POWER CUTS
 

We had to abandon ship last night and stay with my parents cos we had a power cut which lasted from 9am yesterday to 6am today (judging back the time on the microwave when we got back just now!).

So we were just wondering... what happens in Canada in winter if there's a power cut? It was bad enough here in the UK in October (no heating, no lights, no tv / radio, no lullaby from the baby monitor to get our baby to sleep (Sean had to sing :rofl:), no cuppa (hob is electric, although dad did suggest we heat some water on the bbq :lol:), but what if you're in Canada and it's -30??

I'd assume it's impossible for electric companies to guarantee there won't be any power cuts, and the average family surely can't afford a generator 'just incase', so how does it work and how do you cope?

Anita (about to make up for lost time on Guitar Hero :p)

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Anita

We lived in rural Ontario and with overhead power lines on telegraph poles we lost power a lot more than living in rural Suffolk. Ice storms/ blizzards.

At -30C our old farmhouse went down to 5C by the morning the first time we had a power cut. I brought the kids downstairs into the living room and brought in the BBQ in doors to heat water(melt snow) and put heat in the house.
We installed a wood stove after our first winter in Ontario which would keep the house at 16C at -30C. Its a good idea to have back up heating i.e gas fire or wood stove.

Many of my work colleges had generators in both rural and in town as well.

If you have a wooden house it much better insulated and does not cool as quickly as a brick house.

By the way my son playing Guitar Hero at the moment.

hudd

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having already had power cuts in nova scotia i would say its definitly much easier to cope with here than it ever was in the uk
for a start with a woodburner you still have heat and somehwere to cook

its all about preparation wind up torches, wind up raidio etc plenty of soup etc in stock plus some cash and gas in tank as no atm,s and gas stations wont be open

here its actually good fun having folk round or going over to friends to play cards cook soup on the woodburner etc

all part of lifes new great adeventure

its not that many years ago that they had electricity anyway where we are:D

also the power cuts are not just a few hours they can be days and even weeks:eek:

as with all things its not what happens its how you react

so peaceful with no husbands deafening electric guitar no tv etc bliss!!

in the uk i would be raging after 10 minutes without power
here I actually enjoy it
yes perhaps Ive lost the plot

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Here in the City if its localised they bring in school buses for people to shelter in. Never had a really long one, but I imagine they would open up community centers in areas not affected.

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Most big cities (at least here in Southern Ontario) heating is by Gas Furnace - lots of home have wood burning fireplaces as well - electric heating is expensive so its less common to see it. In winter because there is no need for air conditioning theres less strain on the grid - i'd be more worried about a long power outage on very humid days (but then we could always retreat to the the basement)

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If you and your home are really dependant on electricity then you can get a generator installed which will cover the basics (freezer, some lighting etc) for around $600. It will then cost about $1000 to have it properly installed. Not exactly cheap but if you are really worried it may be an expense that you want to prioritize.

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I think most people would advise you not to do this - slightly dangerous methinks.

Zoe M. x

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And yet of all the people who have posted monthly heating costs, I recall only one who has quoted lower than us - and he was all electric too.

Wood may be the cheapest but there's been so much variation in prices quoted (100%) that it's hard to tell. And, of course, lighting, cooking, hot water and air con costs need to be added to get the full picture.

We have heat pump/air con...everything is electricity. Equalised is about $260 and I think it's a lot....except people quote monthly plans for oil exceeding that, just for heating.

We have a wood stove as a heat source if needed. I don't know what it's like for heating a pan or kettle on the plate.

For Montreal's ice storm - before my time - my wife and the kids and others in the neighbourhood were put up at a college when the power was out.

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Never had one in Winnipeg but had lots here in LaSalle (whilst Windsor has been powered-on ;) - longest was maybe about 3 or 4hrs). I don't understand sparky stuff but the grid here certainly does seem to be a bit crap.

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electric heating is not common at all in Southern Ontario (golden Horseshoe) - unless its an older building .

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It's a lot more than slightly dangerous. BBQs are meant to be used outside. They emit noxious gases that are fine in the open air, but that can kill a family in a few minutes in an enclosed space.

As many others have said, very few houses use electricity as a source of heat. Power cuts are boring (or peaceful) but warm.

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However, a gas furnace may well not operate without electricity. Our house has a high-efficiency furnace that requires electricity to light the gas rather than using a pilot light.

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How economical it is to heat the house depends upon much more than the type of fuel. That is what makes it hard to compare one house with another. If your house is well insulated, draft free, has plent of south facing windows and few north facing ones it will be better whatever your fuel.

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Quite a few folks in our area have gennies, from 3.5kw up to 30kw. Ours cuts in with an auto transfer switch and runs on natural gas. If the power goes, which it can do more from fall to spring then everything keeps running. As I am away a lot, this minimises any worry for the family having to sort things out. The most they have to do is reset the clocks.

Rural BC has mostly overhead power lines, very susceptible to wind damage and power outages.

Re: POWER CUTS
 

Zoe

I did have a carbon monoxide detector in the house(battery operated).
I agree is not good to bring a BBQ into the house. The issue I had 2 young sons aged 3 and 5. I would not wanted them to freeze at that time.

Living in England, you can survive a winter power cut. Losing power for several hours or even days in a Canadian winter can be life threatening.

I on a couple of ocassions I take my family into our Ford Windstar and run the engine to keep them warm.

hudd

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Electiric heating using baseboard heaters is fairly common here in Newfoundland. If the power goes out then unless you have another source of heat such as a wood stove then you're on your own!

We have oil fired central heating which of course needs electricity to drive the circulation pump. Another point to consider is that if you get your water from a well as we do, then no power means no water. I have considered getting a gennie to run the boiler and water pump alone. Not needed it in four years (despite snow and ice storms) but its probably worth doing somethign about. As others have pointed out, most power here is overhead cables so more susceptable to ice and snow damage.

I wouldn't run my BBQ in the house period. Too darn risky. The same goes for your generator of course!

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Wow, lots of useful info to ponder over, thanks guys. Looks like we'll definitely be investing in a wood burner when we move to Winnipeg :)

Anita (whose power has just come back on again after another cut this evening. Damn E-ON! Am typing real fast as they said it may go off again as the fault's not fixed and the whole street's on a temporary generator now :mad:)

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Actually, that's a good point: while our security system has a backup battery, the fire alarms appear to be mains powered. Certainly they go out when I turn off the circuit breaker for the lights.

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Accepted.

It's just that I haven't seen anyone quote a monthly plan for oil that, just for heating, hasn't been at least $90 a month more than than our monthly electricity payment for everything. Allowing for my discovery that a monthly oil plan is actually only 10 months, the lowest I've seen quoted is still more than our annual cost for everything, including running air conditioning.

I'm sure all the homes involved cannot be worse in terms of insulation and facing the wrong direction - so maybe electricity isn't always the most expensive.

Could it be that electricity is expensive when it's baseboards and/or heaters but not necessarily so when the electricity is powering the furnace and hot air?

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We are on all electric here ( with occasional propane fire use but rare ) and Spring, Summer and Fall we bill less that $200 all in and as low as $130. For about 4 months we bill about $350 with highest last year $365.

Can't say that was particularly expensive ( forced air with air con )

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Just had a thought. Last winter we lost power, but not everything. Some things worked and some didn't.

The problem was on a cable running to our house so it was just us. The Power Company was fantastically quick in their response and repair time.

But I remember boiling the kettle by plugging it into a different socket. So some power losses may not be the whole thing.

You might be able to plug a heater in somewhere that helps to keep warm or at least boil water for hot soup or drinks.

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That goes without saying doesn't it? :confused:

It's not the rate you pay which is likely the same in either situation but the amount of electricity used.

In your case your heat source for the most part is not electricity but the heat pump which gets the heat either from the surrounding air or geothermally from the ground. The electricity is used to run the pump and the air circulation system.

It require a lot more electricity to heat baseboard heaters than what you use to run your pump and fan.

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I really don't know. I have a duplex that is heated by baseboards only. The size of both apartments is similar to our house. From what I know of the electricity bills, the cost for both apartments isn't that much more than for our house.

Part of that is accounted for by two service charges instead of one.

When the tenants scarpered, I found a bill for mid Feb to mid March this year and it was $180 excluding the service charge. If it was the same in the other apartment, the total would have been remarkably similar to our house for the same period.

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We met some people last night who "live in the country", that is, they have a farm for the weekends and a condo in Toronto. Power cuts were mentioned and one said "we have a well pump so when the power went out I didn't know what to do, I wasn't about to fetch buckets of water from the pool to flush the toilet so, when it wasn't back after an hour, we packed up and went to the condo". I wondered why we always have candles to hand, if the power goes out, we should just go to Florida!

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We have two sump pumps. The first night in our house we woke (hungover) to a neighbour knocking the door to wake us up to no power, and full sumps. We had to buy extension leads pronto to hook up to his generator.
Now we have a generator of our own, and we need it on average six times a year, power is that unreliable. During summer / autumn, we're not so concerned about the sump pumps, but during the early spring when it's thawing - it's a big concern. The basement was flooded before when the previous owners were here, I don't want that to happen again...

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I think our emergency supply kit will need to include treatment for a Coronary, nineteen flights of stairs in the dark with no elevator doesn't sound that much fun !!

I just hope that the electronic lock on the lobby door defaults to open otherwise the chances of being locked out are high :ohmy:

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When I lived on the 29th floor and there was a sustained power outage I waited it out in Scotland Yard. That's the only time I've slept in the bar without someone waking me up and telling me to drink more or go home.

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Didn't Toronto have rolling blackouts for days? :ohmy: :lol:
Thats a long time in the pub!!

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We had a similar experience when we lived in Fredericton with a heat pump. We heated a 3000 sqft house plus a basement in January (sustained temps of about -20) for about $270 for all power that month.

I don't know what type of brain failure we had when we decided to build this house and put in an oil furnace with hot water heat ($400 equalized) :eek::mad::)

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Same issues here - well with pump, and oil heat. When the power goes out, we have bottles of drinking water, can't flush the loo, and have to light our propane fireplaces with a battery. Luckily we haven't had any longer than about 12 hours here (Noel last year), but it would get old quick if we did (and smelly :blink:)

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Wood fires put up the cost of your House Insurance here, by quite a large %.

Been here 10 years, never had a power cut that lasted so long that the house got cold, so don't worry about that.

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We get regular outages but they only last a few seconds. The only proper powercut I've experienced was that of August 2003, when we were without power in Ontario for about 12 hours. The principal problem involved there was keeping the beer cold.

We do maintain a fairly rudimentary emergency kit. We have a propane stove and gas bottles, along with a "normal" telephone and candles. We always have lots of water, wine, beer and cigarettes, and our larder is well-stocked with non-perishables. The freezer contains plenty of stuff that can be cooked in a saucepan. Bear in mind that a powercut in mid-winter doesn't necessarily mean that the contents of the fridge/freezer are lost. My garage gets colder than my fridge.

I guess if we had a winter power cut that lasted for more than an hour, we'd check the car radio for news. A cut in Gatineau doesn't have to mean that Ottawa is without power and vice-versa (different systems). There are places we can go in Ottawa, if needs be.

Souvette's mum is well-prepared. After the big ice storm, which left her without power for a couple of weeks in mid-winter, she installed a log burner that ties in with the ducting. She has a lot of wood. Like many of her generation, she also has a cold store in the basement. There is enough non-perishable food in there to keep a large family going for a fortnight.

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Yes but by the time of the big blackout I was living in the Beach. That was a bit of a bother, I had to walk home due to not being able to buy petrol (the pumps are electric). My parents, who were visiting at the time, had planned to go out to dinner with one of my exes but couldn't due to all the restaurants being closed so they invited her over and barbecued. That meant I was displaced, left to wander the streets in the dark. Unpleasant but, my brother, who lives rurally, has had a worse run with loss of power, at one time they were cut off for a week.

Now we lose power briefly a couple of times a week and for a day or so a couple of times a year. We should really have a generator but we haven't so, when it snows, we fill buckets with water (the well pump's electric). The only direct effect the unreliable power has had is that we don't have an aquarium in this house due to be too mean to shell out for a UPS.

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i was just about to be served my madras last night at an indian on 16th ave n - calgary (sounds like nascar)when the power went out on the whole block, eventually they found some 'illuminating' tea candles, after eating in the dark, had to pay by visa using the old school swipe machine via flash-light (torch-light)

am not sure if it would have tasted better if i could have seen it...