Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

daz378 wrote: »

Just a heads up about "Heartbleed" that could could compromise ...any online banking you do.....the press are advising that you change your passwords

The only online transactions I do online, are made with an Orange Prepaid Mastercard,.

If they're determined to raid it, they're welcome to the balance, all £4-23 of it.

[Deleted User]

jk0 wrote: »

Also, I have fixed my energy price until the end of 2017.

That won't be much help, if there's no gas available to buy.

[Deleted User]

southantrim3 wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26975204

Anyone else worried (ish.)...:D

Depends how bad it gets.

So long as I can get gas cannisters and/or Bio-Ethanol, I can manage without mains gas/electricity.

bluebag

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Depends how bad it gets.

So long as I can get gas cannisters and/or Bio-Ethanol, I can manage without mains gas/electricity.

Bob, you can look into retained heat cooking, basically a method of bring food to the boil and then insulating it and allowing the retained heat to continue to cook the food. The 'wonderbag' is a commercial application of this. I use a wool blanket and an old duvet in a laundry basket.

Many poor in the less well off economies use recycled paper 'bricks' in open fires outside. A quick gooogly will show you how to do it/ Smush up the paper in water, form into bricks and allow to dry basically.
Burn them in an old biscuit tin with a grill balanced on top or a barbecue grill, heat your food up and then shove it in the 'retained heat' thing.

Keep warm on the sofa with a good sleeping bag with a hot water bottle inside. Duvet over that if its really cold. Don't forget a hat.

Head torches are amazing for doing chores in the dark, hands free and light directed where you need it.

What the criminally inclined will get up to under cover of darkness bothers me tho.

[Deleted User]

Keeping warm won't be a problem.

My home is incredibly well insulated, ie. 12" of loft insulation.

Even when there's snow on the ground, I hardly need to run the CH to keep the place comfortable, hence my £20pm gas bill.

If the temperature does fall really low, I'll just crawl into bed, under my 15 TOG duvet. :cool:

Memory_Girl

bluebag - I am a BIG fan of the thermal cooking having made my own last week.

What I am wondering now if a cooking bag / rocket stove would be a good solution for us over the summer at least?

Off to see what I have to build one.

MG

thriftwizard

What the criminally inclined will get up to under cover of darkness bothers me tho.

Bluebag, Him Indoors was until fairly recently a member of the emergency services, and still works for them, and often quotes some surprising statistics. A couple of years ago, the local populace were very trepidatious when the council announced that they were going to try switching the streetlights out at 12pm in certain areas; in fact, there are still people campaigning to have them switched back on. But the local crime figures actually took a sudden nosedive in areas that had been switched off... it's gone dark for the criminals too! The only place that it got slightly worse was at the junction of light & dark areas.

Car accidents fell quite dramatically, too. I'd be interested to find out whether car movements fell, i.e. people are less inclined to drive down to T&sco for a tub of ice-cream at 2am if it's dark. So an enforced blackout might not be altogether a bad thing, crime-wise.

Butterfly_Brain

thriftwizard wrote: »

Bluebag, Him Indoors was until fairly recently a member of the emergency services, and still works for them, and often quotes some surprising statistics. A couple of years ago, the local populace were very trepidatious when the council announced that they were going to try switching the streetlights out at 12pm in certain areas; in fact, there are still people campaigning to have them switched back on. But the local crime figures actually took a sudden nosedive in areas that had been switched off... it's gone dark for the criminals too! The only place that it got slightly worse was at the junction of light & dark areas.

Car accidents fell quite dramatically, too. I'd be interested to find out whether car movements fell, i.e. people are less inclined to drive down to T&sco for a tub of ice-cream at 2am if it's dark. So an enforced blackout might not be altogether a bad thing, crime-wise.

I wish my council would turn off the street light opposite my house, they have changed the bulbs to LED and the light gets through the curtains

greenbee

Memory_Girl wrote: »

bluebag - I am a BIG fan of the thermal cooking having made my own last week.

What I am wondering now if a cooking bag / rocket stove would be a good solution for us over the summer at least?

Off to see what I have to build one.

MG

I hope that's not a displacement activity Mind you, I bet the boys would enjoy the challenge!

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I wish my council would turn off the street light opposite my house, they have changed the bulbs to LED and the light gets through the curtains

We have no street lighting here and crime figures are pretty low. But my neighbours all seem to feel the need to have halogen floodlights on their garages/porches. I don't get it - it's bright light that makes it hard to see in the dark. (and if they didn't have them I would be able to sleep with my curtains open)

GreyQueen

They're doing this in my city but out in the 'burbs not here in the city centre. They wanted to do it in the city centre too but the Police objected as they couldn't see what was going on via CCTV............:rotfl:

I do know people who have powerful streetlights right outside their bedroom windows and they're driven spare by them, have tried all sorts to block out the light and still have disrupted sleep. I think a lot of commonsense should be used when siting these things, looking at homes and understanding which side people's bedrooms are on.

I have illuminated areas to both sides of my flat and, even though I have dark lined curtains, it's perfectly possible to walk around the flat at any hour of the night just using the light from outside to navigate. It helps that you're seldom more than 6 steps from anything else in my home, it must be admitted.