We returned home today to a cold house—40 degrees F. The power was still out, which was partially good news. The contents of the refrigerator were okay as the temperature inside it never exceeded the safe zone. Most of the freezer contents were still frozen—only the pre-packaged fish thawed out. That was because it's packed with a lot of air around it. Whereas the things I packaged were stacked together and had much more mass. We even had ice cubes left. After six days of no power, I have to thank Sunfrost Refigerators for making such an insulated refrigerator.
I immediately lit a fire to warm up the house. To keep myself occupied while I was freezing, I recorded the temperature and time to see how long it took to get to 65 degrees. The temperature rise was fairly linear until about 105 minutes. That's when the power came on. Then I turned on the ceiling fan and the propane heater until the main part of the house warmed to 65 degrees.
The power was out for almost exactly six days. We are prepared for no power. We have LED lights, woodstove heat, slow-flow water, and a gas stove for cooking. The big inconvenience is no Internet! We just bought two Mophie powerstaions in case we encounter another long power outage again. They'll give us 200 hours of cell phone usage which will allow us to tether to the Internet.
We've been here for 10 years. This is the first year with major road and power issues. We are hoping these don't become regular events.
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