I have been happy for years that we are prepared for the power to be out for just about any reasonable amount of time. With the woodstove we can produce hot water, heat, cooked food. With the lanterns we have light in the darkness, and with the Aladden lantern we can produce a decent amount of light in a single room. There are options for the cold food.
Well, all of that is true in the winter, anyway. But the power went out for a couple of hours today at suppertime. Today has been a warm day! Missus had me put the woodstove on this morning on a low setting to take the chill off the house. The thing never burned down, and it was still producing heat at suppertime. So what we had was a house that was already too hot to begin with. There was to be no cooking on the woodstove! It was too hot! I lit the Aladden in the light of the afternoon to be sure everything was working okay, and clearly it was producing too much heat to be desirable.
Lesson learned? We are prepared for a cold weather power outage! We are not ready for an outage on a warm day!
Summer keeps the water in the ground warmer, and it takes less from the hot water heater to get a bit of hot water after the power is out. During winter, this is not the case. But we can compensate with the woodstove. In summer the sun is up later, and candles and lanterns are not required. Winter requires a lot more light, which produces heat, and is okay.
But this is a shoulder season. It was plenty warm today outside, hot inside due to that fire, and the light died outside early. It was not a happy medium. It was not a season that I felt like I understood. So we have a bit of knowledge now to reassess the situation. Battery lamps pay off in warm weather. Another cooking option is mandatory in warm weather, too, such as the barbeque or the propane cookstove. Those need to be readily accessible.
Since the powerlines were replaced on our road, the power here has been a lot more reliable. Honestly, today caught us a little off guard. It was only a short power outage, and was no big deal, but there were take-aways.