First Power Outage; help!

MichaelLC

So not really the end of the world, or not yet anyway. But our power has been out since yesterday afternoon and the estimated restore time is 9pm today, so about 30 hours of no power.
Assume everything in freezer is trash? What about fridge? Veggies probably OK but what about lunch meat/cheese, milk, oj, etc?
Is there any chance of being reimbursed for the lost food by ComEd? Just surprised as we have underground power so usually storms don't affect us.

schuss

No reimbursement. Throw out most perishables. Avoid opening the fridge/freezer to keepthe cold in.

davidsdurions

If you own your own house, for the future you should consider an external integrated backup generator. Most are run on diesel and go indefinitely as long as you keep it filled up.

DevoutlyApathetic

If he's acting in shock and surprise at a power outage they're probably not common enough to worry about a generator for. To keep a generator in decent shape it should be run about once a month for awhile and that's a shitload of work and effort for something that might see use every couple years.

Stop opening the freezer and fridge. If you have meats in there and a way to cook them (barbeque?) then have yourself a cook out. The freezer I would inspect when you get power back. They'll hold the cold in for a surprising amount of time depending on how much stuff you have in there, the more the better. Over 30 hours I'd be surprised if they got into a temperature range that was dangerous from a spoilage POV but the food might be screwed up by freezer burn when they refreeze. That won't hurt you to eat but they won't be very tasty.

Daenris

here are some helpful links. If your freezer is pretty full it should be fine as long as you're not opening it up much/at all.

http://www.foodsafety.gov/blog/poweroutage.html

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/refridg_food.html

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/frozen_food.html

DivideByZero

Yeah, you should be okay with 30 hours as long as you're not in and out of the fridge every ten minutes. Eat/drink your dairy products first as they tend to spoil fastest. Ice cream, etc.

Also move any ice cubes from the freezer to the fridge and they'll help keep it cool for a while longer.

After the last big hurricane here my power was out for days and days. After 48 hours of it I crashed with family. The perishables in the fridge lasted longer than I did.

MichaelLC

Nice, thanks for those links. It came back on shortly after my OP, about 9am.

Yeah it's our first time. Previously it's been like 5 minutes at most, just enough to reset the clocks. I might get one if those portable car battery/jumper things in case we need to power something small.
It was funny because only half of the condo buildings lost power; one 20 ft away had light the whole time.

Pantshandshake

If you're in a condo, you probably can't have a permanent generator installed anyway. That leaves your choices to getting one that can run everything in your house and having an electrician put in a switch to take your condo off grid power, and a plug that will allow the generator to power your condo, or a smaller one with spots to plug extension cords in and just run a few essential items.

_J_

MichaelLC wrote: »

Nice, thanks for those links. It came back on shortly after my OP, about 9am.

Yeah it's our first time. Previously it's been like 5 minutes at most, just enough to reset the clocks. I might get one if those portable car battery/jumper things in case we need to power something small.
It was funny because only half of the condo buildings lost power; one 20 ft away had light the whole time.

Not sure what sort of folks live in your condo, but sometimes people will let you run an extension cord from their apartment to your freezer / refrigerator / whatever.

MichaelLC

_J_ wrote: »

MichaelLC wrote: »

Nice, thanks for those links. It came back on shortly after my OP, about 9am.

Yeah it's our first time. Previously it's been like 5 minutes at most, just enough to reset the clocks. I might get one if those portable car battery/jumper things in case we need to power something small.
It was funny because only half of the condo buildings lost power; one 20 ft away had light the whole time.

Not sure what sort of folks live in your condo

Old and crazy mostly.

Gnizmo

The rule I use is once the fridge or freezer is opened then just get everything out and assume most will spoil. You gain a lot of heat energy every time it opens. I suppose if it is wall to wall you have enough cold that it could keep, but most people don't keep it that stocked.

Get a barbecue, and invite your friends over and make a party of it if the freezer has been opened more than once. You will make a lot of friends this way and get a really good meal. If it were after a big storm or something I would say give some to local fire fighters as well, but it doesn't sound like that.

This is all based in my experience growing up in New Orleans. When it goes out via storm it tends to be really hot, so where ever you are might not be as harsh on opening the freezer/fridge. Freezers can last a LONG time as long as you don't open it.

Gabriel_Pitt

Last time i had an extended power outage, i grabbed a big bag of ice from the store, put it in the fridge, and dind't open the freezer. If you don't open anything at all, the chill will keep for a very decent length of time.

wonderpug

Check your home insurance if the cost of lost food worries you, as that can often be covered.

MichaelLC

wonderpug wrote: »

Check your home insurance if the cost of lost food worries you, as that can often be covered.

Not really a big deal, just want to make ComEd pay. Our fridge needed a cleaning anyway so we pitched everything. Kept the freezer since ice was frozen.

schuss

wonderpug wrote: »

Check your home insurance if the cost of lost food worries you, as that can often be covered.

This is generally a bad idea, as claims will generally drive your premium up and make it harder to switch carriers.

a5ehren

Getting the power company to pay for your spoiled food is something I've never even heard of happening. Your only chance would be to talk to a lawyer, but I would think that they have all kinds of language in the service agreement (if not specific laws) exempting them from that kind of liability.

bowen

I've heard of it happening when routine maintenance got extended beyond a few hours.

Some people have half a grand worth of food in their fridge. Think of how much a week it costs to feed a family of 6 people (2 adults + 4 kids). That could easily be $600 worth of food a week.

Cog

By the way, most grocery stores will sell dry ice (they receive a lot of perishables packed in it) which you can stick in your freezer. It will keep things in there frozen for a looooong time. We have a deep freeze and upright freezer, so an extended power outage would ruin like $750-$1000+ of frozens. We weathered a 4 or 5 day outage with dry ice, and didn't lose a thing.

Creagan

My town has buried power lines. They may be more resistant to squirrels and storms, but flooding can fry the entire system.

Give up any hope of having ComEd pay. They will never pay. They will never feel sorry. A while back, Chicago had almost annual massive power outrages that lasted for days. It was totally ComEd's fault because the grid's ancient and they were using old boxes and whatnot. Nothing happened. And when people got angry about it, ComEd service got noticeably worse and they tried to charge more.