I used to live in the country, and had to re-assess my assumptions when we had a several day power outage due to a blizzard. We had propane at the old farmhouse, but with no power to run the furnace/blower, I could only run the range (and a small portable propane heater with some spare tanks). There was no power for the well either. After that, every time the power would go out, Wife or I would immediately fill up the bathtub with all the water that was in the pressure tanks. We looked into solar, but the power spikes needed to start a well pump (or furnace fan) can be pretty high, and need quite a bit of amperage to get going.