Power cuts - are you prepped?

Perhaps time to buy a generator. We have solar power for hot water, bought a camping stove and canisters in case our electric stove cannot work, got a barbecue with plenty of wood, and a large wood burner, and plenty of candles.

It's as far as I will prepare.

karmalady I just remembered that I kept a very cheap basic plug in phone. Just a precaution in case emergency services is needed
The same applies to you, switch off your electricity and plug the phone into the phone socket to see if it works.

Chestnut

karmalady I just remembered that I kept a very cheap basic plug in phone. Just a precaution in case emergency services is needed
The same applies to you, switch off your electricity and plug the phone into the phone socket to see if it works.

Wouldn’t you know if your line had been changed to digital though? When mine was, I received about five communications from BT in total, with a specific date for the transfer, and they upgraded my broadband receiver for free so it was matched for the digital phone system?

Yes you would be told, just being cautious in case someone was relying on the phone working and then found it wouldn't.

Fleurpepper

Perhaps time to buy a generator. We have solar power for hot water, bought a camping stove and canisters in case our electric stove cannot work, got a barbecue with plenty of wood, and a large wood burner, and plenty of candles.

It's as far as I will prepare.

I read your comment to my husband.

He's searching generators as I type.

We have gas cooker/hob, wood, candles, torches - but every time the power is out we need hot water, lights, refrigerators, computers, phones etc.

OH needs to run his office. Perfect Solution.

solar thermal for hot water has an electric pump to get the hot water into the tank fleurpepper

This tells about using your mobile phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot:

learningenglish.voanews.com/a/phone-wifi-hotspot/3690714.html

I use my phone as a hotspot whenever Wi-Fi is down.

My neighbours have a generator they’ve used occasionally during power cuts. It’s very loud.

Why are so many people buying candles when modern torches/lanterns with LED bulbs can give off far far more light than a candle?

The light from a candle is so meagre and the danger of fire is so high. All you need is a couple of good sized torches, at least one with a small LED tube for a decent light and a reasonable supply of batteries.

Not to mention that if you go to any bargain shop or sewing shop you can by all kinds of battery operated clip on lights with flexible stems that it should be more than possible to keep doing all your activities as normal. Most computers these days have batteries, so that even if the internet is down, most people working from hand will be able to continue as normal.

Since the 1970s we now have so many devices consuming very little power and running off batteries. Sitting in the cold with no lights on belongs, quite literally to the dark ages.

We don't buy candles specifically for outages, we use candles on the table often. Especially useful if there was no electricity.

We put candles on the mantelpiece on front of the mirror, so that they throw out more light.

Candles are prettier than torches and if you are in the cold they make me feel warmer. We have some small pop up camping lights that are portable, safe and cheap to buy and normally use them in the Summer outdoors.

Make sure that there are plenty of batteries in the house.

There isn’t any reason that a mobile phone won’t work in a power cut unless it’s battery is flat.

I put night lights on a plate and then put the plate somewhere really safe away from anything flammable. My small torches don’t seem to last very long. The best one I have is a wind up one that my son gave me when we seemed to be having a lot of power cuts a long time ago.

Sorry M0nica, but my gas hob won’t turn on the gas if the electronic ignition isn’t working - presumably a safety feature. It’s a very annoying one in the context of power cuts!

We keep a safety gas lighter for the bbq GrannySomerset it will be used for the gas hob if required.

Jaxjacky

We keep a safety gas lighter for the bbq GrannySomerset it will be used for the gas hob if required.

We light the hob with a bbq lighter, works a treat.

When is the planned power cut? I’ve heard nothing…

There is no planned power cut.

CrazyH the probbaility of a power cut is minute. National Grid were doing their usual winter scenario planning; What if the temperature stays at 20 degrees all winter, what if we have an exceptionally cold winter, and everything in between, but because the energy supply is undoubtedly more unstable than in recent years, people obviously jumped at the extreme cold scenario and took it to be considerably more probable than it actually is.

I think we just all enjoy the mental exercise that planning for extremes gives us.

M0nica

CrazyH the probbaility of a power cut is minute. National Grid were doing their usual winter scenario planning; What if the temperature stays at 20 degrees all winter, what if we have an exceptionally cold winter, and everything in between, but because the energy supply is undoubtedly more unstable than in recent years, people obviously jumped at the extreme cold scenario and took it to be considerably more probable than it actually is.

I think we just all enjoy the mental exercise that planning for extremes gives us.

Good job we did just that when Storm Alma hit us last year!

MayBee70, but surely that is the point. the very cold winter is very unlikely, but if it happens, National Grid is prepared because they have planned how to deal with it.

And most of us have already thought through as well, done the strategic planning and can now forget about it unless it happens, in which case we are ready and prepared.

karmalady

solar thermal for hot water has an electric pump to get the hot water into the tank fleurpepper

ah well, we won't shower then. Back to top and tail at the sink with water heated on wood burner lol.

Fleurpepper

karmalady

solar thermal for hot water has an electric pump to get the hot water into the tank fleurpepper

ah well, we won't shower then. Back to top and tail at the sink with water heated on wood burner lol.

We have a pressurised water tank - so no electric pump needed to run the shower!

If everyone said "It is unlikely to happen, so I won't plan for it" then if the system did overload in severe weather, and hence if cuts did happen (which is one of the potential scenarios predicted in the forecasts) there would be chaos, hardship and deaths. The emergency services would have to cope with calls from thousands of people freezing in their homes, schools would close unexpectedly, hospitals would have to turn swiftly to generators, and the cry then would be "We didn't know!" The traditional answer to that is "Well, you know now'!"

I don't think a 3 hour power cut, notified in advance, will lead to chaos. And schools won't close unexpectedly because it will be notified in advance. And the hospital generators will be fired up.

Preparation is fine. Predicting Armageddon, less so.

Yesterday I bought a pretty little tea-light holder and a pack of 20 scented tea-lights. Total cost £4.25.