Preparedness for when

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Any way of finding how much leccy a router uses without buying a device to monitor it? Apart from turning everything else off and watching the meter move, obvs?

Look at the rating plate, which is probably on the wall wart plug. It should give you voltage and ampage.
In my case 240V and 140mAmp, type the figures into this site and press the calculate button. In my example (a Netgear router) the wattage is 33.6W, or near enough 30 hours use for the cost of 1KWH or a half penny per hour.

mardatha

I've just been pondering this, fridges and freezers thing. My mum never had a fridge in her life and she managed fine - and I can't remember milk or butter ever going off...don't think Scotland ever gets that warm tbh!
My f/f is a huge (pink elephant I think) American Samsung. The digital temp readout dropped like a brick during recent power cuts and now I just don't think i can trust it. Options seem to be hellishly complicated (solar) or hellishly expensive (sell it and get 2 separate units) -and I think I'll just need to move away from foods dependant on them.

[Deleted User]

You can make a really effective fridge from two large (one slightly smaller than the other) terracotta flower pots, some sand and some water. The how to is on the Selfsufficientish website under Nevs Tips. You pack the sand under and between the walls of the two pots, then damp the sand with water, cover it with a damp cloth and stand it in the shade and it works well to keep things cool. You have to make sure and keep the sand damp all the time. Very low tech and needs no electricity, it's like standing the milk in a bowl of cold water and covering the bottle with a terracotta flower pot, the milk stays cool due to the evaporation of the water. Very old fashioned but it works!!!

bluebag

jk0 wrote: »

The problem is there is not enough in the FSCS kitty for everyone to draw out their savings under £85k.

If there was another bank run, (remember Northern Rock in 2007), at a much larger establishment, they would have to impose withdrawal limits of a few hundred pounds as they did in Cyprus, Iceland etc.

This may not be an issue in this country as we have the ability to print money at will, very different with the Euro or currencies pegged to the dollar.

We don't really even have any 'real' money in the bank, we have bank credit and that just needs someone to create that with a keypad stroke.

Folding money is just a piece of paper, it's the faith we put in it to be able to use it to buy goods and services that makes it money.

The real killer is if raw money or bank credit is created then it devalues the purchasing power of that money.

You will always be able to get your cash from the bank, what it will buy you is another matter.

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

Have you got an electricty meter with a flashing light? Mine flashes 600 times per kWh I believe. You just time how long it is between flashes in seconds, multiplying by 600 gives you the time to use 1 kWh. Divide 3600 by this time gives you the consumption in kW.

A router should use only about 10 watts, so you may have to wait around ten minutes between flashes.

nuatha wrote: »

Look at the rating plate, which is probably on the wall wart plug. It should give you voltage and ampage.
In my case 240V and 140mAmp, type the figures into this site and press the calculate button. In my example (a Netgear router) the wattage is 33.6W, or near enough 30 hours use for the cost of 1KWH or a half penny per hour.

Thank you, gents.

Dunno if the leccy meter has a flashing light - it's in a cupboard outside the flat and I won't be back until tomorrow but I'd be interested to know. I did have my fridge off for 2 weeks in July when I was away and I expected to really notice the difference in the leccy usage but it was negligable.

Mardatha, interesting about the freezer/ fridge comment. My flat is very warm, winter and summer, but I'd be prepared to give fridge-less living a go when necessary. These utility companies carry on much further with the old price hiking and they'll drive some of us off-grid or into really Old Style living.

Funny how just about the most radical thing you can do in this era is not to be a good consumer.

I have to go now to make a trifle; duty calls.

jk0

nuatha wrote: »

How long will your freezer maintain temperature without any power? How long will it take to come back down to -18C from -5C?
If your freezer will maintain temperature for 24 hours and regain temp in 6, then the booster pack will give you around 80 hours without mains power by only using it twice (after 24 hours for 6 hours, and repeat).
It happens I have a couple of large Igloo Maxcold cool boxes, I had a freezer failure, the food stayed frozen in these for 5 days while I sorted out a replacement freezer, its not the reason I bought those in the first place, but it is the reason that I wouldn't buy anything else if I needed more cool boxes.

Thanks Nuatha,

Those Maxcold boxes look interesting, but you have given me another idea. Rather than store the energy in batteries, I am going to store it in these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermos-Weekend-Ice-Pack-400g/dp/B0001MQ8GC/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1_QDM4

I am going to sacrifice a shelf in my freezer to these, and have ordered five packs of them. For some reason Amazon won't let me order more than that at once, even if I put in two orders.

BigMummaF

I know we here, have not been personally affected by floods &/or power cuts. I know my family, personally, have been fortunate to not be affected by travel delays. You know what's coming next... & here it comes... BUT!


Am I the only one who finds the current crop of people being interviewed, as incredibly selfish in their anger?
Admittedly crimbly is possibly the worst time of year for this type of thing to happen; (if you're fortunate) your cupboards are stuffed to the gunnels with gifts & delicious treats you deny yourself for the rest of the year, the fridge & freezer is struggling to cope with the extra content as it is & things are not where they should be because of guests descending & things.


I really don't know what the power companies could do differently. They have to find where the ruddy break is--let alone try to fix it--in the dark, gales & downpour.
So there were difficulties trying to get through on the phone, but there were thousands of other households also trying to get info, ditto the environment guys. One chap was bemoaning the fact they were not told to evacuate earlier while the weather wasn't so bad, but would they have gone or be on tv having a go because there was no need for them to move out (cuz the wind shifted direction or summink, for example) & couldn't get the turkey stuffed on time.


Of course I feel incredibly sad for those whose crimbo was rained off, but their reactions annoy me beyond words. My real sympathies lie with the homeless, the hungry & the war-weary who have to live like this for years.

GreyQueen

I hear what you're saying, BigMummaF.

Was rather ticked at a flooded householder complaining on TV that "the council" hadn't provided them with a skip to sling their sodden and ruined possessions into.

I work for a council. We don't provide skips. Don't even own the beggars. If we want to use them ourselves, it's Yillow Pages and hire one. Councils don't provide lots of things which individual private householders might need once in a blue moon. You sort it out yourself and hope that the cost is covered by the contents insurance.

There seems to be a lack of a wider view in this life. So many people seem bound and determined to put decking or impermeable surfaces over every bit of earth that they personally control in their own gardens. Add that to the roads, pavements, paved areas and you inevitably end up with a lot of surface water flooding.

But could you imagine the opprobrium if "the council" had the power to enforce the removal of such impermeable surfaces for the common good? To prevent someone down the road having their home saturated with mucky water and all their treasured stuff sodden and stinky and ruined?

I've often thought that we have a tension between wanting to be free to do what we want yet wanting to be protected from the consequences of other people doing what they want.

But, as we have comic line in my immediate family; Someone's Got to Be Blamed.

If all else fails, responsibility defaults onto the nearest cat. Being cats, they don't give a four ecks........:rotfl:

mardatha

Agree with you BMF, I was listening to them on tv and thought the same thing... the council doesnt control the weather. And these people were free to leave whenever, nobody kept them in their homes until the water came in.

westcoastscot

We didn't have a fridge when I was little - milk was purchased everyday and put in a bucket of cold water with a damp tea towel over the top.
I have two small freezers but tend not to keep anything of monetary value in them as we have lots of power cuts. I've cut down even more lately and could fit everything into one, so when one of the kids needs one i'll pass one on.

Nuatha can you explain more about recent banking legislation? I don't have much wealth in money (but am rich in other ways) but want to hang onto what I do have. Thanks,

WCS