Challenge: Live indoors for 24 hrs without electricity.
Purpose: To improve your survival preparedness plan.
Outcome: A more clearly defined list of essential supplies for surviving without power, both in the home and outdoors.
By turning off your power for one day, you will quickly learn that your survival supplies checklist is missing some items. Disaster preparedness requires research, gathering emergency supplies and practicing survival skills. However survival is relative and while most survival gear are standard necessities, the individual personal items get amplified when power is not an option.
Our daily lives are so dependent on electricity. It might be the one accommodation we take for granted the most. If you do any camping at all, you have already performed this exercise to some degree; depending on whether is was Cowboy Camping, RV Camping or something in between. The fact is that in each of these cases you realized (after the fact) that there was something you forgot to pack.
That is the the point of this exercise; to realize the missing items that need to be added to your Survival Checklist or included in your Bug Out Bag specifically for scenarios where electrical power is not an option.
Action
Turn off the power. This simplest way to turn off power to the entire house is to flip the breakers on your fuse box. Typically there is a master switch, but if not, flipping all the switches to ‘off’ will suffice. By using the breaker switches you can easily turn the power back on if it is needed for any unexpected circumstances.
Timing
There are a few different options regarding the time to start this challenge; these include right after dinner or first thing in the morning.
- After Dinner – This is not a fun exercise and is quite a disruption to your normal routine. By waiting until right after dinner you know your family is fed and you still have enough time to prepare your home before it is time for bed.
- Early Morning – By starting this challenge as soon as you awake you are ensuring that your alarm clock sounds if needed, just keep in mind, it won’t sound tomorrow. Additionally you are able experience the challenges throughout the entire day giving you more time to prepare for the evening hours.
Early Morning is probably the easier option for most people as the evening hours are typically more impacted by a lack of electricity and more time to prepare has it’s benefits. Chose the option that best suits your family, or decide on a time that makes the most sense for your situation.
Location is also a factor when electing to take the no power survival challenge. Even though this is an indoor no electricity drill, heating and cooling will be impacted. Completing this challenge in Florida during the summer or Chicago during the winter will make this assignment much more uncomfortable. Becoming uncomfortable is part of the objective, just be sure safety is considered.
