though we kept it lower than normal, 62 degrees), light, Ryan was able to play Xbox, and we watched a movie after dinner. Every couple of hours we’d check and record the battery voltage and the deep freezer temperature.

    However, when we woke up the next morning I realized the heat wasn’t on. I checked the battery bank and it had powered off. Even though it registered plenty of voltage (11.3 volts) the indicator light showed the batteries had gotten too low – this shouldn’t have happened until it reached 10.0 volts. It’s possible this occurred because I had left the inverter plugged into the wall and the line may have surged, but I don’t know for sure. We got out the generator, fired it up, and connected it to the:

    • inverter, to recharge the battery bank. As soon as it was plugged in the inverter began to charge and work again.
    • freezer, even though the temperature was still below 20 degrees.
    • furnace blower, and turned the heat up to 70 degrees.
    • laptop computer and all other rechargeable devices.

    Once the generator was running we used our Volcano Grill and percolator to make coffee, then boiled water for oatmeal.

    Sarah and I then left for work. The generator ran for about three hours, then Ryan called and told me it had stopped. I assumed it had run out of gas. I had him plug things back into the inverter and continue to power the house from the battery bank (Repetitive & Redundant). That evening the power came back on. We put everything neatly away, ready for the next time.

    (Friday: What I Did This Week To Prep including Storm After Action Review)

    *Last summer my good friend, fellow prepper, and HVAC/R technician, Rick helped me rewire the line that powers the blower on my natural gas furnace. This allows me to plug the blower into an alternate power supply if needed. Rick has agreed to guest blog for me next Monday (1/30/12), when he’ll write about how you can do this same project yourself, complete with a detailed how-to video.

    What I Did This Week To Prep 11/4/11

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    We had our first ‘lights out’ drill this week. Unfortunately I can’t call it a success, other than in the sense that we learn from our failures (hopefully).

    Coming off the successful test of powering the deep freezer (for over four days), using the batter bank and inverter – I was ready to take the next step. This one was to see how the battery bank would do powering devices inside the house we would like to be able to use during a power outage.

    My goal:

    1. Power two lamps, to light the living room / kitchen area, each with two CFL bulbs (compact fluorescent lamp – low energy)
    2. Power our 29 inch TV (older cathode ray tube type) and DVD player
    3. Charge the cell phones
    4. Use the microwave for limited cooking

    Outcome:

    1. Batteries were discharged after about 1 1/2 hours of watching the movie (The Sting), and having the lamps on
    2. I forgot to charge the cell phones
    3. The microwave tripped the breaker after less than two minutes

    What I learned:

    1. LED flashlights are great; I love our new Duracell Daylite LED two D cell flashlights
    2. Thoroughly check, and be familiar with, your equipment – before the incident
    3. Ensure the battery bank is fully charged
    4. The inverter shuts itself off when the batteries reach 10.50 volts
    5. Buying a quality system and running it through a cheap circuit breaker is dumb

    What went well:

    1. Storing the main extension cord near the battery bank (14 gauge, 50 foot)
    2. Taking the opportunity to teach Ryan about the circuit breaker box
    3. Having plenty of accessory extension cords
    4. Once lamps were on (from batteries), putting the flashlights in a central place (easy to find in the dark)

    If the power had really been out, we would have fallen back on our redundancy planning and gotten out the lanterns and candles.

    The biggest mistake was assuming that since the battery bank, through the inverter, had been plugged in for almost a week that the batteries would be fully charged – so I didn’t think to check first. Yesterday (several days after the drill) I discovered the circuit breaker (a cheap plastic one)–between the batteries and the inverter–had failed and wasn’t allowing the batteries to charge. After seeing that I realized that during our drill our batteries probably weren’t fully charged (likely very low charge to begin with).

    I rewired the batteries directly to the inverter (there’s still the inverter’s internal circuit breaker, the external one was a backup) and the batteries immediately began recharging. I’ll order a higher quality circuit breaker this weekend. When the breaker arrives, I’ll do an unofficial drill during the day and see how long the fully charged batteries will run the lamps, TV and DVD player. (Buying stuff is easy, this testing and figuring out is a pain…)

    We also transplanted our pepper plants (one jalapeno and one habanero) from the garden into pots so we could bring them into the house for the winter. I hadn’t known until recently that peppers, in their natural habitat, are perennials; we think of them as annuals because our winters get too cold for them to survive. Next year we’ll just put the pot outside for the summer. So instead of starting with brand new plants again, we’ll have mature ones and see how they do. As a baseline, this year we got three, very mild, jalapenos and no habaneros at all.

    Lastly, we had budgeted money for buying fish antibiotics this month. So I ordered AQUA-MOX (amoxicillin 500 mg, 100 capsules), AQUA-FLEX (cephalexin 500mg, 100 capsules) and AQUA-ZOLE (metronidazole 250mg, 100 tablets). I stored them away in a cool, dry, dark location in their original containers.

    What did you do?

    (Monday: The Hassles of Storing Gasoline)

    (10/30/11)