Winter Power Outages Are Worse Than You Think

Winter Power Outages are more common and more destructive than most people believe. In fact, Winter Power Outages can affect almost every part of the United States.

Many of us just witnessed this a few days ago as winter storm Harper downed countless trees and power lines, thereby causing mass blackouts across the country. Notably, over 13,000 people in Ohio didn’t have power throughout most of this past weekend. Also, there were still 11,000 families in Connecticut and 23,000 more in Pennsylvania without electricity as of yesterday morning, The Weather Channel reports.

In detail, ice builds up on power lines and causes them to come crashing down. Even worse, ice further builds up on branches and causes them to fall on the power lines as well. Meanwhile, icy roads cause vehicles to crash into utility poles, which adds to an already massive number of winter power outages.

Moreover, the electricity grid in Connecticut is now so unreliable that officials are issuing safety warnings about generators. In particular, Eversource, an electric utility, warns customers not to run diesel generators indoors. Exhaust fumes from diesel engines and generators can be deadly and, typically, people don’t realize this until it’s too late.

Winter Power Outages May Threaten Your Family

On the whole, Winter Power Outages have made the electric grid highly unstable in Connecticut, which is one of America’s most urbanized states.

However, Winter Power Outages are disrupting daily life far beyond Connecticut. For instance, 39,000 customers were without electricity in the Kansas City area last week, The Kansas City Star reports.

In addition, the utility company Kansas City Power & Light admits it cannot restore service to many customers for several days yet. Consequently, families and businesses will have been without electricity for more than a week in total because of winter power outages.

Amazingly, the snow itself is causing the power outages around Kansas City. To elaborate, heavy snow snaps power lines and this disrupts the electricity supply. Likewise, snow causes branches to fall on power lines, which creates more outages.

Winter Power Outages Cost Businesses Money

Winter Power Outages are also costly to businesses and families. Particularly, Winter Power outages cost American businesses $27 billion in 2015, E Source estimates.

The average factory lost $150,000 to winter blackouts in 2015. Furthermore, the average school or government office lost $5,000 to winter power outages that same year.

Significantly, a business can lose money from any power outage longer than five minutes, E Source advisor Bill LeBlanc asserts. As a result, a brief, 10-minute blackout could end up considerably reducing the income of a small business that depends on every customer.

You Need Backup Power Systems Because Of Winter Power Outages

For this reason, every entrepreneur and freelancer who works from home needs a backup power source. The E Source data clearly reveals that you can lose a lot of money from even the shortest blackouts.

If you use a computer or any other electronic device in your business or freelance gig, then you can certainly lose money to winter power outages. Given the risk involved here, you definitely need a safe backup power source in your home.

Solar electric systems are among the safest backup power systems because they don’t produce any deadly exhaust fumes. Additionally, sunlight is free while diesel fuel costs an average of $2.92 a gallon.

Diesel and gasoline generators are dangerous because they produce the deadly gas carbon monoxide (CO). In fact, CO is so dangerous that generator manufacturer Briggs & Stratton recommends that you never use a generator indoors. Overall, generators cause most of the fatal carbon monoxide poisonings in America.

Winter Power Outages are undoubtedly a fact of life for most Americans. So, your home and business need safe backup systems to get you through the severe weather this time of year. In the final analysis, you need a solar power system if you want to be comfortable and still make money during winter power outages.

Readers that want to take advantage of wholesale pricing on solar generators can visit mysolarbackup.com

You may also enjoy reading an additional Off The Grid News article: Indoor Safety Tips for Winter Storms

Or download our free 28-page report on the top nine threats to the power grid: Black Out

What are your thoughts on Winter Power Outages and how to get through them? Let us know in the comments below.

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