Costs of extreme weather: How to stay powered and protected year-round
Extreme weather events can come with a hefty price tag. From power outages and frozen pipes to spoiled food and damaged electronics, the costs of being unprepared can add up quickly. Whether it’s a summer heatwave, a winter blizzard, or a powerful hurricane, these events can disrupt daily life and create unexpected expenses.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports 28.3% or 1 in 4 households will experience a power outage in a year. This number jumps to 1 in 3 households in rural environments. Shipley Energy shares what you can do to stay powered and keep unexpected costs down.
Shipley Energy
The Impact of Extreme Weather
In 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported 27 separate weather disasters in the U.S. that each caused over $1 billion in damage. The total weather-related damages for 2024 reached staggering $182.7 billion in losses. These large-scale events disrupted the lives of millions, damaged homes, shut down power grids, and halted businesses.
If you haven't experienced a major event, it's easy to feel disconnected from these statistics. However, even small disruptions from regular weather events can end up leading to unwelcome expenses. These costs add up—especially if your home or business isn't prepared with backup power or a storm-readiness plan in place.
Dangers and Costs of Losing Power in Your Home
Losing power during extreme weather can be serious and costly. Without electricity, your home can quickly become unsafe and uninhabitable.
- Food spoilage: The average American household keeps between $250 and $500 worth of food in the refrigerator and freezer at any given time. Even a few hours without power can be long enough for your refrigerator or freezer to warm up and for food to expire.
- Pipes burst: Losing power for a few hours in the wintertime may not be an immediate worry, but if the outage lasts for more than a day, you could face the issue of pipes freezing. Without power to keep your home's heating systems online, uninsulated pipes can freeze or burst. Angi reports that the average cost of repairing burst pipes is between $200 and $3,000.
- Hotel stays: Depending on the severity of the weather emergency, you may have to depart from your home and stay at a hotel. The average hotel costs $171 a night, per room.
- Failed sump pump: Water damage is no laughing matter. Not only is pooled water in your basement or living area bad for your family's health, it can cause $500 to $10,000 or more in damages from restoration to property loss.
- Medical equipment downtime: When the power goes out, medical equipment that depends on electricity—like oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines, or nebulizers—can fail instantly. For individuals with chronic conditions, even a short disruption can pose serious health risks, from respiratory distress to missed life-saving treatments.
Effects of Power Outages on Businesses
Businesses suffer from some of the same issues homeowners face during power outages: loss of perishable inventory, unfavorable working conditions in office or warehouse space. However, outages can also impact their bottom line through loss of worker productivity, loss of revenue from downtime, security breaches (physical or digital), and impact on guests or customers.
According to Pew Research, from 2000 to 2014 it is estimated that blackouts cost businesses $150 billion every year, a number that has surely grown over the last decade. And it's not just weather-related. The Department of Energy states that with the retirement of electricity generation, power outage risk increases 100 times by 2030.
With a greater demand on the electricity grid through electrification and power-hungry AI data centers, along with capacity costs rising to meet and support infrastructure needs, businesses are positioned to feel greater impact every time the power goes out.
So how can home and business owners keep their lights on and operations running?
Your Answer to Power Outages: Permanent Backup Generators
Having a reliable backup power source—like a generator—can help protect your home, wallet, or business's bottom line when the weather takes a turn for the worse. Yet only about 15% of homeowners have one, according to a 2022 survey from Goal Zero.
A backup generator provides instant, reliable power to keep your lights on, appliances running, and essential systems like heating and cooling operational. With a generator in place, you can stay safe, comfortable, and in control—even when the grid goes down.
Generator Basics: How They Work and What to Consider
Generators work by converting fuel—such as natural gas, propane, or gasoline—into electricity through a combustion engine. A professional installer will assess your home, determine the load requirement (the amount of electricity your property uses), and provide an appropriately sized generator that meets your needs. Common reliable brands of permanent backup generators are Generac, Briggs & Stratton, Cummins, and Kohler.
Matching a generator to your home’s primary heating fuel is typically the best way to go. If your home is running on natural gas, a natural gas generator usually makes the most sense, as fuel will continue to flow uninterrupted from the utility pipeline to your generator during a power outage. Similarly, if you have propane tanks, a propane-powered generator would kick on and draw fuel from your local storage. If neither of these fuels is available on your property, there are gasoline-powered generators, which require some manual intervention to keep fueled, along with reserves of gasoline on site to maintain power.
Shipley Energy
Costs of a Permanent Backup Generator
Generators with installation start around $10,000 and can be as much as $20,000 or more. While not a small investment, if frequent power outages are common in your area, a generator can easily pay for itself in as little as two and a half years.
Example Payback Period on $12,000 Generator Installation
Annual Situation: Two events; Loss of power in summer flooding (8 hours), loss of power in winter storm (36 hours).
- Food Loss: summer and winter, 2x @ $500 = $1,000
- Hotel Stay: 2 nights for winter event @ $150/night = $300
- Pipes Burst: repairs estimate = $1,800
- Property replacement: from pipes bursting, estimate = $750
- Time and productivity lost: 3 working days @ $40/hr = $960
Total annual loss prevented = $4,810
On a $12,000 installation, prevention of a $4,810 loss annually is a payback period of 2.49 years ($12,000 / $4,810 = 2.49).
Conclusion: Staying Ahead of Weather and Power Outages
Extreme weather is unpredictable—but your power supply doesn’t have to be. While you can’t control when storms strike, you can take proactive steps to protect your home or business from outages. With a permanent backup generator, you can stay safe, comfortable, and operational no matter what the forecast brings.
Now is the perfect time to review your backup power plan. Whether you’re considering your first generator or want to make sure your current system is storm-ready, today is the moment to take action.
This story was produced by Shipley Energy and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
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