Aargh, power cuts!

Saturnalia

Anyone else been affected today?

It started this morning. The electricity went off about 9 and didn't come back on until 1. Then during the afternoon/evening it seemed everything was running at a low level - lights were very dim (and kept going dimmer for several seconds at a time), the washer didn't spin as much water as usual out of the load, the kettle took a long time to boil. Then the power went off again just before 8pm and took until 11 to come on again (I was in bed at 10 sick of sitting in the cold and dark and it was the lights & radio coming on again that woke me just as I was nodding off).

It was strange as the cooker is electric so no means of heating water for drinks or cooking food, and the gas boiler works on electricity so no heating or hot water. Sod's law, I always take my handbag in my room, take out my phone and charge it overnight but forgot to last night, and my 4-year-old laptop doesn't hold much battery charge now, so hadn't much use of either all day.

Luckily the cafe & Chinese on the main road had power so we could buy hot drinks & food (not MSE but it's been too cold to do without coffee & hot food!) I was going to got shopping and slow-cook something for tonight, thank goodness I didn't! And I didn't want to put things in the freezer and risk it thawing as I didn't know how long it would be off tonight. We've kept the fridge & freezer closed during the blackouts so it should have kept adequately cold.

Luckily my live-in landlady and I are fairly young and healthy so could deal with it, but it got us thinking about what would you do at this time of year if you had a baby, were old or ill and needed warmth? I rang UK Power Network (thanks to another thread on here) to report the faults and signed up for text updates on the problem (although the texts stop at 10pm and tonights cut went on past then) but they had no advice on what to do if you were vulnerable. Perhaps their website does but in a power cut you likely wouldn't have use of a computer or modem. The old lady downstairs went to her son's but suppose it had been last year during the blizzards, or he had no car, or had been in work or away, she couldn't have done that.

loracan1

I just about remember the power cuts in the early seventies - so I've always made sure that I have a gas cooker that has battery ignition, which came in handy a couple of years ago! Only the once though. Otherwise they've never lasted more than half an hour or so.

beedeedee

We happen to have one of those gas canister tabletop efforts. They are now down to about a tenner in our local camping shop. Four canisters are about a fiver (maybe less elsewhere) and although you wouldn't want to cook a three course meal - it's very handy to have for power cuts and the like. The canisters can last for years.