On Friday, November 28, 2014 10:25:46 AM UTC-8, philo* wrote:
On 11/28/2014 12:00 PM, HerHusband wrote:
We had a couple of major power outages this year and ran out of water, so
it has renewed my interest in finding a backup when the power goes out.
We live in Washington state and everything here is powered by
electricity.

We have a woodstove for backup heat, and battery powered LED lights and
radio that can last for days. Power failures almost always occur during
cold winter storms, so we can just stick our perishible foods outside if
the power goes out for more than a few hours. As long as we have water,
we can cook on the woodstove or heat water in a pan for washing up.

We have a large pressure tank (80 gallon I believe). If the power goes
out when the tank is full, we're fine. 80 gallons will flush a lot of
toilets. Unfortunately, the tank is rarely completely full when the power
goes out and this last time it was nearly empty when we lost power.



snip


Why would the tank not be full at all times?

I'd figure out a way to always keep it full .

Because pressure tanks run on air pressure. Pump controller turns on at a set low pressure, fills tank to a set high pressure and cuts off.

Harry K