The main thing I'd really like to be able to backup is my (oil) furnace in the winter so that it could continue to operate in a power outage. Though,truth be told, I could get a bigger propane tank and either run some backup heat off that or a generator for a couple of my circuits.
Pretty much everything else can go out. Obviously food could spoil in an extended outage, but that's a fairly modest cost in the grand scheme of things.
Re:Powerwall 2 and Integrated Solar
by semi-extrinsic on Saturday October 29, 2016 @03:13PM
(#12825753)
How about installing a wood-burning fireplace? Super cozy also in daily life, probably adds to the resale value of your house, and you can keep firewood indefinitely as long as it's dry.
As for food: stock canned goods for a week. (There's a reason preppers have rooms full of the stuff.) You probably also want to stock bottled water for a week, just in case.
I have both a wood stove and a wood burning fireplace. The backup was part of my justification for getting the stove. I don't know if it would be sufficient if I lost power for an extended period of time in really cold weather to keep pipes from freezing but you can't guard against every eventuality. (I also worry about what can happen when I'm not around.)
As for the food, I'm close enough to civilization that I'm not too worried. Worst case I get snowed in for a couple of days. I won't starve.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Survival-Technologies-30-Day...