Author Topic: Power cuts: are you prepared?  (Read 4994 times)

Power cuts: are you prepared?
« on: 09 October, 2021, 06:36:40 pm »
I have been going through the rechargeable batteries and lamps recently.  And, I ordered an couple of extra Black Diamond camping lantern which are relatively small and run on three aaa cells.  I already have one of these lanterns so know what I am getting into.

I was fantasising about a 240v battery pack to power the freezer and the boiler in the event of power cuts but it's a bit of overkill really especially so as there are no expensive sides of beef or pork or even a turkey for Christmas as we don't eat meat at the moment.

We have grch so a power cut will turn the boiler off.  Fortunately the two gas fires downstairs are still connected and work so we can keep warm.  And, the cooker is gas so other than matches ...

Anybody else prepared or even bothered?

Kim

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Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #1 on: 09 October, 2021, 06:51:14 pm »
We've got a sufficiency of torches and bike lights and so forth.  And an 800Wh e-bike battery and a couple of 50Wh power tool batteries that can provide USB power.

Most critical systems are on a UPS that's good for about an hour, except for those fed from the downstairs comms rack, which has been awaiting delivery of a UPS for months due to brexit, and the fire alarm, which has its own battery that should last for over a day.

Gas hob and a sufficiency of camping stoves, but the boiler requires mains power.  I have an inverter which is probably up to the job, but it requires 12V from the car I haven't got.  Lack of running hot water is going to turn to type 2 fun very quickly given barakta's current hygiene situation.  Lack of a sufficiency of cold water is well into type 3 fun.

The fridge can stay shut in the event of a power cut.  It's usually got several litres of milk and orange juice in it, so that's a decent amount of thermal mass.

Wombat

  • Is it supposed to hurt this much?
Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #2 on: 09 October, 2021, 07:30:44 pm »
We live in the middle of nowhere in rural Wales, so yes...

We always have several charged torches, lamps, etc., and several reasonably meaty powerbanks so we can keep mobile devices charged. My phone (Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 pro) lasts at least 3 days on a charge.  Mind you, round here the phone signal is a bit sketchy, and I'm unconvinced as to our fibre only landline working with no mains.  It does have a battery backup in the modem box, but its BT, so I don't trust it to work.

We have a logpile, and a wood burning stove, but we generally have oil fired central heating, which of course needs mains elec to work.  The house does have a generator input socket, but we don't as yet have a generator.  I'm hopeful that with the aid of a generator, the solar PV could be persuaded that we had mains, so could play its part in supplying electricity, but of course on dismal days it may only do a few hundred watts. 

We always keep a healthy supply of food in the house, because the nearest shops are 12 miles away and they're crap, so effectively its 25 miles or so.  I did notice that our supply of Tunnocks caramel wafers was critically low, as we only have about 20 packs left.  We have gas fired camping stoves, and an effing great propane cylinder which will run one of them for a long time.

Kim's mention of an inverter does remind me that I've got one, and we have two ickle cars, so I wonder if they could be persuaded to fool the PV system that we have mains, via the input socket, or at least be able to charge a laptop or run the desktop PC.
Wombat

Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #3 on: 09 October, 2021, 08:11:40 pm »
Two woodburners, LPG hob , firepit , full logstore and plenty of candles which were purchased for the 3 Day week by in laws.
Can always go to bed or sit in the camper.
Will Boris be brave enough to order the Grid to  fire up some of the Trent valley coal burning power stations to avoid any outages?

Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #4 on: 09 October, 2021, 08:14:22 pm »
Main problem would be heating. The gas boiler needs the electricity  to light it. Same for cooker, don’t think it has battery backup like cookers of old. Do have matches or steel strike for a spark. So no heating or hot food (maybe in latter case). Have camping stoves. Have various torches and candles about.  If gas goes then no heating or cooking other than camping stokes.

House does retain the heat though.  When gas cut off for a month (due to broken pipe beyond property that took them ages to sort) many years ago. The lowest temp the house dropped to in winter was 13C.

Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #5 on: 09 October, 2021, 08:34:11 pm »
Re landlines not working - they will. They run on a 24dc battery back-up.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #6 on: 09 October, 2021, 08:48:47 pm »
Bottle of meths so I can use my Trangia, and a gas canister for the little camping stove.  That's drinks and heating simple food items sorted out.

ian

Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #7 on: 09 October, 2021, 09:23:49 pm »
With somewhere north of 400 bottles of gin I’m not sure I’m going to care if the power goes out.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #8 on: 09 October, 2021, 09:30:38 pm »
Very well prepared, plenty of batteries, gas cooker, camping gear, wood.

Mrs ED has been cornering the market in tinned pulses and we have tubs full of dried as well (she's of Indian background) so we won't starve over a couple of days. Depending on the state of the freezer though, I may need to be roasting meat over another fire.

Plus the veg patch
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #9 on: 09 October, 2021, 10:01:15 pm »
Trangia and fuel. Hurricane lamp and paraffin. Manually charged LED lamps. Battery operated LED lamps. Candles from the last one. Pasta and pulses. Lots of tins of things various, sleeping bags and quilts. Barbeque kettle, We will get by.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #10 on: 09 October, 2021, 10:05:54 pm »
With somewhere north of 400 bottles of gin I’m not sure I’m going to care if the power goes out.
Buys train ticket to Iansville.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #11 on: 09 October, 2021, 10:06:36 pm »
Also:
<fingers in ears> la la la I can't hear you </fingers>
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #12 on: 09 October, 2021, 10:20:56 pm »
Ooh the happy days of Ted Heath. Its all coming back to me, 3 day week, unnanounced power outages, share a bath with a friend, a pay rise every month.......Now why did we join the EU?
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #13 on: 09 October, 2021, 10:26:28 pm »
This is what burkshit is all about.  No?

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #14 on: 09 October, 2021, 10:27:08 pm »
In the days of Ted Heath or Harold Wilson virtually no one worked with a computer, or at home, and even typewriters were usually manual. Zoinks to the economic knock-ons of a prolonged power cut nowadays. Plus I'm remembering another thread where some people (ian, Regulator?) were talking about how hospital emergency generators basically don't work.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #15 on: 09 October, 2021, 10:52:17 pm »
Has PB moved to Beirut?
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #16 on: 09 October, 2021, 10:55:27 pm »
I reckon the chaos really sets in when the cell sites run out of backup power.

The Great Silly Oak Substation Fire suggests that this is of the order of hours, rather than days.  They're not sheds full of batteries like in the 1990s

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #17 on: 09 October, 2021, 10:57:11 pm »
Power cuts here are so infrequent and short that I don't care.

Do you live somewhere with a bad history of power outages?

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
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Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #18 on: 09 October, 2021, 11:13:01 pm »
Not yet.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #19 on: 09 October, 2021, 11:29:42 pm »
Power cuts here are so infrequent and short that I don't care.
Do you live somewhere with a bad history of power outages?

Here in Outer Suburbia, my power outages occur about once per year and vary in length.

My gas central heating is mains dependant we'd get cold and have no hot water. (How I  miss my tank!)

I can light the gas hob with a match and we have a stove-top kettle too (just for outages).

I'm not safe with candles so I'd sit in the dark or maybe use a torch.

Fridge & freezer would be left closed. I have some andline phones that are not mains dependant.

I'd lose my broadband unless I can tether my laptop to D's phone. Have thick duvets.

E-on is aware I have mobility issues and store medication in the fridge; this gives me some priority but I know not how much.

Jaded

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Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #20 on: 09 October, 2021, 11:51:57 pm »
With somewhere north of 400 bottles of gin I’m not sure I’m going to care if the power goes out.
Buys train ticket to Iansville.

 :thumbsup:

Except it is in Here Be Bears
It is simpler than it looks.

Kim

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Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #21 on: 10 October, 2021, 12:01:32 am »
Perhaps the real question should be "Utilities too expensive to use: Are you prepared?"

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #22 on: 10 October, 2021, 12:15:50 am »
Or, Do you have enough gin?

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #23 on: 10 October, 2021, 12:23:20 am »
The future is Gin Stoves.

Do you have one?
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: Power cuts: are you prepared?
« Reply #24 on: 10 October, 2021, 07:38:36 am »
Very much like Helly we're marked down as vulnerable due to Mrs M's issues, but I doubt that moves us up the heap for any assistance.

Heating is the main issue, we're on the usual gas fired, electric pumped boiler.
Cooking we could do for a day or two on the camping stove I've got stashed away (with spare canisters), and there's another stove at the allotment.
Lighting would be by torches and bike lights.
We've got a small hand cranked radio/light/USB-charger combo for entertainment & exercise.

The freezer, although we'll stocked, would stay firmly closed.
We have blankets & duvets (and our love to keep us warm {yuk})

I think we'd be OK for a couple of days, but not if its the zombie apocalypse.
Too many angry people - breathe & relax.