Power Blackouts – how you going to cope?

Interesting. Lighting is all electric, but cooking and heating are gas, so I’ve a little diversity of supply. We have a coal fire, and I keep a stock of heating coal but not more than 5 days worth I shouldn’t think. I have candles, again not very many. Also I’ve got things like double glazing, sleeping bags, flashlights and a good store of tools.

I’ve no resilience at all in terms of food supplies. Couple of days of disruption to supply chains would see me getting pretty stressed.

Assuming I’ve got food, and there aren’t any zombies to worry about though I’d basically be alright I think. I go to bed early, exercise quite a lot, mind my garden, talk to people and indulge in occasional copulation. None of that needs a lot of power.

This has nothing to do with the news that there is predicted large amounts of shale gas in the country. Just under every national park.

BigDummy, I’d recommend stocking-up with at least two weeks’ worth of food. The shops close early when the sh*t hits the fan.

That seems wise. It is good to think on these matters.

Too late. Just got back from the supermarket. The shelves are empty. Not a candle, torch, lantern to be had. Bread and milk totally sold out. A few fans to be had though…

Not forgetting your water storage. You never know…

Ah, that’ll be our super privatised electricity companies at work…

Or the last 30 years worth of Govt’s not actually having a strategy that ensured we’d adequate power plants – plus signing up to agreements to reduce co2 etc without having a ‘plan’ for generate enough electricity.

Multi fuel been in for years, generator in van. That’ll easily run the c/h boiler and a kettle at a push…

Multi fuel been in for years, generator in van. That’ll easily run the c/h boiler and a kettle at a push…

Living down the road from a large electric steelworks with 4 huge furnaces all requireing hugeamounts of power power curts where frequent to keep it going, i can remember the petrol pumps with big wind up handles in the front to turn repeatedly for fuel, the same with the tills, there would be a rush for parafin and candles, torch batteries where expensive and non rechargeable, we boiled water on an open fire for tea, and went to the local chippy for food lit with parafin lamps.
Not many people had fridges or freezers,and computers hadnt been invented.

Oh happy days.

Oh and if the power goes off how is the sewage going to be pumped and also the gas and water.

Is this press release purely coincidental out at the same time as the Shale Gas is our saviour press release.

I’ll be stuffed

But I think they mean power cuts to large users who have accepted the risk as part of their contracts

With a torch, but I will most likely be out turning it off anyway….

Is this press release purely coincidental out at the same time as the Shale Gas is our saviour press release.

No, its to coincide with ALDI selling petrol generators 🙂

https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-specialbuys-4th-july/product-detail/ps/p/800w-generator/

Get your stocks of 2-stroke oil in.

dear lord – how many folk are going to cause sparks bodging them into their houses……

More so – where are they going to get their fuel from 😉

Oh and if the power goes off how is the sewage going to be pumped and also the gas and water.

All the Water and sewage companies are building large power generation programs as we speak. Your water company and Thames water are the two big leaders in this field and both have some huge poo to power generation facilities which not only make the sewage works where they reside carbon neutral, but actually contribute to the national grid.

UU’s largest at Davyhulme (you’ll see the two huge methane domes as you drive over Barton bridge), generates 9MW. There are more smaller ones around the region. Over your way, Ellesmere port and Bromborough both have CHP units that are working their way to making the plants carbon neutral and beyond.

There are further huge scale biomass energy generation plants being built to process organic refuse. Teeside and Widnes have both been targeted as locations for multi-megawatt generation facilities.

Further to this, all large electricity users are being approached for discussions on how they can manage their facilities to avoid brown outs at peak periods already. So for example, a supermarket chain that uses lots of refrigeration units, could agree to allow them to be automatically spun down slightly during periods of high demand to ensure the grid does not drop below an acceptable level. Large businesses like water companies, steel works and the like are also areas where demand can be smoothed out to help balance the load.

The original bbc article suggests there will be blackouts…if nothing is done but there is plenty being done which that article does not take into account.

handy for caravanning, camping, domestic power cuts and more.

@ 92dB they’re having a laugh! 😯

Honda EU10i 1,000W @ 52dB

Only costs 14x as much though 😉

More BBC propaganda to prepare us for what? Fracking and a bigger nuclear programme I suspect.

I’d cope fine, I’d just have to run everything electrical in the day and remember to charge the bike lights and car battery. A wood burner I can cook on and solar panels that produce nearly double the electricity I consume make us self-sufficient in energy.