A year without electricity. Could you survive it?

[Surfd]

Almost nothing is self sustaining. You are only as self sustaining as the drive to your nearest supermarket. And all of those stop working the instant the switch turns off. Sure, you might get a month or two of bonus time if you raid the place for all the non-perishables you can cart off before everyone else realizes the apocalypse has set in, but unless you are able to magically conjure food and water out of thin air, or live in good hunting / fishing country, you are only prolonging your fate. Very, VERY, VERY few people are capable of actually living off the land, and after 4 or 5 months, that's pretty much what you would be doing in the event of a total collapse.

Also, don't forget. If you are even the tiniest bit self sufficient, then the least of your worries will be food or water. It will be all the other people out there trying to survive. And if humanity has proven anything, it is that we can get REAL ugly when survival is at stake.

[khazlol]

i would probably raid all of you people with natural springs and stuff

[Shadowferal]

The necessities would have to be seen to first; food, clean water, shelter, clothing, wood, and firearms for security. (Bows and arrows would eventually make a comeback until someone knows how to work a smithy, then mining would be important)
Hehe...almost everyone would be an environmentalist.

[Mihalik]

This thread is the absolute proof that most people would die. As most of you (especially the ones who think they won't) have no idea what are the things that are likely to kill you in the first place.

Your idea of what would happen is seemingly based on the Mad Maxesque Post-Apocalyptic fantasy rather than reality.

[Ghostpanther]

Depends on the type of the fireplace. You need it to be very large and have a lot of mass that absorbs the heat, staying warm for a long time after the fire has gone out. Such as these:

I can see that. But it would take a lot of wood to heat up all that mass?

During the great blizzard here in 1978, when winds got to 70 mph and snow drifted up to 6 feet in places, a lot of people where stuck for days with no electricity and a way to get out. I know from talking to people who had fireplaces then, they said as long as the fire was burning and they stayed close to the opening, they would get radiated heat. But the heat in the house was being sucked up the chimney pretty fast.

I also have a fireplace and have experienced the same thing. Now we have a air tight cast iron small stove in the basement and it is like a hundred times more efficient. Can easily maintain the temps in all the basement in the 80's if I want. About 4 cords of wood would keep me warm all winter long if I needed to.

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i would probably raid all of you people with natural springs and stuff

Hehe. Just be ready for a fire fight. Even tho in my case I would not try to stop anyone who wanted some water from my spring. The food stuff? Depends on how much I had and how much I could survive without. Would be willing to share if I felt I could.

[Deleted]

Considering I require electricity for a) my wheelchair b) my ventilator and c) my bed I can safely say I would likely be dead by day 7

[Shadowferal]

Nice fireplaces..hmm...*takes notes*

There are some people that do live off the grid, such as the Amish, and survivalists, they would thrive well enough.

[Ciddy]

Wouldn't be fun, but I like to think I could survive it. These 90% humidity summer days we have here would suck without AC, for sure. I don't have any health problems to the point where I require electricity to stay alive. I wouldn't be getting supplied with contact lenses anymore, I guess, but I'm only a bit nearsighted and far from blind, so I could live without contacts if I had to. I'm currently in IT service, so uh...I'd be having to figure something else out for a year, seeing as how computers won't be working. :P

That's all just assuming that things will go back to normal after a year (which is unlikely, because after a year, I think we'd probably start to look like the world in Walking Dead). If not, I'd have to come up with something more long term. It also depends on whether or not we have any warning that this is coming. Obviously, we'd have a better chance if we have some kind of "power will be off for a year, starting one week from today" warning because we could stock up. If we just wake up one morning with no power and no warning, I think a lot of people would die off very quickly.

Longest I've ever gone without power was a full week. My area (and a whole lot of other areas) got hit with a nasty blizzard in 1993. School was closed for 2 weeks, and we had no power for that first week. We did reasonably well. My dad had a generator. It was only good enough to keep the lights on, but that was something. We had a gas grill out on the porch that we used for all the cooking. My dad has been an electrician for about 40 years now, and at the time, he was also a plumber. That helped a lot, since he knew how to rig up shit and keep the house running.

I was only 8 that year, so to me, it was just a couple of school-free weeks playing in the snow while the grownups handled all the complicated stuff like survival. I was...disappointed when I found out that came at the cost of extending the school year by a week and going in for a few half Saturdays to make the days up. I'm 31 now, and I haven't seen anything since that compares to the 1993 blizzard.

[Holofernes]

people survived like up to until 70 years ago without electricity, what a stupid question.

[Mihalik]

Nice fireplaces..hmm...*takes notes*

There are some people that do live off the grid, such as the Amish, and survivalists, they would thrive well enough.

No they don't live off the grid. Not even remotely.

They live in a country that largely eliminated or strictly controls common pests, insects, and that through sanitation an vaccination has common plague sources either eliminated or largely contained.

The environment they live in is protected from ecological contamination via industrial regulation and enforcement, that protects wildlife, groundwater and such.

Cut off the power and their livestock will die due to spreading illnesses like rabies and such or the many parasites that would make an immediate comeback in absence of antibiotics, and would be carried by birds, rodents and insects whose population would explode.

As industrial equipment breaks down due to lack of maintenance water sources would get quickly contaminated, which would transfer into the ecosystem and spread across it.

Again. I am so tired of repeating myself.

Most of you don't seem to have the faintest idea about the degree to which your environment is managed by civilization which is utterly dependent on power.

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people survived like up to until 70 years ago without electricity, what a stupid question.

Human population exploded in that time. Most of the country (at least industry and urban areas) where electrified by the 1910's. The population of the US at that time was around 77 million.

Much of the hardware and technology available at the time wasn't utterly electrified, nor was industry, technology, chemicals and such so pervasive. Even that population was heavily reliant on transportation for survival (in this case things like rail). You shut off the power today, and you aren't getting any rail as it is either runs on diesel (modern diesel production is reliant on a powergrid) or is electrified.

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

Could i build up a little living space with tools before the power went out? If i could make a decent shelter and prepare for a years worth of shit with logs for fire and a couple packs of lighters then yeah i could make it a year.

I've never hunted but im not opposed to eating some worms or fishing, and eventually id get me a bunny rabbit for stew or something.

Yeah, i could do it. It's all in your head anyways.

[Lex Icon]

i would probably survive.. i'd just head to my parents who live by a lake and don't really rely that much on electricity to begin with. everything needed i would find there.(except if maybe i caught some kind of illness)

[Rafoel]

Year? Easily. Here we got everything on place.

[Deleted]

The woodstove is next up and a key component. I got the idea from some hippie show where people lived in tiny houses, they handpumped water into a tank on the floor above the stove, then ran the water through a coil inside of the stove to heat it, and into the bottom floor (in my case basement) Shower. = hot showers.

I think I'd do better with the woodstove for heating, right now I use a hotwater/baseboard electric system, heated with natural gas. I figure if need be we could easily live in the downstairs heated by the woodstove. The keyfor me right now is finding the right one.

Bringing water home might become a chore, and a shower might use too much water.

The real Hippie way would be like I did in the 80s: fill a bucket of water and leave them on the stove till hot enough.

We used that water for the dishes, while a second bucket would go on the stove again.

Third pass, both buckets into a large one where kids would bath, then the adults.

Good old 80s.

(Yep, at my summerplace home we didn't have electricity till '88.)

[Holofernes]

haha someone here states u need a railway system and diesel and transportation to be able to life? No u dont. All u need is two arms and two feet, and some teeth, and something to eat every few days, and water.
People probably think they cant live without pokemon or pet battles nowadays. And u can drink out of rivers just fine without dying or getting ill, probably u are the guy that buys water from nestlé because u are in fear that u will get sick by consuming tap water?

[icausewipes]

Yes I could.

[Mihalik]

haha someone here states u need a railway system and diesel and transportation to be able to life? No u dont. All u need is two arms and two feet, and some teeth, and something to eat every few days, and water.
People probably think they cant live without pokemon or pet battles nowadays. And u can drink out of rivers just fine without dying or getting ill, probably u are the guy that buys water from nestlé because u are in fear that u will get sick by consuming tap water?

... I can't cure stupid. You'd be dead in weeks from dysentery. As someone working in a field that is trying to keep you alive, you have no idea the effort it takes to do that.

Without a powergrid there will be no tap water.

Most river/lake water would kill you right now. As infrastructure breaks down and most water sources would get contaminated further both chemically and biologically you'd be dead even faster. And it won't be a pretty death. It will involve vomiting, fever, diarrhea and literally bleeding out of your ass.

[Ghostpanther]

No they don't live off the grid. Not even remotely.

They live in a country that largely eliminated or strictly controls common pests, insects, and that through sanitation an vaccination has common plague sources either eliminated or largely contained.

The environment they live in is protected from ecological contamination via industrial regulation and enforcement, that protects wildlife, groundwater and such.

Cut off the power and their livestock will die due to spreading illnesses like rabies and such or the many parasites that would make an immediate comeback in absence of antibiotics, and would be carried by birds, rodents and insects whose population would explode.

As industrial equipment breaks down due to lack of maintenance water sources would get quickly contaminated, which would transfer into the ecosystem and spread across it.

Again. I am so tired of repeating myself.

Most of you don't seem to have the faintest idea about the degree to which your environment is managed by civilization which is utterly dependent on power.

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Human population exploded in that time. Most of the country (at least industry and urban areas) where electrified by the 1910's. The population of the US at that time was around 77 million.

Much of the hardware and technology available at the time wasn't utterly electrified, nor was industry, technology, chemicals and such so pervasive. Even that population was heavily reliant on transportation for survival (in this case things like rail). You shut off the power today, and you aren't getting any rail as it is either runs on diesel (modern diesel production is reliant on a powergrid) or is electrified.

I have already stated a lot of people would die and most would. Which as far as the earth is concerned, would not be a bad thing. But there would be enough which would survive. Mankind would adapt and continue on. Humans as a rule, do not need electricity to exist as a species.

Besides the thread's question was could we survive a year without electricity. A lot would.

[Mihalik]

I have already stated a lot of people would die and most would. Which as far as the earth is concerned, would not be a bad thing. But there would be enough which would survive. Mankind would adapt and continue on. Humans as a rule, do not need electricity to exist as a species.

Besides the thread's question was could we survive a year without electricity. A lot would.

We are talking about mortality rates in the 85+ percent nation wide in the first months. Of what would be left, most would die during the first winter or next winter season. Most of those who survived the first year would survive long term.

Also if the power is off, for a year, it is never coming back. At least not in any of our lifetimes. The idea that YOU specifically would survive is silly. Most survivalists would die.

Again most likely survivors would be military bases (if they can maintain chain of command), small and isolated fishing communities (talking about Alaska level isolation here) and very few pastoral communities, extreme isolation still required.

[Ghostpanther]

That's what you get wrong. Again it's the reverse. MOST would die and SOME (very few) would survive. We are talking about mortality rates in the 85+ percent nation wide in the first months. Of what would be left, most would die during the first winter or next winter season. Most of those who survived the first year would survive long term.

Also if the power is off, for a year, it is never coming back. At least not in any of our lifetimes.

Huh? Why not? I went for 4 years without ever using my generator and when I did need it, it worked fine. You can get fuel life extenders which work well.

It is also a what if scenario. None of us know if the other is wrong or not. Time would prove who is. So we are expressing opinions and there is no such thing as a expert who has experienced a entire world without electricity who is alive now.