Power outages, what to do?

The other evening, here in the community where I own my home, we lost power five or six times, in just that one evening. Most of those down times were just for 3 or 4 seconds, but still long enough to stop clocks and shut down my computer and shut down the internet router, etc. Twice though, it was off for a minute or more. These short-duration outages never happened when I lived in Seattle or Burien or Marysville or Tacoma, WA, or in Portland, OR … but here in Lacey, WA, it has been happening every winter of the 5.5 years I’ve owned my home here. And they happen several evenings every winter. They are irritating!

Besides not knowing when/if the electricity will come back on, if I’m on my computer and in the middle of uploading photos to the blog or other online documents or if I’m logged into my bank!, then those photos and documents and financial entries are lost. I still have them on my computer, but I have to start all over with the uploads, and then, sometimes, like the other night, another outage a few minutes later erases them AGAIN, and then AGAIN. I have not been a happy camper with the electrical service here.

Each time when the power comes back on, I reset the clocks, restart the computer, the internet router, etc. In addition, one or two times each winter, the power goes out for several hours or a day or two, but that seems to happen most everywhere around western Washington. But I have not been happy with these extraordinarily numerous, repeat short-duration power outages.

So I’ve been thinking about alternatives. I could sell my house and move back to an area with a power company where this doesn’t happen. I could just stay right here and simply live with it. I could install solar panels on the roof and have batteries on the ground (indoors) to store power. I could run a generator (gas or diesel or propane) to provide power during the longer outages. Or, and here’s my brilliant thought … I could use the two Jackery batteries (“portable power stations”) that I use when camping, use them to supply power to stuff here at home in the winter when I’m not camping.

 

I chose that last idea to try first, since it would be the quickest and easiest option to try out (and it was free). I brought my two Jackery batteries home from the trailer. The trailer is in storage and doesn’t need the Jackery batteries in winter. Each of these solid-state batteries has 1000 watts of power.

I now use one of them in my office/computer room. I don’t wait for an outage to plug this one in. In fact, it has been plugged in since late last year (2024) and simply sits and does its job when needed.

Here’s how I’ve set this one up for my computer system …

First, I plug the black power cord from the Jackery battery into the wall out.

The other end of that black cord is then plugged into the Jackery battery (photo below). When the house power is on, it keeps that Jackery battery fully charged. That’s input into the Jackery battery.

Then on the output side of the Jackery, I plug in the cord from a power strip (photo below). That power cord takes power OUT of the Jackery when any device attached to the power strip is turned ON.

Here’s my power strip with several devices plugged into it …

The devices plugged into the power strip are … two tables lamps, one computer, one computer monitor, one set of speakers, and one printer … six devices. That fills up the power strip. So … when the power is ON in the house, the house electricity runs through that wall outlet, into the Jackery battery, then into the power strip, and then to all of those devices.

BUT, when the household electricity fails, then there is no electricity being supplied to the Jackery. But the Jackery is jam-packed full of electricity and then it continues to supply electrical power to the power strip and to all of the devices. It works perfectly. During the recent outages the other evening, there wasn’t even a blip from the computer screen, or a nano-second of a hiccup from the table lamps. Everything continued to run perfectly smoothly.

My office uses one of the Jackery batteries, plugged in fulltime. The second Jackery battery stands ready to do duty in the kitchen for the refrigerator/freezer (photo below) during longer power outages. There’s no need to have it plugged in fulltime since the fridge will stay cold on its own for several hours. If the power goes out during the night while I’m asleep, the fridge will be fine until I get up in the morning. Then I’ll unplug the fridge from the wall, and plug it instead into that second Jackery and that will keep the fridge running nicely.

I could leave the fridge plugged into the second Jackery battery fulltime (and hide that battery back in the corner where the RED X is in the photo above, and plug the Jackery into the wall outlet back there) but it would cause a small amount of wear on the Jackery, so I don’t do that. I do keep the Jackery plugged into house current just to keep it fully charged, but there are no devices plugged into it that drain it. If the power is out for more than a few hours, I’ll pull the fridge out, then plug the fridge into the Jackery (that has been kept fully charged), and push the fridge back into place. The Jackery will stay on the floor in the big RED OVAL area (above) so I can see the read-out screen of the Jackery, so I’ll know when it begins to run low on amperage.

Since the fridge doesn’t run continuously, this Jackery will power the fridge for 48 hours or more. And even then, if the power is still out, if I leave the fridge/freezer doors closed, it will say cold enough for several more hours. If you set up a system like this, you’ll need to check the amperage draw of your fridge/freezer in order to estimate the size of Jackery battery you need and how long it will run the fridge.

But, what if the power is out longer than two days? And the Jackery batteries get low on power? As mentioned, the fridge will stay cold for many hours without power … and I’m not on my computer ALL the time. 🙂 So I can unplug either of these two Jackery batteries, and then put that one unplugged Jackery on the front passenger floor of my truck, then plug it into the 120-amp outlet on the dash of the big white truck (this truck has a built-in inverter in it), and re-power that one Jackery battery while I go to the grocery store, the bank, the post office, out to lunch with friends, etc. OR … I just found this out … I can take the Jackery battery that needs recharging to my local library, or community center (as long as they have power), or several other locations, and plug the Jackery in there … and sit and read a book or play a game on my phone or talk with the nice folks who work there, etc. Of course, I could purchase Jackery solar panels to re-power my two Jackery batteries, but in the winter here in the Pacific Northwest, there just isn’t a lot of “solar”, ya know? 🙂

The only thing these two Jackery batteries can’t provide is heat for the house. But I have a wood stove, and lots of firewood.

In the past, when the power went out, I’d go hitch up the trailer to the truck and find someplace to “camp” that had power so I had heat in the trailer, and power for my cell phone, etc. Now I don’t have to do all that! I just start a nice cozy, warm fire in the wood stove and stay right here at home. 🙂 AND I keep working on this blog!

If anyone wants more info about how this works, the details, amperage draw, etc, just let me know in the comments. I’m very happy to share.

There are a number of companies that build/sell these dry-cell solid-state batteries. I’ve tested two other brands in addition to Jackery. Jackery has been the best, hands down, no question. There may well be other brands that are just as good, but I will be sticking with Jackery. If you buy a Jackery (or any brand), watch for a sale on them. All brands are expensive. But the battery should last a lifetime when used as I do. So, given what they do, I’d say they are very inexpensive.

Jackery sells many different sizes of batteries (what they call “portable power stations”) from 100 watts to 5,000 watts. They also sell solar collectors (solar panels) for each battery/system as well.

Also, and please take this with a grain of salt … I hear from numerous people (friends of mine and folks online) that they will never buy lithium-ion (LiFePO4) batteries. What I’m hearing is that the process of mining lithium is being done using young children, or teenagers. They are minors, not miners! AND that the mining process itself is damaging to the earth’s atmosphere. What is true? I don’t know. But I’ll stick with the safer and less expensive NON lithium-ion battery.

Right now as I’m typing this, Jackery’s lithium ion 1000 battery is selling for $999 and produces 1264 watt/hours. Jackery’s NON lithium ion 1000 battery is selling for $799 and produces 1070 watt/hours.

So, I hope this helps people. Those of you who already know all this probably have a similar system installed in your home, or an even better one, or are using one or more of the options mentioned way up above at the beginning of this blog post. If you have questions about what I’ve shared here, please let me know. If you have suggestions to improve the system I’m using, please let me know.

In a month or two, when winter storms withdraw, and warm weather and the camping season approach, I’ll move my two Jackery batteries back into the trailer for use during my camping trips.

All in all, in the end, with power and heat in the house during a winter short-term or long-term power outage, I’m a happy camper! 🙂 Here’s to a safe and comfortable home for everyone.

Here’s a fireplace video below (not my woodstove) that I posted awhile back, that I enjoy on a cold winter evening. Cheers!