BristolUK

A light dusting then.

dbd33

This morning the car thermometer showed -30. Someone I know well has gone out to move her horse between barns. This will entail much standing around. I have not gone to watch.

plasticcanuck

Many cars come these days with remote starters. In such weather, I go to front door a couple of times a day and start the car (don’t even need to open the front door). It’s preset to be running for 10minutes at which time it shuts itself off. I don’t know how good or bad it is for the vehicle, but can’t be any worse than being stuck in 401 traffic for 10minutes.

scrubbedexpat091

Its amusing to watch folks in Vancouver scrape off frost from their car windows.

Not ice but a thin layer of frost that easily melts with windshield washer fluid and turning the wipers on...

scrubbedexpat091

Just a bit...lol.. that is her back deck.

dave_j

BC Hydro Power back this morning. 1.5 days on generator. 206000 customers affected, only 11000 still out, one of them is daughter and family whose generator might be needed for a further day or two, her wood burner working overtime but still only -1C.

I'm amazed at the unpreparedness around me. This happens a few times every year and yet when I went to put the generator to bed last night could only hear one other working and this in a residential area. This outage will be nothing compared to the problems arising from even a small natural disaster.

scrubbedexpat091

I don't really understand why those with a house and ability to have a generator don't have one, seems odd.

I understand why apartment and condo dwellers don't have them, as strata's and rental rules usually tend not to permit such things, but if you own or rent a house seems there wouldn't be much issue.

dbd33

$3,500 dollars at a minimum. $6,500 if it's automatic.

BristolUK

Perhaps I'm complacent but we've completed 12 winters. We had one loss of power from an unknown time in the night (after 3.00am) until midday, and that was a line from the pole to our house and we still had some outlets working for kettle and heater.

We had one general loss for about 3 hours one evening and one last winter where power went off about 8 or 9 in the evening and came back about 3.00 am. I filled a hot water bottle, put it in my bed and had an early night.

Apart from the odd half hour the only other outages have been those where the bedside radio flashing is the first clue that we had lost power.

As for the generator, where does it go for access? Our snow is plowed from the front of the drive to the back, blocking the garage doors. About half way through a typical winter we can't get off the deck and through deep snow.

We also have a woodstove which in an emergency will provide some heat and will heat hot water in a kettle on the top plate.

Almost Canadian

I have just finished plowing a track to our round bales. The snow in the field was about 2 feet deep and, fortunately, the blade on the rear of the tractor has little issue with moving it.

Prior to doing so, we had returned from a lunch trip to Okotoks where there and back the car's thermometer said it was minus 37. I believe that, with windchill, this is the coldest we have ever experienced.

dave_j

It's clear that your supply is a little more reliable than some others. We haven't been here as long as you have but every year we have had several periods without power and these tend to last from several hours to several days. In cold weather you have a few options if it happens to you. You can avail yourself of some acquaintance with power and move in with them, you can pile on the clothing and light the stove if you have one, you can freeze to death, or you can use experience to anticipate what might happen in the future and prepare for it.

Today, over two days since the storm hit, there are still over 200 separate instances of outage, over 11000 customers without power and some 75 crews trying to fix the faults. My daughter is preparing for at least another day without power, possibly two and this will be the second time in four years that an outage has lasted for more than three days.

Cities tend to be well served with reliable power but in the sticks where trees fall on lines regularly it's to be expected and the wise prepare for it.

You might call me stupid, but we remained warm and well lit throughout. The generator cost 200 and the fixed cabling less than 100. I thought it was money well spent. It did better than Safeway who today threw away all of their freezer stock while ours remained healthily cold.

bats

We have a generator but it isn't wired in. There's usually a fiddle with extension cables and so on. We have a gas heating stove and gas cooker so would be OKish without it in the winter. We've only had to use it in the spring and summer so far.

scrubbedexpat091

So not $3,500 then?

Novocastrian

Welcome to Canada. Teehee.

BristolUK

My family were decamped to emergency accommodation in a college in the Quebec ice storm back in the 90s for a few days, on Montreal's south shore.

We had an ice storm last year leaving 130,000 without power at its worst. Second largest area affected was Moncton. There was a worse one in 2004 affecting 195,000 (the year before we moved) representing 60% of the customer base.

I can't speak on the 2004 one but the one last year was not the cause of our loss on that night I mentioned. That was a different time.

While last year's ice storm didn't affect us, I do know that on the other side of a main road 400 yards away, they were still without power after two days. We seem to live in a part less likely to be without for a longer period.