Could you cope

[rary]

Funny how your perspective changes as you get older, when we were younger it was at times good fun when there was a power cut, now it's just an inconvenience

[greenishfing]

Funny how your perspective changes as you get older, when we were younger it was at times good fun when there was a power cut, now it's just an inconvenience

Just like a heavy snowfall.....sledge at the ready! Although schools never closed.

[rary]

Yes it was great when schools didn't close just because of a heavy fall of snow, you got playing with the sledge without your children wanting to take it off you

[quanglewangle]

Many moons ago, when the kids were small, we lived up on edge of North York Moors. The kids would make an extensive system of tunnels out the back of the garden where snow would lie on the top of heather, but leave a void of about 30cm underneath. Apparently you just had to part the heather stalks and the snow above was translucent so it wasn't completely dark.

They would pop up out of the snow and startle walkers, who would occasionally try to "rescue" them.

[Mark_Riga]

We have a log burner for use in emergency. The only problem is it is in the conservatory waiting to be installed and has been there about 8 years now. We have plenty of wood about if it ever does get fitted and there is a power cut.

There was a power cut today for 3 hours while a pole was changed that someone drove into a couple of weeks ago. We went to a garden centre for a cup of tea. I was a bit annoyed by it actually as we got back from Dublin at 3 in the morning as our boat was delayed due to the weather - and I was woken by the electric people (Scottish Power) at 7:30am to tell me the electric was about t go off.

[Chestnut]

Listening to the rain hammering on the window, and thinking I wouldn’t want to be out there using my camping stove tonight! Obviously camping stove cannot be used indoors for safety/carbon monoxide reasons, so I must learn to keep a few bits in stock which can be eaten straight out of the packet in case of emergencies...

[bramble]

Having read all the posts on here I am not sure we are 100% ready if our power went off for a long period of time.
Nearly all our appliances are run off electricity.
We have a solid fuel fire but it is behind a glass so it wouldnt be suitable for cooking on.
Our central heating is gas but the pump is electrically controlled.
Electric cooker as well.
Plenty of candles, torches and LED battery lights.
Fortunately my daughter is a 5 minute drive away and had a gas cooker.
My son is a 15 minute drive away and had an open fire.
It has certainly made me stop and think.

[roitelet]

While I wholeheartedly support the move away from fossil fuels I do wonder if the situation has been thought through thoroughly. I have lived with a generator for electricity, solid fuel cooker, gas cooking and open fires and wood burners. I have on several occasions been snowed in without power for five days at a time and finished up with a house full of neighbours because we were warm and had cooking facilities. At the moment I have no central heating wood burners a gas cooker and oil lamps in the event of power cuts. Yes I could cope. I would be very reluctant to move to a house which was totally reliant on electricity.

[Kirk]

Owing to the need of electricity on most items even the gas heating, I suppose the answer is either No, or Badly.

May actually look into a wood burner, house is too new but the area has many houses with chimneys and occasionally they are used. So I may be allowed to put one in - have to enquire.

As I need to remove an internal stud wall putting one in would be a fair idea - if allowed.
May even have lots of fuel in the form of a large tree that needs bringing down.

Do have lights and lots of very warm clothing. Coffee may be a problem but have 2 12v kettles for the car, so could at least make a hot(ish) drink if essential.

May have to consider I suppose a small petrol generator. Likely easiest idea/option.

[nickdub]

If you don't mind looking and/or possibly feeling a bit odd (I don't) then putting in some sort of barbecue or fire pit in the garden where you can burn wood to cook food or boil a kettle in an emergency would be a cheaper option - no help in heating the house of course, but you can't have everything :-)

[bikermike]

We have gas cooking and central heating.
And one generator (and another if I fix it).

What renewable should do is put more generation in local areas to reduce the effect of big failures.

Woking used to be held out as an exemplar of CHP local systems - effectively, if you run a diesel generator for power, you can extract enough of the wasted heat to make it useful as a heat source as well. Don't know if it still is.

[JanieB]

Having been brought up in and lived in fairly remote places for most of my life I have always been prepared for power cuts. I now live in a small rural town that still has them from time to time. I have an open fire in the living room that is rarely lit but I always have wood just in case. I have oil lamps and a bottle of lamp oil. I have a calor gas heater. My new range cooker has gas hobs that I've already found work without electricity. Although not used often, I still have a water tank in the attic. I also have several tea lamp lamps (meant for the garden) that I can use. My late partner had a thing about phones so I have several around that I can plug into the jack without needing electricity.

I'm really interested in finding out how I can run a small chest freezer off grid. I don't think my neighbours would tolerate a noisy generator. At the moment it is incongruently in the lounge. Internet-wise, I can connect for a little while through my phone, but I've found from experience that it's very expensive long term.

I could survive without electricity for quite some time and have had to do so in the past before the technology we have now, although I no longer have a husband to go out and get rabbits etc.

[Snoop Puss]

^It is possible to run chest freezers off grid. In our case, we have all the solar kit to run the rest of the house off grid but at standard mains power, so for us it's relatively feasible.

To reduce costs, you could make your own freezer using a Danfoss compressor and just run it off 12 or 24 volt batteries. But you'd still have to buy batteries and whatever you needed to keep them charged. There's a lot of info and YouTube videos on making your own freezer or fridge using a Danfoss compressor.

The freezer is a total extravagance for us and before we got it (it's a Liebherr, popular with off-gridders because it's so efficient and the walls are so thick), I was thinking of going down the canning route to preserve food. You still need a lot of energy (gas or electricity for the canning process), but once you've got your canned goods, you don't need any more energy thereafter.

[rary]

Snoop do you have storage batteries for your solar panels?

[Snoop Puss]

^Yes, otherwise we'd be in the dark at night. Panels are really cheap these days in comparison with the first one we bought (800 euros for 80 watts; we can now buy them at around 160 euros for 330 watts). But batteries are expensive and prices keep going up.

We bought gel batteries the last time round and are very disappointed with their performance. We've also heard that lithium batteries aren't proving to be all they were cracked up to be. A lot of people we know are being advised to buy lead acid batteries again. Fork lift batteries are becoming popular with people putting in big systems.