Good you were prepared, and great to have friends you can count on. I also had to leave my home and stay with a relative.

If you cannot heat your house, you have to drain your water lines even hit them with air pressure to clear them. Figure that out in warm weather.

Very good idea! I may need to do a video over cast iron soon.

Careful what you burn. You don’t want toxic fumes in your food.

*how to use them. Sorry, I tried to edit and it posted instead. Fat finger syndrome 😂

I agree, generally we weren’t stupid down here. But some were definitely foolish. Not running your car exhaust into the house for heat should be common sense. Yes, that happened.

Car exhaust, using grills inside, all the cell phone videos of water gushing into people’s homes instead of using the phone to look up how to shut off the water. Etc etc. The worst one I heard was a 6 year old boy who froze to death in his bed. Why was he alone? Where were his parents?

Really? Battery operated socks?

Very overcast skies are the crypto to solar, need a generator to alternate and recharge the the Solar (it if takes it). Dual Fuel is my proposal, Solar at the moment must be backed up....

Houses in Texas aren't built with furnaces you can feed wood into.

I have a hot water bottle. Need to get another one.

This!!! Everyone talking about solar when this type of event happens you're not generating no power with solar.

@@Cenlalowell LOL, Texas is ranked 4th in the US for solar. Texas is on track to add 9 GW of new solar to the mix over the next two years.

@@jammer6524 when the power is out a ranking won't matter. In Texas people were looking to fill propane bottles to use power not solar

I know this comment was 2 years ago but MAYBE just maybe you'll see this and find it helpful. First off I'm in the Nevada desert so we know HOT weather. I watch every video I can find on how people prepare for hurricanes, tornadoes etc and also videos on their experiences like with the Texas freeze etc hoping to learn from them. I see so many purchase the same small tabletop square fan that is "D" battery operated. RYOBI is the better option!! Their 4 amp hour batteries are in a 2 pack and during Ryobi Days if you order quickly enough they have a deal purchase 2 get 2 free, all for $99 I purchase 4 new ones every year to build up my supply but also have gifted several to my adult kids. RYOBI makes a "whisper series" fan that is AMAZING!! One 4 amp hour battery can run that fan on low for over 12 hours. The higher the setting the less amount of time it runs. During a summer power outage these fans were a lifesaver!! Just having moving air made the heat more bearable! They also have a "bucket mister" which is a fan that has a hose going down into a 5 gallon bucket and it is an instant mister. Perfect for the patio during an extended summer power outage. Their lights are also great we have several options but the lantern types are amazing. I recently got the 150 watt inverter that again attaches to the 4 amp hour batteries.(or 6 or 9 amp hour batteries) This thing is amazing, NO it won't run appliances but we purchased the USB corded light bulbs that are only 5 watts from amazon and have a few hooked up in the kitchen that are amazing when cooking. LOVE that the small 150 watt inverter is small and can easily be moved from task to task. Use it for lights while cooking dinner, then move to the living room and charge your tablet, phone, computer, portable DVD player, kids handheld video games etc. Obviously the more electronics you charge the faster the 4 amp hour battery is run down but that's where having multiple comes in handy. These can all be charged back up with a solar generator and solar panel. Just something to check into that someone who lives in the desert is very happy to have stumbled across, the fans alone are lifesavers, I plan on adding at least one more to my preps possibly two more as having them around the house or having enough for each bedroom when sleeping would be great! Oh yeah the 150 watt inverter here recently during a short power outage ran my sewing machine so I could keep working when the power went out it also heated up my grandsons bottle with one of the small old fashioned bottle warmers that takes a little bit of water in the bottom and steams the bottle. Then it ran the sound machine for him to take a nap. Amazing how LOUD the silence is!!

I’m afraid you’re probably right. Most folks have a really short term memory.

Good ideas! A gas generator and solar generator combo definitely packs a wallop.

When we got that same little Honda generator we went on eBay and bought a propane conversion kit. It installed quick and easy so we only use our Honda with propane. What's nice is when we're not using it we can throw it in the backseat of the car or keep it inside the house or camper with no fumes, since we've never burned any gasoline in it.

Thanks Pete!

I think both have their place. I use a dual fuel with propane for short times in the day, also for charging power storage units that could also charge from solar if the sun is out.

Thanks for watching and commenting!

Thank you CM!

Thank you!

Thanks Andy!

@Paco I can smoke a delicious whole chicken during a power outage with my $750 Pit Boss pro series, using my $450 jackery power station. I’ll take my smoker over heating up noodles over a cup of alcohol.

Short circuit

Electricity and moisture don’t mix. Very risky.

I had the same question! I wouldn’t have thought that would be an issue, but okay, it’s true that water and electricity don’t mix. 😋

Thanks Ken!

I'm in the southeast US, so a year's temps run from below freezing to the 90's. From personal experience, Stabil treated generic unleaded gas in a tightly closed can keeps at least 2 years here, even working well when used to mix 2 cycle fuel. My backup power is a small solar system of my own design plus an inverter generator for the sunless days and about 2 weeks of treated gasoline in a shed out back.

@@notyoung I had my treated gas in plastic containers which were originally purchased to serve as added car weight when I got trapped in snow storms a long way from home. So 6 months seemed about right for fuel turn over. Those cans are being retired for Eagle Metal cans for treated gas storage. Living in NY, we have a real winter to deal with and our primary issue is heat. Our fireplace was converted to a wood insert without the surround. Since we have NG fuel for the furnace, water heater and stove, our electrical load is low. We have a Generac XL5500 from 1998, and have replaced that with a Firman 3300 W inverter(WO3382) for any electrical need. Your small solar sounds like a good investment. We will think about adding that for lights with the battery back up.

@@gibblespascack1418 We have NG but the central heat needs 460 watts for the blower, so that's a balancing act when running from the batteries (about 2520WH of power available). The approximate furnace run time based on thermostat setting and the average outside temperature is part of the spreadsheet of what things the solar backup system can power and for how long. If you want more furnace run time, you don't use the 50" TV ;-) The freezer is good for 8-16 hours without power so maybe a few hours running it daily when the solar panels have full sun or the inverter gen is running. Lots of tradeoffs with anything thing less than whole house solar - and that doesn't last long when it's cloudy or the panels have snow on them. We rarely have the snow problem - although 7+ inches here is almost guaranteed to how power off for some hours - but lots of cloudy skies in winter mean limited solar input. The spreadsheet has separate fields to display winter backup hours versus summer backup hours - summer thunderstorms can also put us in the dark.

Thanks for watching!

@@diypreppertv Lord Bless You & your efforts here to warn & encourage etc. May we Trust in JESUS-&-in God’s unfailing WORD more than ever (James 4:6-10, 2 Cor 6:2, Titus 2:11-15)-& then Keep Looking UP!^ (Col 3:1-4) ✝️📖🙏❤️ .. Helping your algorithm 😊

You can charge the Jackery I used in the video from the wall outlet in your apartment.

@@diypreppertv Thank you so much!!

You’re welcome!

I’m seconding both answers! These portable solar generators will recharge by being plugged in, but don’t forget that they can also be charged as you drive down the road. Anytime you drive anywhere, get in a habit of plugging at least one item in to charge using your cigarette lighter. There are CHEAP cigarette lighter converters, basically, that will allow you to pull the extra energy off the system and recharge anything that uses a USB charging cable. So you can recharge phones, tablets, lights, batteries…you name it using these converters. My husband and I used to full-time RV, and before we moved from one campsite to the next, I’d get everything laid out that I wanted to charge as we drove. I used a higher-end converter that allowed me to plug in regular plugs (rather than just USB) so I was charging my laptop, a portable battery, and lots more as we drove. It’s electricity that would otherwise be wasted, so by utilizing it, we basically had “free energy” that didn’t require any sort of generator or regular power source to be produced. Having these cigarette adapters in every vehicle and always using that electricity to charge something anytime you go anywhere isn’t something I see any preppers talk about, but they should. Topping off batteries with free electricity? The very epitome of prepping. 😉