My wife and I received a letter today that on the coming Monday there will be a planned power outage between 8:00am and 5:00pm.
We googled how long before food spoils in an unpowered fridge and read everything from 4 hours to 24 hours.
We are thinking to just go out for the day to avoid the temptation of opening the fridge.
Other than food, should we be powering things off? Any other tips? 9 hours feels like a long time to be without power.
Im really sorry I asked the ozbargain community
*edit - I see you also ask the ozbargain community for their experience and recommendations. Let's hope people were kinder when replying to your posts :)
You can buy a power station and ir a generator and fuel/oil
Freeze a bunch of water in old milk containers or similar and put in fridge (to make the fridge like an ice box)
Maybe do the same for the freezer to have more cooler thermal mass… minimise opening the doors to keep the cold in… also crank up the cold (lower the freezer temp) the night before, so it’s colder than usual, giving you a wider temperature margin.
Also, you might find the power isn’t out for the full day… might be an ‘under promise over deliver’ and the full day includes a time contingency for unforeseen problems (which may not eventuate)
Let's hope you're right.
Can't hurt to pop ice blocks into the fridge though. Thanks!
buy ups, I have https://www.centrecom.com.au/cyberpower-value-2200e-lcd-gp keeps fridge running for 60-90 minutes (with a dodgy fridge)
buy or make ice, also remember heat rises so it is better to have top freezer, and placing ice in the freezer will allow the cold to flow down (as heats rises) into the fridge.
I’ve had two day long outages for maintenance like this in the last year.
Absolutely zero risk of any food spoilage unless you leave the fridge and freezers doors open the whole time.
Just carry on as normal.
We also had a 4 day outage in winter years ago, no risk of things getting too warm that time either!
If you work from home, probably worth getting a good size power bank to keep your mobile going on hotspot, most modern laptops will run 8 hours off battery anyway.
The annoying things are if you have to defrost something for dinner, the microwave isn’t running, and if you want a cup of tea you need to boil a kettle on the gas stove. If I only had an electric kettle I’d fill a thermos with boiling water. And if you have instant hot water, the system won’t spark to work.
That's really reassuring. Thanks!
We have a newborn so I suppose we won't have access to kettle, microwave, white noise machine, snoo, air con, etc.
Might head out for the day :)
Or stay home and pretend you are camping!
From experience they are very organised so that outages will end on time or earlier.
Check out what the local shopping mall has in the parents room. They might have a microwave etc to provide food for the kid. The mall should be temperature controlled and you can probably find somewhere to sit for a while. Otherwise see if you can hole up with friends or a relative for the day.
As others have said just make sure you have some ice bricks in the fridge and freezer and you should be fine.
Best of luck.
Defrost somerhing for dinner? Ambient temperature will do that. Stick it on the bench with a cover, i often put it in the microwave (off) to protect from bugs. If you want it quicker, dunk it in hot water, in a sealed bag if necessary
Get a generator.
Its quite likely the power wont be off all day. They often over estimate so you are pleasantly surprised when it comes on early.
Make sure your devices are fully charged.
Fill the fridge as much as practical, especially the freezer. More themal mass to help keep it cold. Avoid opening it much, close it quickly if you do open. Jugs of water are cheap but you can use whatever you like. If youve got a carton of dribks in the cupboard amd normally only put 2-3 in at a time, put the whole lot in etc.
We are thinking to just go out for the day to avoid the temptation of opening the fridge.
That'll work. The fridge will be fine for the day without power if you are not opening and closing it every 2 mins.
If you are worried, fill some old milk bottles 3/4 up with water and freeze them a few days ahead. Move a couple frozen ones to the top of the fridge in the morning to help keep it cool.
9 hours feels like a long time to be without power.
It isn't really. Those storms last year people had been without power for a week.
In my experience wit 4 of these over the last two years, the length of time that power is disconnected is often very short - maybe one hour, but the window that this will happen is between 8- 5pm…
Probably not much help but we had the same thing here recently. I fired up the small generator we had which powered the fridge and the fish tank for about 8 hours, didn't even use 1/4 tank of fuel, nice. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Maybe prepare some common sense
I hope you're having a really wonderful day!
Maybe you can prepare some common decency.
Toilet paper and lots of it.
for the fridge?
And fill a few buckets of water to flush the loo.
Just google it ffs. Government websites have advice and tips on power outages, emergency situations etc, planned outages.