chart of falling temperatures during a power outage

How Fast Does a House Get Cold When the Power Goes Out?

If you lose power in cold weather, you might double your stay-at-home time window by retreating to your basement. If you think an outage is likely, pre-heating can buy you a lot more time, too. See how I broke down our data from a recent outage.

April 2, 2026 · 4 min · Tim Graettinger
Schematic layout of the Jackery and connected devices across our house.

Lab Notes: Taming the Tangle: Custom Cords for the Outage to Come

A recent power outage exposed a weak link in our emergency setup — not enough usable extension cords. I designed and built a custom set for powering our home from our Jackery. Here’s how I tailored them to our layout.

July 6, 2025 · 2 min · Tim Graettinger
Side-by-side images: initial power outage information (left) and the outage map for our area (right).

Lab Notes: Lessons from a 24-Hour Power Outage

When the power went out this time, we were ready. Sort of…

June 30, 2025 · 3 min · Tim Graettinger
Chart of the number of power outages versus their duration.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Afternoon: How We Used Data to Prepare for Our Next Power Outage

The power went out and stayed out… for three days. How do you prepare for the next time?…

May 25, 2025 · 9 min · Tim Graettinger