What arrangements have you made for cooking should the energy be turned off?

I understand that the power cuts will only last three hours and we will have prior notice. So really not much of an inconvenience.
During the war we often went without electricity but did have open fires and a anthracite fuelled boiler for hot water.
In Spain during the sixties there were very frequent unannounced cuts owing to the Spanish getting new appliances for the first time and overloading the system and cutting off the water supply but we managed.
I am all electric but have a wind up torch and windup radio and an LED lamp which will be kept charged up and can managed without hot food or drinks for three hours.

We have a wood burner with a flat top so could cook easily but not conveniently, so would stay warm too. If it comes to survival we are well placed it’s those in flats that are going to be badly affected.

If power cuts do happen I presume they will be scheduled and we'll have forewarning allowing us time to fill flasks with hot drinks and prepare meals or snacks in advance. We're an all electric house but we can cook simple foods (eg. Jacket Potatoes) in our multifuel boiler and keep hot foods warm on top of it if need be. When we went camping many years ago I remember making cheese on toast with a blowtorch! If power cuts are only 3 or 4 hours I don't think we'll starve. I think I'll miss the TV and the radio more than food

I have enjoyed power cuts in the past! All the family had a paraffin hurricane lamp (safe) and we played board games and were a little disappointed when the lights came back on! Now I have bought two lamps with re-chargeable batteries which I really like, will be able to play Scrabble, and can read my Kindle as well as listen to my radio (rechargeable batteries, which I have already) Blankets to keep warm if need be. Safe lighting is the key thing for me and I am glad to have those lamps.

If it's close to meal times we are just going to do casseroles or foods that can stay on keep warm setting in the ninja and cook them early to finish and kick in to the keep warm setting so that when the power goes off I can just wrap the whole unit with tin foil to keep warm and not open it until we need it. I'm told it's 3 hours and if I'm reading the block chart that was posted online by media mines between 3:30am & 6am on a Friday morning. So hopefully won't need to prep at all. Although it's close to breakfast time. My son only eats cold breakfast, hubby rises later, so there's only my coffee to worry about which can be kept in a flask.

I have ensured the power will not go off by buying a one ring camping thingy so as I can boil a kettle and heat soup (the principle is the same as taking an umbrella out, which ensures it won't rain!!)

We have a gas barbecue, camping gas 2 ring cooker, gas hob and log burner.
Didn't have any of this in the 70s and 1 can remember lighting candles and turning the cooker off as I couldn't see what I was doing in the kitchen. We had a very late dinner that night

I returned from living in portugal to move to a new place with three day week. it had storage heaters which came on and off at odd times because of the power going off and I got quite a lot of bruises bashing into them as didnt know the huse well enough, but we had camping gas stove and the beloved tilley light, which can be fiddley to put a hew mantle in but was great and was used camping on the boat etc and we had a big superser bottled gas fire as we had been in an earthquake zone so did ok. Cant manage brisk walking these days so will make up a couple of casseroles and split them up into single portions, made some good soup so that is quite good with some lovely wholemeal bread. Have to hunt round for my head light, used to use it for the boat and so forth. It may look daft but gives me light on a head band so doesnt need hands to use it. My friend and I have already said if there is a lot of power cuts we will take turns and go to each others house. One lot of heating whatever for 2 of us, and we have plenty to chat about. Any way my absolutely go to place, so long as I have fuel is to drive up to my beloved Swaledale and sit up there surrounded by beauty and memories. Have the binoculars and enjoy the trees and watch the birds especially the curlews, oyster catchers and snipe. Have a couple of thermos so soup in one and with that and my cafetiere of fresh coffee and a thin fleecy blanket shall be perfectly happy.

Luckily we are able to store our touring caravan in our rear garden, so we’ll just pretend we’re on a camp site. Gas heating, cooker and hot showers. We’ll even sleep in it if the house gets too cold, very cosy, but maybe not the wonderful views I’m used to seeing from my bedroom window ?.

I live in a bungalow without a gas supply so everything relies on electricity. I have a small camping gas stove for emergencys and pleantly of torches, not a lot more I can do really.

We bought a little camping stove with a small gas bottle as we were badly affected by storm Arwen last year and without power for a while so are prepared for any future power cuts , we are all electric but will be getting a wood burner soon

I know how to cook a complete meal inside my multifuel burner

got a gas top stove that will light with the power off. The safety aspect is that you have to keep the gas knob pressed in until the burner is hot so the gas can't be turned on accidentally. Also got two camping gaz burners, a camping gaz grill and two charcoal barbecues. I'll probabaly eat cold though.

Wyllow3

Esspee

I thought cookers today wouldn’t allow the gas to flow if the electric ignition wasn’t functioning. It is a compulsory safety feature, so I was told.

Mine works with cigarette lighter as the electric thingy has broken and it did before.

Luckily I've just bought a mini rechargeable lighter (because it was half-price, and I'm sick of trying to strike matches) Must check it's charged though. www.scottsofstow.co.uk/neostar-mini-ignite/

I lived for 40 years in a rural area where power cuts were frequent and long-lasting. We had a solid-fueld stove for heating, hot water and cooking.plus a bottle-gas water heater for times when the stove was out. There was a camping gaz stove, two oil lamps and boxes annd boxes of candles. Plus a candlestick in every room, ready to light at all times.

Fleurpepper

Callistemon21

We bought a pack of these. That's it, really.

No gas here, so no point.

The only gas we have is a 2 ring camping stove with 2 small canisters, and matches. Matches work fine.

Are you all-electric or does your CH run on oil, Fleurpepper

There are a lot of people here in rural Wales who have oil for CH and hot water but presumably the boiler needs to have an electric spark to ignite, as does a gas boiler, so the CH and hot water go off anyway in an outage.

MawtheMerrier

Callistemon21
We bought a pack of these. That's it, really


I thought they were bottle openers!
Pretty useful too, though
#shouldhavegonetospecsavers

Yes, they're essential too. ?

Got a 'crockpot' and an old tagine - so could cook with wood in the half-drum bbq in the garden.

Callistemon21
We bought a pack of these. That's it, really


I thought they were bottle openers!
Pretty useful too, though
#shouldhavegonetospecsavers

Callistemon21

We bought a pack of these. That's it, really.

No gas here, so no point.

The only gas we have is a 2 ring camping stove with 2 small canisters, and matches. Matches work fine.

just looked at the Facebook page about cooking on a log burner. It makes it sound all very complicated.

We lost our gas for a fortnight in November 2019, and intermittently for the rest of the winter, and yes, every time it went off. Gas engineers had to make house to house visits when it went back on.

But as for cooking, we are a casserole and stew household and I just assembled all the ingredients for a casserole into a casserole, ideally cast iron, and put it on the burner in the morning. Potatoes got put on top of it for about half an hour before eating. I got a hob kettle and kept that on the stove most of the day, so cooking veg was easy as well, chop and put in a saucepan and pour boiling water over and put on the hob. It was all pretty straight forward.

The gas should stay on shouldn't it. We did lose our gas for a week once in January. The gas engineers had to visit every home to turn us back on.

Esspee

I thought cookers today wouldn’t allow the gas to flow if the electric ignition wasn’t functioning. It is a compulsory safety feature, so I was told.

Our hob is two tears old and we can light burners independently.

DH has bought a new gas bottle for the BBQ. We can use it outside undercover. So he can cook in the cold if needed. We have a little gas camping stove too from when the youngest went on ATC camps. Would they be safe in the kitchen do you think? I would open the kitchen window.

I would try and manage with hot drinks from a flask if the power was off for 2 or 3 hours.

I will Cook on my multi/ log burner. I have collected from charity shops suitable pans and also joined a group on Facebook called cooking on wood burners. It’s been a really helpful site with lots of tips and help for us who are new to it.

Callistemon21

Elegran

Here is a link to the actual plan for sceduling powercuts, should they become necessary.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/995049/esec-guidance.pdf
You can find out what reference letter your house comes under from your power bill. It will be " a letter, often boxed, located near the top. Note that not every energy supplier will include your load block on your energy bills, so if this is the case you will need to contact them directly to find out." When you have this, look in the rota tables.

I just had a look at this, Elegran and it seems to be a version which was Revised in November 2019.

Surely it must have been updated since then, as other events have changed the likelihood of outages?

Of course it will be largely unchanged - the area labels will be the same as they used to be, because they define the areas controlled by master switches in the Grid control centres. The central Grid wiring and switching map has not changed materially in four years, so a rota for throwing those switches in an emergency will be as valid now as in 2019. If you can find a revised version, do post it.

I don't think it is claimed to be something new. It is not a novelty for the electricity supplies to face a threat which may cause them to have to impose blackouts and it is not surprising that a system has been devised and still exists unchanged.

I have just shown it to my son-in-law, who says that it looks very like the rota that they received from their electricity supplier during the 1970's power cuts. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose , except that with the internet the rota is more accessible, and earlier, now than it was in the 70's.