by James Wallace Harris, 4/28/26
Over the last decade, we’ve had three power outages during ice storms that lasted 3-5 days. Back in the 1990s, this house experienced a 10-day power outage during an ice storm. And in our previous house, we lived through a 13-day power outage during July and August.
We have survived all those outages with only inconvenience and discomfort. And I’ve never had any kind of emergency generator during my 74 years. It’s kind of wimpy to think about spending $15,000-20,000 dollars on the chance the power will go out for a few days. However, the older Susan and I get, the more we dislike discomfort and inconvenience.
We were lucky; the power stayed on during Winter 2025, but we were snowed in for over a week. Susan and I are afraid of falling, so we don’t go out when the ground is covered with snow and ice. News videos showing what people in Nashville, Tennessee, and Oxford, Mississippi, experienced frightened us. The destructive power of nature becomes so much scarier when you’re old.
My real fear is the pipes freezing. During these ice storms, many of our friends have had pipes burst. Now that’s more than inconvenient. The house’s temperature dropped into the forties during the last ice-storm outage. It was unpleasant, but we survived easily by wearing layers and sitting in our La-Z-Boys under several blankets. I’m considering buying some winter camping equipment.
One of the biggest problems during power outages is boredom. We solved that by getting unlimited phone plans and buying a Jackery to recharge our phones. I listened to music and audiobooks, doom scrolled Facebook and YouTube, and watched movies.
For years, I’ve been thinking about buying a whole-house generator that runs off natural gas. But I’ve always hesitated. I kept thinking whole-house battery backup might become practical.
I looked at two years of electric bills, talked to an AI that gave me some rough figures to consider.
If I’m lucky, I might get a whole-house generator installed for $15,000 to $20,000. I’d need a new electrical panel, but I’ve been thinking about that anyway. However, I’ve read that generators need an oil change after the first 25 hours and after running continuously for 50-100 hours. That would be a problem if the ground is covered in ice. Also, I know one family that spent $17,000 on a whole-house generator, and it failed the first time they needed it.
All that makes me leery of whole-house generators. Although they can last 20-30 years. (I don’t think I can, though.) That makes them a good investment.
I also researched getting something like a Tesla Powerwall. After much discussion with the AI, it was decided I’d need 40-50 kWh of battery backup to last a week-long power outage. With all the installation, the AI estimated $30,000 to $40,000. That’s way more than I’m willing to spend.
However, if the United States renovated its grid system, and I added both solar arrays and battery backups, this would be the best long-term solution.
Then I mentioned to the AI that my biggest worry was freezing pipes. That’s when it recommended a direct-vent insert for our fireplace. It should keep the house warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing, and it would work without electricity.
The AI also recommended a portable power station that could run just the blower to my natural gas heating system.
Those were two good ideas I’m considering. Battery technology is improving dramatically every year, and the prices are coming down. It might be cheaper to buy several portable units that I could roll around as needed. And I can research getting portable solar panels to put out in the yard to recharge them.
Portable power stations could run fans in the summer when the power is out. But I don’t know if they are powerful enough to use for cooking. Our water heater runs on natural gas, and it stays on when the power is out. But our stove and oven are electric. I’ve looked into Mr. Buddy heaters that use propane canisters. But propane sounds scary to use inside the house.
Let me know what solutions y’all have found.
JWH
Auxiliary Memory 
We discussed this years ago and I subsequently installed solar panels, two Sunsynk (Deye) 3.68kW inverters and Seplos batteries. You’d easily get that for generator money (15kWh Seplos batteries, the capacity of a Powerwall, are a couple of thousand bucks—get two or three). You can configure the inverters for back up, and also plug a generator into them if solar isn’t providing much energy. The units look very functional but they are the AK47s of the solar world.
Did you do all the work yourself?
No, installer, although I’ve just built the last couple of batteries myself.
At my age, 79, no way would I buy one of those expensive generators. I’m in Florida, and if the power went out in the winter, it would be no big deal other than getting food from somewhere. However, in the summer, it would be a big deal because of the atrocious heat and humidity we sometimes have. But then I’m fortunate enough to have a pool and a screened in area and a couple of lounge chairs I could sleep on and there would be a breeze and the temperatures would be bearable during the night. I can see getting one if you were young and you had a family. I have a neighbor who got one a few years back, cost him about $12,000 and I’m not sure we’ve had a power outage longer than 30 minutes since. He’s 94 without that many years left and his wife would sell the house and move to be with family, so I would say they’ll never get their moneys worth out of it.
I grew up in Miami without air conditioning. I used to sleep with a box fan at the foot of my bed.
Well, I live just outside of Nashville with my daughter and her family. We live in Montgomery county and had basically no power outage, although they do have some kind of general. Nearly my whole family lives in Nashville, and was affected. My most well off sister went to a hotel. This sounds like a good plan to me. I think the other two had generators. My pathetic grandson and his dad went to stay with a friend. My blind son who lives in public housing apparently was fine. My oldest daughter, who is living in some kind of camper was really upset that the generator she had gotten concked out. She ended up staying with me (and her sister) for a week. I would go somewhere, if I could manage it.
The trouble with going somewhere is you don’t know when a pipe bursts. My friend around the corner went to stay with her sister. She came home and her computer room was flooded. It ruined the floor and ceiling and a printer.
We live in SE Texas and so have dealt with hurricanes the whole time. Our longest power outage has been a little more than a week. Long ago I bought an excellent, quiet, and very expensive Yamaha 3.5 Kw inverter generator. Our ace in the hole is that we own a folding camping trailer which fits in our garage. When the power is out in the summer, the generator will run the fridges and internet service in the house, and the air conditioner in the camper.
I had not prepared for outages in the cold though (it’s freaking SE Texas!) so when we had a outage during a long period of sub freezing weather a couple of years ago (unstable climate now and collapse of Texas electrical grid) I was unprepared. We could still stay in the camper but I was worried about pipes freezing in the house, as you mentioned. I acquired an electrical heater and in the next freezing outage all was well.