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Putting your eggs in one basket

Posted Feb 02, 2010 by eks

Relatives of mine live in a largely rural town on the edge of a metropolitan area in the Northeastern US.  Until their power company upgraded the lines (after years of blaming squirrels) their power would go out frequently, in probably a half-dozen significant outages a year.  Once, during an ice storm years ago, they lost electricity for four days; they fled to a motel.  During the ice storm of December 2008, they were out from early morning till nearly midnight. So what failed during their power outages?  Electric lights and appliances, of course.  Heat:  they have an oil furnace, but the ignition is electric.  And water:  their well pump is also ... electric.  None of these basic needs has built-in battery backup.

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