Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

Si_Clist wrote: »

Does anybody else remember reading in the papers that they were going to build something called a Nuclear Power Station, and once everybody was plugged into it, electricity was going to be so cheap that it wouldn't be economic to meter it? Every household would just pay a fiver a year or whatever?

Presumably that went the same way as the political party that was going to solve all the world's problems by means of yogic flying. I think they were also promising free spliffs for all if they got in, but maybe I imagined that ...

There are also others with vested interests in not changing anything, such as the oil companies. The problem is that unless we accept that climate change will significantly change the country we live in and are prepared to do something about it then we really should not be moaning about flooding storms and the price of food.

maryb

Yay! My computer is sorted - well getting there, I'm still installing umpteen Windows updates having taken it back to factory settings. Thanks Nuatha!

But I think I will spend some time editing and sorting all the stored info and then print a bit more than I have done in the past. Even a new printer cartridge, expensive though it is, is cheaper than repairing a laptop that has been thrown through the window by an exasperated owner!

nuatha

Frugalsod wrote: »

It is actually very easy for most people to cut their usage quite considerably without a drop in living standards. High efficiency appliances can make a huge difference as well as not leaving things on standby. Most people are idiots if they have not massively insulated their homes. The payback rate is very high and the effective returns are far higher than can be achieved putting the same money on deposit. Draught excluders and loft insulation have very high rates of return. They can pay for themselves in only a couple of years.

That depends on having the knowledge and the finances to be able to do it. Lack of knowledge or money doesn't make one an idiot.
Three winters back I lost heating for several days - the condensate outlet pipe had frozen. I was able to thaw it and resolve the problem eventually, when I spoke to the guy who'd installed it, he said there'd been lots of people with this problem, but he'd never know it occur in previous years - but we had never had a -18C winter since condensing boilers first appeared.
There are devices I choose to keep running 24/7, the convenience is worth the price to me - I'm sure other people have their own justifications for how and what they do, my previous TV was never switched off - doing so was likely to blow an internal fuse when it was switched back on, therefore it ran on standby for 18 months until other faults meant it was worth replacing. (It was safe to use, an electrical engineer friend had checked it out, but the fuse holder wasn't likely to survive many more fuse changes).

maryb wrote: »

Yay! My computer is sorted - well getting there, I'm still installing umpteen Windows updates having taken it back to factory settings. Thanks Nuatha!

I'm pleased I was able to help.

But I think I will spend some time editing and sorting all the stored info and then print a bit more than I have done in the past. Even a new printer cartridge, expensive though it is, is cheaper than repairing a laptop that has been thrown through the window by an exasperated owner!

I was got a phone call from a client, he had a bag of components for me. I arrived to find glaziers putting a bed room window back in.
The desktop computer had exited the bedroom and then been kicked up and down the yard several times.
I returned it fully working two days later, having replaced the case for a spare I had lying around - I have pointed out to that client that laptops are nowhere near as robust as desktops used to be. I also pointed out that a phone call to me was cheaper than replacing a window - but was told a phone call was no where near as satisfying

Backup media, whether external hard drives, USB sticks or blank DVDs are cheap these days. If nothing else back up your documents and files - and check the backups are readable.

mardatha

Nuatha my stove runs 24/7 most of the year. Letting it go out takes more coal than keeping it going.

Frugalsod

nuatha wrote: »

That depends on having the knowledge and the finances to be able to do it. Lack of knowledge or money doesn't make one an idiot.
Three winters back I lost heating for several days - the condensate outlet pipe had frozen. I was able to thaw it and resolve the problem eventually, when I spoke to the guy who'd installed it, he said there'd been lots of people with this problem, but he'd never know it occur in previous years - but we had never had a -18C winter since condensing boilers first appeared.
There are devices I choose to keep running 24/7, the convenience is worth the price to me - I'm sure other people have their own justifications for how and what they do, my previous TV was never switched off - doing so was likely to blow an internal fuse when it was switched back on, therefore it ran on standby for 18 months until other faults meant it was worth replacing. (It was safe to use, an electrical engineer friend had checked it out, but the fuse holder wasn't likely to survive many more fuse changes).

Yes but if you are poor you can also qualify for energy grants. If you rent you are at the mercy of the landlord. Though you can still qualify for grants. The problem is that there are plenty of sources of help, so if you still fail to get things done you are a fool. When I was living in a draughty rented house I refused to heat the place and lived in a sleeping bag. Those things that I could change such as my light bulbs and other appliances I changed. My electricity bill is as low as a small household that is out all day even though I am at home with two computers on all the time. I try and minimise the times I boil the kettle and use a flask to keep hot water for coffees and meals saving energy each time. if I left all the lights on it would only be 100W of power because all mine are LED. Yes the costs upfront can be high but the savings are also high. In the end people need to work out what will work for them and implement it.

I have a few devices running 24/7 but things like screens are on eco mode. Though my energy usage is stable through out the year.

[Deleted User]

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

If anyone wants a set of 2 rectangular nesting mess tins with handles ...... they have them in B & M for £2.99 and the quality looks OK too.

I've got a set, and the quality is OK.

They've also got steel wire handles (as opposed to some that have aluminium wire handles), which is also a good thing.

[Deleted User]

mardatha wrote: »

Gaps around skirtings are inevitable with laminate flooring

Go around the bottom of the skirting board, with Scotia tacked in place.

That's what I did.

jk0

mardatha wrote: »

RAS it is the wee things that we seem to miss eh? I have a bit in the bathroom where the pipes come in and the draught there is hellish. I keep stuffing poly bags in there but it doesnt really work and I dono what else to do with it.

Have you tried Wickes expanding foam?

http://beta.wickes.co.uk/Expanding-Foam-Filler-300ml/p/109745

You just wet the inside of the hole with a mist of water, and then fill the hole about one quarter full of foam.

[Deleted User]

Just bought some "quick cook" supplies.

15 boxes (60 sachets) of GW Tomato Cup Soup, and 12 sachets of Tomato Pasta Mug Shots.

Total cost, £9.

Perplexed_Pineapple

Some good thoughts over the last couple of pages. I saw this article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10734073/Hull-Council-printing-its-own-money-by-paying-digital-cash-for-voluntary-work.html
about independent currencies, this particular one being in Hull. I think they are playing fast and loose with the tax laws and some people using it might be in for a nasty shock when HMRC gets its arris in gear so to speak. Good creative thinking though and much easier to trust a local institution for everyday transactions than something like bitcoin where nobody knows who is behind it.

Karmacat wrote: »

Just having a think while my cuppa tea brews ... this Malaysian flight (sorry to bring it up again). Does anybody else remember that Air France flight that also went down and wasn't heard of prior to whatever it was that caused it? There wasn't nearly the search for that one, that there is for this one.

So I'm trying to think about why (rather than carry on with my tax dark plans, for instance ). And I'm coming up with two things, one prepping related, the other not:
- the "not" first: China's one-child family. A lot of the younger Chinese people on that plane will have been the only child - all the hopes for the future rested on that child, and they've gone, in unknown circumstances. And thats unusual for China (for any of us) until this last generation - so the parents, the partners, are especially desperate for knowledge.....

I don;t know much about Chinese religion but I think they are into some quasi-religious kind of ancestor worship. So I would guess that not having children to continue the theme would be very bad.The one-child policy came in in 1979 so the generation that had the young men and women on the plane (and possible grandchildren too) would be really be getting too old to have more children to "continue the line". Which I don't really understand given we all share DNA and one in 200 of us descends from Ghengis Khan :rotfl:

Frugalsod wrote: »

It would also be a lot more expensive. If you accept that climate change is a problem then 80% of what energy reserves we have in the ground will have to be left in the ground so that will end fracking, as it is simply not cost effective to get, no matter what the energy companies and the government says. With long term sea level rises now certain and large parts of the country doomed permanently we need to move to greener solutions faster for climate change reasons and for energy security.

Cost-effectiveness is all relative. If the only way to sustain agriculture and avoid population collapse were to deep mine coal from flooded pits then that's what would have to happen. Not there yet but I can see it's possible.

nuatha wrote: »

........Backup media, whether external hard drives, USB sticks or blank DVDs are cheap these days. If nothing else back up your documents and files - and check the backups are readable.

nuatha, what's your thoughts on best long-term storage media please? I don't have much confidence in USB sticks and hard drives can fail, I'm thinking DVDs might be best but even they degrade and become unreadable over time. Of course you could argue that if you don'd need to access the information for that long it really can't be that important!