4 ms·

In most places, the proximate cause of the pressure is gravity, which continues working in the face of a power outage. In many places, electric pumps have to ra

In most places, the proximate cause of the pressure is gravity, which continues working in the face of a power outage. In many places, electric pumps have to raise the water to a tower or reservoir, but there's a buffer of water at height that can be drawn upon when the power is out. Yes, it'll run out eventually, but it meets the need in the short run.

LeifCarrotson 6y ago
In my experience, it's often true that city water remains pressurized even when a snow-covered tree branch has taken out a residential power line. Obviously, if the grid is taken out by a hurricane or earthquake or something the whole region is offline, but that's pretty rare here in the Midwest, but freakish ice/snow/wind storms knock down some wires and cause power outages at least once or twice a year. Why we can't convince regulators and the utility to spend 30% more initial capital and bury all the gross power lines underground where they're safe, instead of stringing them through the forest using dead tree carcasses instead is beyond me, but the city water treatment plant is typically powered by larger, more reliable segments of the grid. However, now that I have a private well, yes, it kind of sucks when power goes out and water doesn't work. I've got 40 gallons of hot water in the heater that I can drain, and between 10 and 30 gallons in the pressure tank in the crawlspace. More than enough to draw some off for drinking and cooking, and a few buckets for pouring in the tanks of (gravity-operated!) toilets. Speaking of cooking, another utility that's surprisingly operable in a power outage is natural gas. I can cook on my gas stove (but not in my electric oven), heat my house with my gas fireplace insert (but not my forced-air furnace), and heat water with my continuous-pilot water heater (but not fill it with my well pump) because the buried natural gas pipeline is always, always at 2 PSI.

LeifCarrotson 6y ago

In my experience, it's often true that city water remains pressurized even when a snow-covered tree branch has taken out a residential power line. Obviously, if the grid is taken out by a hurricane or earthquake or something the whole region is offline, but that's pretty rare here in the Midwest, but freakish ice/snow/wind storms knock down some wires and cause power outages at least once or twice a year. Why we can't convince regulators and the utility to spend 30% more initial capital and bury all the gross power lines underground where they're safe, instead of stringing them through the forest using dead tree carcasses instead is beyond me, but the city water treatment plant is typically powered by larger, more reliable segments of the grid. However, now that I have a private well, yes, it kind of sucks when power goes out and water doesn't work. I've got 40 gallons of hot water in the heater that I can drain, and between 10 and 30 gallons in the pressure tank in the crawlspace. More than enough to draw some off for drinking and cooking, and a few buckets for pouring in the tanks of (gravity-operated!) toilets. Speaking of cooking, another utility that's surprisingly operable in a power outage is natural gas. I can cook on my gas stove (but not in my electric oven), heat my house with my gas fireplace insert (but not my forced-air furnace), and heat water with my continuous-pilot water heater (but not fill it with my well pump) because the buried natural gas pipeline is always, always at 2 PSI.