Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

We'll have to get used to recharging mobile phones and other gadgets when the power is available

Or charge a jump starter pack, and use that to run/charge other devices.

Or use a solar charger, to recharge our mobile phones.

A third option is directly solar powered devices.

[Deleted User]

Rain and thunder again.

GreyQueen

Just spent an hour and a half watching Nat Geo's American Blackout on Yooo Toobe.

Obviously, it's a drama, but there are several takeaways from it, IMO;

1. Have more water than you think you need. A lot more.

2. You need to stay out of lifts (being claustrophobic, this is not a problem I shall be encountering, I always take the stairs).

3. It's important to be careful not to sustain injuries just because your usual regime is interupted, such as the guy getting a bad cut because he and his penthouse dwelling wifie didn't have a manual can-opener and didn't have a clue how to open a can without one.

4. Watch out for food hygiene, particularly eating food from overheated fridges and freezers. Vomiting or the trots will not help a bad situation.

5. Stay out of crowds if humanly possible. People do things in crowds that they wouldn't dream of doing as individuals.

DON'T PANIC - copyright D Adams Esq (and always know where your towel is)

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

1. Have more water than you think you need. A lot more.

I agree.

According to FEMA, I should have 3 gallons (11.36 Litres), but I actually store 50 Litres.

Food wise, it pays to consider how different cooking methods will affect food preparation.

For example, a tinned Steak and Kidney pudding takes a couple of minutes to prepare, by microwave.

With no electricity, it takes ages to cook by steaming.

Frugalsod

About the avoid injuries thing. I am thinking about builders knee pads, because if you have to bug out on foot you may have to climb over walls and fences and that could mean an injury that seriously slows you down.

I think I will bring forward my water storage purchases because I did wonder how we could get water if power was out.

As for hot water bottles I use those old ceramic versions.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I love the old hot water bottles... I can vaguely remember a family member using them.. might have a nosey on fleabay for some..

GreyQueen

Yeah, water is the key. It's bliddy heavy to transport and you wouldn't want to be driven out of your den to look for it, should there be a crisis.

I have 60 litres in the big containers (25 + 25 + 10) and shedloads of 2 litre bottles. At least as much again, possibly more. With a 2 litre bottle of water costing as little as 17p (assuming you're not a soft-drink fiend and don't have old bottles to wash and re-purpose) I don't think it's extravagant to have a lot of these bottles around the place. Bernie Carr, the apartment prepper, notes the suitability of this size for appartment and other small-space dwellers.

I was in Liddly this morning, about 11.30 am and they have a couple of pallets of bottled water standing in a particular place all the time. Today, they were as I had never seen them before; nearly empty, with only a few packs on them. Wonder if that's a reaction to the heatwave? It gives me chills when I see how little bottled water there is in supermarkets and how quickly it would sell out. And those of us who don't have cars would be very limited in what we could carry home, even if we could find it.

Hence the need to prep ahead of the emergency, not imagine that you will be running around during the event sourcing what you need.

It's worth also thinking about the moisture level in some canned foods as a mitigation against thirst; tinned fruits and veggies. You may presently put these down the sink when you use these products, but that would be a habit to get out of PDQ if the water supply went off.

I haven't forgotten the incident last year when our phones went crazy at the council as people suddenly lost water supply. Most entirely, some had a more progressive pressure-dropping loss. It was over most of the city and some of the outskirts (we sit in a net of villages which have become de-facto contigious suburbs, but aren't actually in the city proper).

I spoke to Tiddlumpty Water; it was one faulty electrical pump. Think about that carefully; one pump with a fault saw upwards of 60,000 people lose their water with no warning. They got it up and running in less than an hour but let's imagine there was no electricity.......or civil unrest so that the engineer(s) couldn't get to the right place to fix it, or if comms were down in respect of computers and phones and they couldn't find the fault for a while?

Scares me, frankly. The water company service advisor told me she always fills her kettle before bedtime, to make sure there is enough water for her morning coffee. I have adopted this habit, and will always aim to have washed the dishes and swabbed the decks so that I don't start the day in a muddle.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

The water company service advisor told me she always fills her kettle before bedtime, to make sure there is enough water for her morning coffee. I have adopted this habit

I have too.

[Deleted User]

I was in Aldi earlier, and paused to take a look at the 800W generator they have for sale.

Its specs say it runs at 3,600 rpm.

I'm not sure a 60hz generator is the ideal choice, for the UK.

greenbee

GreyQueen wrote: »

:eek: Using so much just before midnight?! That's scary - so there's no slack on that system, no spare at all. Y'know, the more I learn about the precariousness of our power supplies, the more I have concerns. We're positively sleepwalking into a crisis, just a matter of when, not if.

We use lots of French electricity at night because it is so cheap The French have a huge nuclear fleet, so supply can't be ramped up and down very easily. Nuclear is good for baseload, coal is good for predictable load, gas and renewables are more flexible so used to respond to variation in demand. That's why you need a good energy mix. If you live in France, you can get a great deal on electricity at night as they are desperate for people to use it... :cool: