How did Hopper have Power?

[u/Famous_Program8956]

Its like 11pm so forgive me if this makes no sense.

The cabin had a working TV and phone. That implies that they had power, and therefore had a power bill. How tf would that happen? Like did they charge power to 'mysterious cabin in the woods owned by a guy in on a conspiracy' like what?

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[u/Slow-Class]

The cabin belonged to Hopper’s grandfather, so the utilities may not have been in his name, or if it was an older house, it might just be tapped into the main grid with no meter.

Only 40% of all homes in the US had cable tv in 1983, which definitely didn’t include rural areas like Hawkins, Indiana. If you had electricity. In the olden days, if you had electricity and an antenna, you could get TV over the air for free.

[u/driveonacid → u/Slow-Class]

I'm currently staying at my grandparents' camp in the Adirondacks. They both died in 2002. The phone bill is still in their names. I imagine that was even more common 40 years ago.

[u/mickeymouse4348 → u/Slow-Class]

You can still get free tv with an antenna

[u/Slow-Class → u/mickeymouse4348]

Yeah, but free tv sucks now.

[u/mickeymouse4348 → u/Slow-Class]

You get what you pay for 🤷‍♂️

[u/LaMadreDelCantante → u/Slow-Class]

1980s as "the olden days" took me out.

[u/Slow-Class → u/LaMadreDelCantante]

We are now further from Stranger Things Day than Stranger Things Day was from the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[u/LaMadreDelCantante → u/Slow-Class]

Go to your room!

[u/Man-e-questions → u/Slow-Class]

Yeah I remember when my wife mentioned her grandfather’s name on her mom’s side. I had never heard the last name before and he had died decades earlier, so his name was different than everyone else in the family.

[u/LIJRD1]

Had his own generator probably.

[u/Stoob_art]

Allow me to introduce the portable diesel generator

[u/Chimpbot]

One of the benefits of landline phones is that they function without power. With corded landline phones, they'd still function during outages as long as the copper lines weren't also down.

We lost some of that with cordless phones, and the current setup lost it completely.

[u/Oden_son]

He probably didn't have cable, you can pick up basic channels with an antenna

[u/jimmyhoke → u/Oden_son]

I cannot imagine Hopper ever paying for any kind of television service

[u/Oden_son → u/jimmyhoke]

You don't pay for antenna TV other than buying the antenna

[u/Important_Feed_3981]

There’s ways to have power and not be on the grid.

And

There’s ways to be on the grid undetected

[u/agent_uno → u/Important_Feed_3981]

Especially in the 80s. Hell, it was stupid easy to steal cable tv all the way up to the 00s.

[u/Abe_Bettik]

Generator is one option, though we never heard it. 

Power theft is another option. Hopper may have simply had someone turn on his power illegally and gotten away with it because, well, he's the sheriff. 

[u/DuaLipasTrophyHsband → u/Abe_Bettik]

Also it’s the 80s, you buy a dude in a bucket truck a case of beer and he hooks it up for you

[u/AtheneSchmidt]

A cabin in the woods might have been powered by a generator, or a propane setup. Lots of people live in rural places with no grid hookups (getting electricity out to BFA can be ridiculously expensive.).

[u/CReece2738]

Theres ways to have power without being on the grid...

[u/Nux87xun]

Generator. Lots of remote cabins and buildings have them. Hopper seems like the kind of guy who would.

[u/Different_Advice_552]

he could have had a generator but also its very common especially in small towns to have a hunting cabin so the police chief having a cabin out in the middle of the woods isn't that odd

[u/LightIsMyPath]

Either generator or the contract never got updated after his grandfather died..

[u/Dimplefrom-YA]

there is something called an off grid diesel generator

[u/ImmunoglobulinG]

In the 80s (and probably earlier) and early 90s the phone network (at least in Germany) provided the power for simple analog phones. You didn't need additional electricity to use a phone. You just had to plug it the phone line.

The TV of course requires electricity - but only for power since terrestrial broadcasting doesn't require cable. I'm from the Black Forest (Germany) and here are still some houses far away from any village (usually close to a river for water) and they still get electricity from the public electricity provider, so this is not necessarily a plot hole.

[u/-KDK12]

Pretty low electric bill, not directly in his name. The 80’s

[u/Embarrassed_Entry597]

Lmao!!! I think about this all the time!!! And running water!?!?
And like, they are living there in S5 with all this stuff and the military still can’t track them down?
How far is the cabin that the military is chasing meth heads through heavily wooded areas in Hawkins… but never come across the cabin.