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11/27/2025
WT Staff
 Got water questions? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email us at info@wtny.us
Thursday, Nov 27, 2025 510 pm EST
Household resilience in North America's highest density city - Backup water and power - the case for balconies
As the trends go in Toronto, Ontario, the average household size is getting smaller, the developers are building higher and the majority of high rise dwellers are now renters rather than owners. By 2021, nearly half Toronto's households were dependent on elevators for access. Post-pandemic, energy planners eye these largely underutilized spaces as a detriment, draining heat from the buildings. Ahead of the next power outage, WT considers the potential value of high rise balconies for water and power security.
Urbanization and supply challenges
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division reported in 2018, "In recent decades, the world has been urbanizing rapidly. In 1950, only 30 per cent of the world population was living in urban areas, a proportion that grew to 55 per cent by 2018."
North America is the most urbanized region, with 82 per cent of its population residing in urban areas.
Toronto leads North America in population density, 4400 people per square km as of the last official count.
Working-age singles and couples without children are drawn to the pedestrian-friendly live/work/play lifestyle in Canada's largest city. Stunning views of the skyline light up waterfront tower homes, urban hives abuzz with 130 languages spoken, and downtown hotels and short term rentals occupied with 25 million visitors each year. New developments under construction compete for "The Tallest" titles; a number of tall and supertall (above 300m) building projects in development have added floors since the initial plans were announced. Pinnacle International's SkyTower initially presented with 95 floors, since upleveled to 105, on track to become Toronto's first building over 100 floors. This change overtakes Mizrahi Developments' luxury supertall, "The One", knocking the Bloor-Yonge giant from its place on the podium as the tallest building in Canada. Not to be left behind, SkyTower's sidekick, "One Yonge" has been adjusted vertically, a dozen floors added to the original plan.
Mid-to-high rise apartments have been taking over the Toronto housing mix. As of the 2016 Census, less than a third of Toronto's regularly occupied homes were found in buildings with more than five floors. The last Census (2021) reveals just how much the smaller living units have taken over in a short time, from 29% to 47% by 2021. The home ownership mix is changing too. Young couples have been evacuating the city in droves, in search of affordable, family-sized homes. Demand and prices for Toronto apartments peaked in early 2022 while the interest rates were still relatively low. Prior to 2022, developers raked in pre-construction deposits from the eager investors lined up for the new units. The condo bubble has since burst. Inflation and higher interest rates have deterred buyers from the market, at its lowest in thirty years. The majority of Toronto's mid to high apartments are occupied by tenants: 58% in Spadina-Fort York district, and 70% in Toronto Centre, as compared to 48% for the city as a whole. These small homes, many floors above street level have limited space for emergency supplies. There are limitations to the emergency preparations that can be implemented by tenants. This leaves a rather large population especially vulnerable to trouble in the event of a power outage.
In the first of this two-part series, WT investigates the unique access issues impacting millions of city core residents in the event of a power outage, and how a largely under-utilized resource could be furnished to provide water and power resilience. WT spoke with experts in engineering, urban planning and energy transition, picking up theoretical and practical measures apartment dwellers can take to prepare for the next blackout.
No lights, no power, no phones, no water
1998 Ice Storm The US National Weather Service recalls the $5 to $7 billion dollar common disaster that cast millions into darkness for a week or more in the dead of winter, 1998. The sleet started coming down on January 4th, followed by several days more freezing rain before the mercury took a nosedive. Heavy ice loads brought down trees, power lines and transmission towers across the St Lawrence River valley and US northeast, devastating northern New England and northern New York with 5" total rainfall and flooding.
The storm had historic impacts...due to the prolonged duration of the event, magnitude of the ice accretion and precipitation amounts. Although the actual weather event lasted from January 5th-9th, the impacts and recovery efforts of power restoration, clearing debris and returning to normal lasted weeks, even months for those hardest impacted.
In Canada, this storm wiped out power infrastructure in southern Quebec, shutting down the City of Montreal for two weeks. Quebec Hydro reports 3" of precipitation forming ice on the power transmission infrastructure wiped out the power for more than one million customers. Temperatures dropped following the rain, emergency power supplies ran out on Day 2. The lights finally came back on for the last customer a month after the incident began.
Georges Timmons recalls the mass confusion in Montreal during the ice storm and blackout. Backup battery power to the security cameras and alarms for Timmons' downtown businesses ran out in the first 24 hours. Timmons held vigil on the premises for two weeks until water and power were restored. "You only miss it when you have problems", says Timmons. As these storms can and will happen again, households need to keep water, power and essential supplies on hand, enough to last more than a few days.
East Coast Blackout On August 14, 2003, a major outage knocked out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Beginning at 4:10 p.m. ET, twenty-one power plants shut down in just three minutes. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of New York, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. In some locations, power was restored in hours, other locations were dark for a day or more.
- This Day in History, August 14, 2003
A personal account of the 2003 blackout from a former downtown Toronto resident:
Please follow me outside, down the stairs, 17 floors, as there are no working elevators. By 5 o'clock, things had taken a turn for the worst. Drivers were stranded, going no where. Pedestrians turned back to the streets when the elevators stalled, standing out in front of their buildings, uncertain as to where to go and what to do with their hauls of the day, their bags set beside them on the ground. Public transit had also stopped, at least downtown because the streetcars had no power, dead in their tracks, blocking gas-powered buses. All were stranded in a sea of unmoving cars. Within two hours, patience had begun to fray.
Bathrooms at restaurants, public facilities, were now off limits with no water to flush, or wash dishes, or cook with; the "Closed" signs went up. All this while, we did not yet realize the size of the blackout area. There became long lines of pedestrians hauling bags out of the core; Yonge Street, Avenue Road, Spadina Ave, all full of people trying to get out.
The lessons of the East Coast Blackout have not been lost on those that endured it. As one witness put it, "You need pails of water, clean water stored in the fridge, or in the form of ice in the freezer. Have batteries for devices. Keep cash on hand, cash was King. When bank machines are down, money is hard to find. Candles, flash lights, please, have 72 hours-worth of all these things, your life could depend on it. Chew over how high you want to live, can you walk out 23 flights of stairs? Think about it."
Water Resilience When the lights go out, so too the taps and toilets.
From Ready.gov, a US resource on preparing for shelter-in-place, "Store at least one gallon of water per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation. A normally active person needs about three quarters of a gallon of fluid daily, from water and other beverages." For the average highrise apartment occupied by one tenant, a couple five gallon jugs would suffice for ten days. Bottled water stored for drinking and a five gallon storage cistern for washing and flushing toilets would be most helpful in a power outage.
While it is true, highrise apartments lack storage, even the smallest balcony can be outfitted for household resilience. Making best use of space, a free-standing vertical rack could provide an anchor point for rainwater collection equipment, secured by the weight water stored at the base, at least during the seasons above freezing. Multi-purpose deck furnishings are available, there is space under a table for five gallon water cistern, storage benches/chairs could conceal emergency non-perishables. Water storage cisterns can be filled from the tap before an emergency breaks. Alternatively, rainwater or condensation can be collected into the storage tank, for use when the taps are off for plumbing work in the building, or during an extended power outage. Three-season water collection and storage is possible in Toronto, balcony tanks would have to be drained for the cold season or stored inside during the winter months.
As an alternative to a commercial rainwater collector fin manually extended outside the balcony railing, a vertical rack could be fitted with panels to collect condensation from the air, passively harvesting water when it is not raining. A vertical rack takes up minimal floor space on the balcony, these are commercially available from 16 to 24" deep x 36" to 48" wide and 6 to 7 ft tall. Units above 40 floors are often enveloped in cloud cover with adequate humidity to keep a reservoir full. If one so chooses, this same racking could be used to anchor the plug-in solar panel, or a small windmill, along with a covered shelf for the battery bank. The racking could be set up with planters to grow greens or veggies in season, there are many options.
See WT feature White to ultra-white: The latest "Cool Roof" technology saves even more energy while harvesting moisture from the atmosphere, here.
Power Resilience How tenants in apartments are generating electricity
Small scale, plug-in solar kits are used to supplement household energy demand in many parts of the world. In Germany, the first country to offer incentives to households for rooftop solar generation, plug-in solar systems now outnumber rooftop installations with 4 million plug-in units sold in 4 years. The plug-in solar panel is classed as an appliance, according to US-based plug-in solar advocate, Bright Saver , the householder should not be required to obtain an interconnect permit from the local power company. Following on the success of the advocate's work in US, residents in the northeastern states hit by past power grid failures (Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania), can go ahead and implement plug-in solar. The system pushes locally generated electricity through a standard wall outlet in the home. The household benefits from using locally captured energy first, avoiding the expense of imported energy. In the event of a major grid outage, the plug-in solar can be linked to batteries, maintaining essential power resources in the home.
Bright Saver promotes energy policies that make solar generation possible for renters, and for apartments units lacking access to a rooftop. The investment in plug-in solar is accessible even to those with limited resources and less than perfect credit. In the highest density city, having a majority of units tenant-occupied, plug-in solar is a fit. WT inquired with Executive Director Kevin Chou about the suitability of plug-in solar for highrise balconies in Toronto.
Chou spent two decades leading tech start-ups in Silicon Valley, raising USD $1.5 billion in investment, creating hundreds of jobs and opportunities during that time. Today, the former CEO devotes time and expertise to ensure access to power for the most vulnerable. As we have seen, the risk of power outage impacts high density populations to a much greater degree than those in single detached homes. As up to 70% of Toronto apartments are occupied by tenants, these households would be particularly disadvantaged if plans and policies are not made ahead of the next shelter-in-place scenario.
Mitigating vulnerability to power outgage in an apartment is challenging in a number of ways. Firstly, those in apartments lack roof access for the standard solar panel micro-grid installation. As tenants are generally discouraged from hanging pictures inside the unit, they will surely require assistance and permission to attach fixtures to the building exterior. Equipment installed on balconies must be securely anchored to withstand wind shear at high elevations. Anything that could possibly fall from a balcony is a hazard to people below, safety must be assured with foolproof anchoring, either by way of a free-standing rack to contain the equipment, or by way of brackets securely anchored to the building.
Once the plug-in solar is anchored in and operational, it is important to note that the system must revert to battery storage during an actual power outage. Some balconies do not have an exterior wall outlet, so those units may use battery storage on the regular. For those units with an exterior facing power outlet, the plug-in solar panel must be unplugged from the wall outlet and plugged in to a battery during power service disruption. A battery or series of batteries secured on a covered shelf in the water/power rack can be maintained charged for backup power, as well as receive solar power generated on the balcony while the main grid is down.
With the appropriate weatherproof and durable materials, (ceramic or fibreglass being preferred over plastic), water and power collection/storage equipment can be securely housed on a balcony as small as 2 sq m. Will the preps be made in time for the next widespread power outage? Watch for Part II of the series, Basic Needs met in Community: How Toronto's highrise Green Roofs and balconies could be engaged in climate action at the building level
A last word on the Toronto housing trend from Sam Mizrahi, the developer behind supertall "The One" at Bloor and Yonge St. tel 416-922-4200 Excerpted from an interview with interview with Business Focus, Dec 18, 2024, How to Survive in Toronto Real Estate
"The market is in a period of adjustment. The days of frenzied buying are behind us, and both buyers and sellers need to adapt to this new reality. While we expect some seasonal trends to return, broader economic factors—like interest rates and inflation—will continue to play a significant role. That said, I'm optimistic for the long term. Toronto is a growing city with strong fundamentals. As the market stabilizes, we'll see more buyers returning, especially in segments that offer true value. For Mizrahi Developments, that means continuing to deliver timeless designs that resonate with buyers who prioritize craftsmanship."
Watch for Part Two of this series on Green Roofs, set up to receive household green waste, producing soil and fertilizer for productive gardens at the building level.
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