4 ms·

PG&E says there will be a 9-hour outage in my area

5 points by metadat 3y ago

PG&E says there will be a 9-hour outage in my area, the food in my refrigerator is going to spoil during this time. Any advice? Have any of you recovered the hundreds of dollars lost due to power company outages spoiling your fridge?

frasermarlow 3y ago
Move the ice from the freezer into the fridge. Don't open the doors during the outage. You will be fine.
quantified 3y ago
Where are you located? What time of day is the 9 hours scheduled for? Ice cream will melt. Lots of food won't spoil, you'll just want to get on it sooner than before.
k310 3y ago
You can try. https://www.kqed.org/news/11944877/power-outages-claim-lost-food https://www.kqed.org/news/11944877/power-outages-claim-lost-... https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/pge-claims-does-pge-reimburse-for-spoiled-food/103-d9dcf580-ac91-4d62-94c3-e2dfdf4898da https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/pge-clai... https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/pge-compensation-pay-public-safety-power-shutoff/103-7a6bffbc-70d4-44ea-8cb1-3ccde55b4957 https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/pge-compensation-pa... If you have enough advance notice, you can buy or rent a generator with enough capacity to keep the fridge alive. Place any gasoline generator outside the house! And DO NOT connect it to the home power lines. Only to the fridge (unplug it from the wall and plug it into the generator) I live in the Sierra foothills and had a Generac installed, that runs off the home propane supply. It has run for a week during fire and storm emergencies. I don't have the calculations at hand, but it may or may not be the case that a big battery and inverter could do the same job. Hardware stores (here) have all kinds of generators the size you need. Renting might be wise. I just hate wasting food. Good luck.
adastra22 3y ago
The food is very unlikely to spoil in that time. Just don’t open the fridge.
tfwnopmt 3y ago
get dry ice and put it in there. Tape the door closed because the sublimating dry ice will increase the pressure inside 9 hours isn’t too bad though. if you keep the door closed the whole time you’ll probably survive
CaliforniaKarl 3y ago
The University of Minnesota has advice for you! https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/power-outages-keep-food-safe https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/power-out... The tl;dr: • Having a fridge thermometer & a freezer thermometer are good. • A full freezer, kept closed, can hold temperature for ≤48 hours. A half-full freezer, ≤24 hours. Fill your freezer. Ice (to fill up empty space) is your friend. You can make it, or buy it from the store. • The fridge part, kept closed, can hold temperatures for ≤4 hours. Block ice can help extend that time. A fridge thermometer can be used (after power is back) to check if the temperature exceeded 40° F. Block ice? It's exactly that, ice in the form of a large block. https://elitecooler.com/blogs/news/cooler-use-get-the-best-ice-retention-from-your-cooler https://elitecooler.com/blogs/news/cooler-use-get-the-best-i... has more info on using it for keeping things cool.
proc0 3y ago
I had a 24 hour outage last year (PGE bay area). 9 hours is manageable, buy a cooler and/or eat whatever will spoil. Make sure your devices are charged or know where to go to charge them.
laweijfmvo 3y ago
fill any empty space with water bottles, asap, to serve as a thermal mass. then don’t open it.
2rsf 3y ago
Other then the good advice here, simply try not to have hundreds of dollars of food in your fridge at that day
runjake 3y ago
Pack a couple bags of ice in each freezer and refrigerator ASAP. Don't open them until power is restored. I had frozen food mostly survive after 3 days without doing this.

5 points by metadat 3y ago

frasermarlow 3y ago

Move the ice from the freezer into the fridge. Don't open the doors during the outage. You will be fine.

quantified 3y ago

Where are you located? What time of day is the 9 hours scheduled for? Ice cream will melt. Lots of food won't spoil, you'll just want to get on it sooner than before.

k310 3y ago

You can try. https://www.kqed.org/news/11944877/power-outages-claim-lost-food https://www.kqed.org/news/11944877/power-outages-claim-lost-... https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/pge-claims-does-pge-reimburse-for-spoiled-food/103-d9dcf580-ac91-4d62-94c3-e2dfdf4898da https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/pge-clai... https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/pge-compensation-pay-public-safety-power-shutoff/103-7a6bffbc-70d4-44ea-8cb1-3ccde55b4957 https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/pge-compensation-pa... If you have enough advance notice, you can buy or rent a generator with enough capacity to keep the fridge alive. Place any gasoline generator outside the house! And DO NOT connect it to the home power lines. Only to the fridge (unplug it from the wall and plug it into the generator) I live in the Sierra foothills and had a Generac installed, that runs off the home propane supply. It has run for a week during fire and storm emergencies. I don't have the calculations at hand, but it may or may not be the case that a big battery and inverter could do the same job. Hardware stores (here) have all kinds of generators the size you need. Renting might be wise. I just hate wasting food. Good luck.

adastra22 3y ago

The food is very unlikely to spoil in that time. Just don’t open the fridge.

tfwnopmt 3y ago

get dry ice and put it in there. Tape the door closed because the sublimating dry ice will increase the pressure inside 9 hours isn’t too bad though. if you keep the door closed the whole time you’ll probably survive

CaliforniaKarl 3y ago

The University of Minnesota has advice for you! https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/power-outages-keep-food-safe https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/power-out... The tl;dr: • Having a fridge thermometer & a freezer thermometer are good. • A full freezer, kept closed, can hold temperature for ≤48 hours. A half-full freezer, ≤24 hours. Fill your freezer. Ice (to fill up empty space) is your friend. You can make it, or buy it from the store. • The fridge part, kept closed, can hold temperatures for ≤4 hours. Block ice can help extend that time. A fridge thermometer can be used (after power is back) to check if the temperature exceeded 40° F. Block ice? It's exactly that, ice in the form of a large block. https://elitecooler.com/blogs/news/cooler-use-get-the-best-ice-retention-from-your-cooler https://elitecooler.com/blogs/news/cooler-use-get-the-best-i... has more info on using it for keeping things cool.

proc0 3y ago

I had a 24 hour outage last year (PGE bay area). 9 hours is manageable, buy a cooler and/or eat whatever will spoil. Make sure your devices are charged or know where to go to charge them.

laweijfmvo 3y ago

fill any empty space with water bottles, asap, to serve as a thermal mass. then don’t open it.

2rsf 3y ago

Other then the good advice here, simply try not to have hundreds of dollars of food in your fridge at that day

runjake 3y ago

Pack a couple bags of ice in each freezer and refrigerator ASAP. Don't open them until power is restored. I had frozen food mostly survive after 3 days without doing this.