Remove enterprise UPS battery backup system from home lab and use it to charge my hand held gaming consoles and phones. This was in Texas when ice storm knocked our power out for over a week

In order. Turn off the main breaker Turn off the breakers for HVAC and hot water heater Unplugged my car charger Wheel out the generator Power on the generator Plug the generator into my house Put my security camera that can see the street light on one of my screens so I can see when power comes back on. Resume activities

If I can get all that done in less than 10ish minutes my WiFi and computer don’t even power down.

To resume I just unplug the generator and then flip the breakers back to the on position.

Haven't delt with that in a long time. Closest I had was maybe an hour or less because I live close to an elderly home and they usually get power restored real quick. I just stayed on my phone, which thankfully was charged, as I went with my parents to get candles. Never got candles since power came back so quick.

Longest I was without it because of an outage was around 2014 maybe, in winter. Cold days/nights spent in the living room, probably using the fireplace for the first time ever since I lived there. Used my phone and probably had other means of keeping myself entertained. Don't recall much about it because it was a decade ago. Neighbor across the street was an amazing person because she let us take an extension cable cord thing from her house to ours when they got power back. I do remember watching a video when all of the sudden the power came back, though.

As for what I'd do now, probably cry and hope my Steam Deck/laptop/phone are charged. Also probably get batteries for a radio CD cassette mini boom box thing I got from a thrift store recently and play music, plugging in my headphones. I've got enough CDs to last a short while.

My parents bought this portable power bank and it cones in very handy during these storms (also in Vancouver area). It we can charge devices, plug in a lamp, or even a portable induction cooktop.

That said, during a power outage I'll mostly play board games, listen to music, play my guitar, or read.

Some things that can help:

• Bottled water and dry foods
• First aid kit
• BBQ or camping stove with their fuel
• extra fuel for your vehicle
• Backup batteries for phones and computers
• A radio, something hand charged or solar
• Playing cards, books, board games and puzzles

I sit on my phone until the power comes back on. Rarely lasts for more than an hour. I think I've had more outage time from them doing maintenance than from weather.

Use the batteries.

That's why I keep a pen and paper. For power outages.

Apart from that, if there's light:

• some exercise
• kirigami
• wash clothes (by hand)
• eat random (edible) stuff which I would otherwise use to cook
  • cooking needs electricity

No light:

• sleep

Read a book, usually Asimov.

I am always amazed that power outages are such a common experience in north America. In more than 55 years here in Europe I have experienced exactly two power outages, one that was planned when they were working in the substation for this street, and one incident that took out a whole part of the city for 20 minutes. The latter one was so extraordinary that it made the national evening news.

I recently bough a new flashlight, a Wurkkos FC11C to be exact. It's pretty good for the price, and it really can't hurt to have a good flashlight around. I made a post about it in !flashlight@lemmy.world about it, and there are some other posts too.

Dunno, haven't had one in many years. Don't think I had one longer than a few minutes ... ever. Guess I'll find out if it ever comes to that.