Preparedness for when

THIRZAH

My gas hob lights with a match. We were without power for the best part of a day a couple of winters ago .I could cook on the hob , use the gas fire and listened to the battery radio but got very bored once it got dark as couldn't read or sew by candlelight.

Cooking by candlelight was a bit of a challenge too.

RAS

Tink_04 wrote: »

For those of us still new to prepping what things woild work in a blackout situation? Would my gas hob? Would the water? What would be the first thing people did? Oh and what basics would you need apart from candles?

In a black out the first thing is light. Do you have a torch (preferably wind-up) which is always kept in the same place?

Next candles and lanterns.

Do you know if your gas hob will work without the peizo? Check now.

If not, or if you are electric, get some sort of small gas stove (less than a tenner) and at least 2, preferably more, canisters. It may be worth checking which canisters you can get easily and cheaply in your area.

A few thermos flasks can be useful if there are rolling power cuts.

Gas central heating does not work as the pumps are electric. So you will need to set this to come on when the power turns back on.

Hot water bottles are useful and the water can be used to wash the following morning when it still be at least blood heat.

bluebag

THIRZAH wrote: »

My gas hob lights with a match. We were without power for the best part of a day a couple of winters ago .I could cook on the hob , use the gas fire and listened to the battery radio but got very bored once it got dark as couldn't read or sew by candlelight.

Cooking by candlelight was a bit of a challenge too.

I have a small battery powered booklight cost me about £3 works well as it just illuminates the page. Cooking is easier with a head torch, they don't cost much either.

I find tea lights in jars with foil reflectors for room light , they don't last that long but you can afford to have lots of them dotted around and they are easy to source and very cheap.

Remember to close all the curtains to keep the warmth in and get blankets and hot water bottles out early before everyone gets cold ,it's easier to keep warm than get warm.

RAS

bluebag wrote: »

I have a small battery powered booklight cost me about £3 works well as it just illuminates the page. Cooking is easier with a head torch, they don't cost much either.

If you have a computer with a battery (or anything else with a battery and a USB port), the pound shops sell little LED USB lights. The best ones have 5 lamps on a stick and are currently stocked in yellow and pink. It is about 1 watt.

These are good enough to read by for a short while and type by so may be enough to knit by as well. Just swivel them over the work area.

short_bird

Must check what's going to go off in a block of flats... sometimes, when the power goes off, we have water to flush but no drinking water. Will that always be the case? Must find out _pale_

Tink_04

Whats rolling blackouts? Will the water still pump? Want to be prepared as have a baby in the house so starting a list!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I will prep for this, just incase it does happen, or could it be the energy companies playing games, as the government wants to put a freeze on energy price hikes, so they will have 'rolling blackouts' and say they can not afford to buy in more electric because of the increase in global energy prices etc ( hope that made sense)

We have caravans, so we can use cook etc in there, and we also have a genie, so will have to make sure we have fuel for that.

If they do, do rolling blackouts, does this mean the fuel pumps at the petrol stations will not work??? store tills etc will not work??

Would they do the power cut in the nights? or during they day? because they can:mad::eek::eek:


Edit...

found a link

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/power-shortage-risk-gas-supply-declines-133555456--finance.html#NETTVLd

RAS

Tink_04 wrote: »

Whats rolling blackouts?

Some of us lived through the 3 day week etc in the '70s. Each day was divided into 6 4 hours slots.

Each day you got 2 low level, 2 medium level and 2 high level slots. During a High level slot you could pretty much guarantee no power; do not think we ever had a power cut in a low level slot.

So you had to plan your cooking and heating so that it came on when the power was going to be on (meant over-riding the central heating timer or re-timing it is necessary). If the high level slot was 6-10pm, we would rush home early to prepare a meal and make sure the house was warm etc. If it was high level from 2-6pm we might linger at work/school/visit a mate in a different area and go home for 6pm.

Tink_04 wrote: »

Will the water still pump?

If you are referring to the water company pumping stations; they are considered very high priority; in the old days living close to a priority location meant that you might not get any power cuts yourself.

If there is what the Americans call an outrage and we called Black Friday, then centrally generated power to them might be lost but most have back-up supplies (battery or generator).

Tink_04 wrote: »

Want to be prepared as have a baby in the house so starting a list!

Remember that small babies survive quite well in Arctic Greenland. A papoose is a good thing. Have some hot water in Thermos flasks and even if you do not use them normally a few jars that can be used if necessary. One occasion when breast is definately easier; just use a fleece to cover yourself and the feeder.

RAS

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I will prep for this, just incase it does happen, or could it be the energy companies playing games, as the government wants to put a freeze on energy price hikes, so they will have 'rolling blackouts' and say they can not afford to buy in more electric because of the increase in global energy prices etc ( hope that made sense)

My thoughts as well CTC; good time for them to get this news out there after Millibrand's speech. Try to frighten him off.

However, both gas storage levels and spare generatign capacity have been allowed to decline since privatisation. That's nothing to do with global energy prices and everythign to do with just in time practices.

RAS

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

If they do, do rolling blackouts, does this mean the fuel pumps at the petrol stations will not work??? store tills etc will not work??

It used to be possible to manually operate both but I would expect both to shut down. I suspect card machines would be useless and mobile phones of limited use.

If you have one of those multi-phone systems with docking stations, it pays to know which is the master socket and have an old BT style phone in a cupboard as that will work if you stick it in the master socket.

When Harrogate had a massive power cut on Saturday before Christmas last year, most affected stores closed on H&S grounds; some discovered that they had generators and one very posh jewellers put all their candlebra into use and it was like Aladdin's cave. Looked stunning from outside anyway.

Was weird because parts of streets would come alight for a while and then go dark, with no rhyme nor reason.