Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.

"Ed Pawlowski" > wrote in message
...
> Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
> setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.

.... and once the electicity is off, blankets etc piled over it can provide
insulation!


--
http://www.shop.helpforheros.org.uk

On 8/27/2011 11:58 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
> setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.


Also... freeze containers of water. The more frozen mass you have in a
freezer, the longer it takes to thaw.

George L

On Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:12:19 -0500, George Leppla wrote:

> On 8/27/2011 11:58 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>> Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
>> setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.
>
>
> Also... freeze containers of water. The more frozen mass you have in a
> freezer, the longer it takes to thaw.
>
> George L

Yep, thermal mass is your friend.
I just saw a tip on the news that said to fill ziploc bags with water
(leave room for expansion) and cram the freezer full of them.

TFM®

On Sat, 27 Aug 2011 18:22:19 +0100, Janet wrote:

> In article >,
> says...
>>
>> Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
>> setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.
>
> Mine has a "superfreeze" button, which we use to chill it down colder
> before advised outages.
>
> Janet

That button could be good for chilling warm beer too.

TFM®

"Ed Pawlowski" > wrote in message
...
> Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
> setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.


good thinking.

If you don't have power & you're going to eat the steaks from the freezer
first. Defrost them on the top shelf of the fridge. That way you'll add
cold to the fridge.

Dimitri

On 8/27/2011 10:58 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
> setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.



A chunk of dry ice wouldn't hurt, either. Some local markets and milk
processing dairies carry it by the pound. I used to buy it for our
science labs at the high school on occasion.

gloria p

"Andy" > wrote in message ...
>I suggest moving freezer items to the bottom shelves.
>
> The typical hot air rises, cold air sinks issue.
>
> Andy

Steaks & lobster on the bottom, bread at the top.
:-)

Dimitri

On Aug 27, 11:42*am, Andy > wrote:
> I suggest moving freezer items to the bottom shelves.
>
> The typical hot air rises, cold air sinks issue.
>
> Andy

Well, aren't you Mr. Scientific.

Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
> setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.

I'm sure that's a good idea, Ed.

But we bought a used commercial, albeit small, generator yesterday. It
was a fun outing - we found it on ebay by doing a search for sellers
nearby and then picked it up in the car, discovering a lovely
bakery/cafe along the way from which we brought home a ham and mozarella
quiche and a delicious peach cobbler. And this bakery made its ice
coffee with coffee ice cubes - excellent results, delicious iced coffee.
All in Staten Island (a borough of NYC) on Victory Blvd. for anyone
interested. The place is called Mother Mousse.

It's got 2 x 20 amp outlets and is rated at 6kw, enough to power our
first floor a/c and both our refrigerators and have some juice left
over. Battery for electric starting, circuit breakers onboard, and is
generally the kind of thing that just makes a guy happy to own. I
feel like that comedian who had the Tool Time show on his sitcom. (I now
make gorilla noises ...) Vroom!

So, yes, the hurrican was just an excuse to get a new toy. <sigh> But
our food won't go bad.

-S-

"gloria.p" > wrote in message
...
> On 8/27/2011 10:58 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>> Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
>> setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.
>
>
>
> A chunk of dry ice wouldn't hurt, either. Some local markets and milk
> processing dairies carry it by the pound. I used to buy it for our
> science labs at the high school on occasion.

You could get a generator. Then you wouldn't need to worry so much about
your frozen foods.
--
http://www.shop.helpforheros.org.uk

On Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:58:46 -0400, "Ed Pawlowski"
> wrote:

>Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
>setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.

With most refrigerator-freezer combos setting the freezer to the
lowest temperature all at once tyically freezes the fridge section...
it's best to turn the freezer down incrementally over time while
checking the fridge temp often and turning the fridge temp up as
needed, it's a balancing act that can take several days. If you're
concerned about losing power I think you'd do much better to go out
right now and buy a block of dry ice, keep it at the ready in an ice
chest... if you don't need it dry ice is not very expensive. Don't
put the dry ice in your freezer while you still have power or with the
fan running it could freeze your fridge too. A relatively small block
of dry ice (about 3/4 cu ft) will keep your freezer colder than with
it running for about 48 hours.

"Steve Freides" > wrote
>
> But we bought a used commercial, albeit small, generator yesterday. It
> was a fun outing - we found it on ebay by doing a search for sellers
> nearby and then picked it up in the car, discovering a lovely bakery/cafe
> along the way from which we brought home a ham and mozarella quiche and a
> delicious peach cobbler. And this bakery made its ice coffee with coffee
> ice cubes - excellent results, delicious iced coffee. All in Staten Island
> (a borough of NYC) on Victory Blvd. for anyone interested. The place is
> called Mother Mousse.
>
> It's got 2 x 20 amp outlets and is rated at 6kw, enough to power our first
> floor a/c and both our refrigerators and have some juice left over.
> Battery for electric starting, circuit breakers onboard, and is generally
> the kind of thing that just makes a guy happy to own. I feel like that
> comedian who had the Tool Time show on his sitcom. (I now make gorilla
> noises ...) Vroom!
>
> So, yes, the hurrican was just an excuse to get a new toy. <sigh> But our
> food won't go bad.
>
> -S-

I've often thought about a generator. In the 45 years of home ownership,
only once did we have an extended outage of about 36 hours. That was in
1985 with hurricane Gloria. This is about the same. So far, it has not
been worth the $500+ investment to sit in the garage unused. Two other
times we had outages of about 8 hours, during daylight hours so no loss, no
inconvenience.

At least you had a nice day out to go with the purchase.

Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> "Steve Freides" > wrote
>>
>> But we bought a used commercial, albeit small, generator yesterday.
>> It was a fun outing - we found it on ebay by doing a search for
>> sellers nearby and then picked it up in the car, discovering a
>> lovely bakery/cafe along the way from which we brought home a ham
>> and mozarella quiche and a delicious peach cobbler. And this bakery
>> made its ice coffee with coffee ice cubes - excellent results,
>> delicious iced coffee. All in Staten Island (a borough of NYC) on
>> Victory Blvd. for anyone interested. The place is called Mother
>> Mousse. It's got 2 x 20 amp outlets and is rated at 6kw, enough to
>> power our
>> first floor a/c and both our refrigerators and have some juice left
>> over. Battery for electric starting, circuit breakers onboard, and
>> is generally the kind of thing that just makes a guy happy to own.
>> I feel like that comedian who had the Tool Time show on his
>> sitcom. (I now make gorilla noises ...) Vroom!
>>
>> So, yes, the hurrican was just an excuse to get a new toy. <sigh> But
>> our food won't go bad.
>>
>> -S-
>
> I've often thought about a generator. In the 45 years of home
> ownership, only once did we have an extended outage of about 36
> hours. That was in 1985 with hurricane Gloria. This is about the
> same. So far, it has not been worth the $500+ investment to sit in
> the garage unused. Two other times we had outages of about 8 hours,
> during daylight hours so no loss, no inconvenience.
>
> At least you had a nice day out to go with the purchase.

We don't have battery backup for our 3 sump pumps - if we did, then the
generator wouldn't be as necessary. Last time the power went out when
it was raining heavily, we didn't put 2 + 2 together and didn't realize
until a few days later that our basement was starting to smell - the
sumps hadn't worked when the electricity was out, and while we didn't
get much water, we got enough.

We had a 2-1/2 day outage about a decade ago, but it was just our
house - a moving truck clipped the wire running across the street to our
house and it took down the small transformer that was on the pole.

And there was a big outage when we weren't home, something like 5 days
long, so our neighbors just threw away all our food for us.

I wish I didn't need this but we've had all of those things in less than
20 years of home ownership at since I'm planning to be buried in the
back yard I expect we'll get some use out of the generator yet -
maybe even tomorrow.

-S-

On 8/27/2011 9:09 PM, Steve Freides wrote:

> I wish I didn't need this but we've had all of those things in less than
> 20 years of home ownership at since I'm planning to be buried in the
> back yard I expect we'll get some use out of the generator yet -
> maybe even tomorrow.

I can hear the wind starting to pick up, it's been all rain up to now.
I'm trying to ignore that pesky tornado watch.

nancy

On 8/27/2011 7:09 PM, Steve Freides wrote:

>
> We don't have battery backup for our 3 sump pumps - if we did, then the
> generator wouldn't be as necessary. Last time the power went out when
> it was raining heavily, we didn't put 2 + 2 together and didn't realize
> until a few days later that our basement was starting to smell - the
> sumps hadn't worked when the electricity was out, and while we didn't
> get much water, we got enough.
>



There's not much point in having a sump pump in flood-prone basements
unless you have an interruptible power source.

gloria p

On Sat, 27 Aug 2011 17:25:29 -0400, Steve Freides wrote:

> Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>> Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
>> setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.
>
> I'm sure that's a good idea, Ed.
>
> But we bought a used commercial, albeit small, generator yesterday. It
> was a fun outing - we found it on ebay by doing a search for sellers
> nearby and then picked it up in the car, discovering a lovely
> bakery/cafe along the way from which we brought home a ham and mozarella
> quiche and a delicious peach cobbler. And this bakery made its ice
> coffee with coffee ice cubes - excellent results, delicious iced coffee.
> All in Staten Island (a borough of NYC) on Victory Blvd. for anyone
> interested. The place is called Mother Mousse.
>
> It's got 2 x 20 amp outlets and is rated at 6kw, enough to power our
> first floor a/c and both our refrigerators and have some juice left
> over. Battery for electric starting, circuit breakers onboard, and is
> generally the kind of thing that just makes a guy happy to own. I
> feel like that comedian who had the Tool Time show on his sitcom. (I now
> make gorilla noises ...) Vroom!
>
> So, yes, the hurrican was just an excuse to get a new toy. <sigh> But
> our food won't go bad.
>
> -S-

every hurricane has a silver lining.

your pal,
blake

"Ranée at Arabian Knits" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Dimitri" > wrote:
>
>> "Ed Pawlowski" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > Never thought about it before, but I turned the freezer to the coldest
>> > setting. A few degrees cooker can help it last longer with no power.
>>
>>
>> good thinking.
>>
>> If you don't have power & you're going to eat the steaks from the freezer
>> first. Defrost them on the top shelf of the fridge. That way you'll add
>> cold to the fridge.
>
> That's a great idea.
>
> Regards,

Thanks - one of my many EARTHQUAKE tricks like always having an extra
propane bottle. I'll be go to hell if I let good steaks rot.

Dimitri

"blake murphy" > wrote
>>
>> So, yes, the hurricane was just an excuse to get a new toy. <sigh> But
>> our food won't go bad.
>>
>> -S-
>
> every hurricane has a silver lining.
>
> your pal,
> blake

So far, so good here. A few glitches this morning, but the longest outage
was less than 2 minutes. Half the state is out though; mostly the western
half. I had a chance to buy a generator last week and decided to pass on
it.

gloria.p wrote:
> On 8/27/2011 7:09 PM, Steve Freides wrote:
>
>>
>> We don't have battery backup for our 3 sump pumps - if we did, then
>> the generator wouldn't be as necessary. Last time the power went
>> out when it was raining heavily, we didn't put 2 + 2 together and
>> didn't realize until a few days later that our basement was starting
>> to smell - the sumps hadn't worked when the electricity was out, and
>> while we didn't get much water, we got enough.
>>
>
>
>
> There's not much point in having a sump pump in flood-prone basements
> unless you have an interruptible power source.
>
> gloria p

These sump pumps go off regularly - they're not installed for purposes
of floods, they're there just because the basement floor is right around
the point the water table rises to after a decent rain.

-S-