Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

mac2008 wrote: »

Have you taken a look at the 2014 energy capacity assessment I linked to in post 24254? They go into a lot of detail on the methodology used to build the scenarios.


Also I'm not sure energy efficiency measures are anywhere near saturation point, I suspect reductions to date are more reflecting that we were starting with some of the worst insulated housing stock in Europe. Am sure there is plenty more to be done yet. Happy to be shown figures suggesting otherwise though!


BTW don't think for one second I'm suggesting that anything any government says is fair or accurate but at least there is lots of info in that report.

Some of the homes I have rented have had insufficient insulation. A couple had no loft insulation and some had appalling draughts. The problem is that landlords will not make the investment because they do not benefit, and it is an outgoing. It would help if the government fined landlords for inefficient insulation and mandated that they pay for the rehousing of the tenants while it was being improved. Also making sure that the property could not be sold or re let until it passed inspection, and the icing on the cake should be that council taxes be liable by the owner while empty. Though some landlords are much better than others and are willing to maintain the place.

One big problem was that to get the headline price of heating down this government eliminated the green levy which was to pay for home insulation for the poor through grants.

mardatha

Default UK - Drug-resistant bacteria: Sewage-treatment plants described as giant 'mixing vessels'
Drug-resistant bacteria: Sewage-treatment plants described as giant 'mixing vessels' after scientists discover mutated microbes in British river

Superbugs resistant to some of the most powerful antibiotics in the medical arsenal have been found for the first time in a British river – with scientists pinpointing a local sewage-treatment plant as the most likely source.

Scientists discovered the drug-resistant bacteria in sediment samples taken downstream of the sewerage plant on the River Sowe near Coventry. The microbes contained mutated genes that confer resistance to the latest generation of antibiotics.

The researchers believe the discovery shows how antibiotic resistance has become widespread in the environment, with sewage-treatment plants now acting as giant “mixing vessels” where antibiotic resistance can spread between different microbes.

A study found that a wide range of microbes living in the river had acquired a genetic mutation that is known to provide resistance to third-generation cephalosporins, a class of antibiotics used widely to treat meningitis, blood infections and other hospital-acquired infections.

Within the river sediment, the scientists also found human gut bacteria that had developed resistance to another kind of antibiotic, called imipenem, which is administered by intravenous injections for severe infections not normally treatable with other antibiotics.

“These are frontline antibiotics and we were not expecting to see these kinds of levels of resistance to them in the environment. It is quite staggering,” said Professor Elizabeth Wellington of the University of Warwick, who led the study. “This is a worrying development and we need to be concerned about it. We’ve completely underestimated the role waste-treatment processes can play in antibiotic resistance,” she told The Independent.

Tests have shown that the level of antibiotic resistance is many times higher downstream of the Coventry sewage-treatment facility than it is upstream. “The way sewerage plants mix up different types of waste means they’re hotspots, helping bacteria share genes that mean they can deactivate or disarm antibiotics that would normally kill them,” Professor Wellington said.

“This is a big deal, because this is the most common bacterial resistance gene causing failures in treatment of infections, and it’s the first time anyone has seen this gene in UK rivers,” she added.

“The problem is we use river water to irrigate crops, people swim or canoe in rivers, and both wildlife and food animals come into contact with river water. These bacteria also spread during flooding, and with more flooding and heavy rain this could get worse.”

Stricter regulations and higher levels of sewage treatment, with an emphasis on preventing untreated sewage being discharged during a storm, are needed to halt the rise of antibiotic resistance in the environment, Professor Wellington said.

“We’re on the brink of Armageddon and this is contributing to it. Antibiotics could just stop working,” she added.

Earlier this month, David Cameron warned that the world could be “cast back into the dark ages of medicine” where people die of relatively trivial and treatable infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria.

The Independent

maryb

Memory Girl's thermal cooker has really helped some of her friends who are on prepayment meters - several of them have commented on how much longer the key card is lasting. There's some more feedback on the thermal cooker thread, in particular post 80
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4934041

Sorry, don't know how to cross refer to a post on a different thread, but this is what it says

A month in and we have had feedback on the energy savings from one of our ladies

"Hi E,
Just wanted to give you a quick update on my gas cost over the last month having used my thermal bag for lots of meals.....
Gas units used in March were 406kWh and for April they were 377kWh and the only difference is my cooking on the hob costs as my heating has been off since March 1st! So we have saved 29kWh of gas in a month, so impressed with it and am using it today to make spag bol and everyone loves the results from it.
Let's hope everyone who made it has similar or even better savings!
Best wishes, H"

I make that about 1kWh per day which is a not too shabby saving for something made from an old duvet cover and some polystyrene beads

MG

Butterfly_Brain

The SHTF at cassa Butterfly yesterday
I went to the freezer to get some raspberries out to make a cheesecake and someone had left it ajar all night. But the fairies did it as usual :doh:
So I spent all day cooking, I hate having to throw food away.
So I made
2 apple and blackberry crumbles
2 apple and rhubarb crumble
2 cottage pies
2 spag bol sauces
a pork stew from defrosted pork chops
sausage toad
I have a chicken to cook today when it is fully defrosted (It was partially defrosted so I wouldn't take a risk) so that will be eaten tomorrow
I also cooked goujons, salmon steaks, spring rolls, meatballs wedges and corn on the cob for dinner and we are having the chicken that I had already cooked for dinner tonight plus gammon steaks.
We had the bacon in butties for lunch
I sent another pack of salmon, a bag of sweetcorn and a bag of chips down to a neighbour who is a close friend she laughed and thanked me for her dinner
I hade already made a cheesecake so that is in the fridge to be eaten today
DD, DH and DS had one of the blackberry and apple crumble's for breakfast:rotfl:, the rest have been frozen
We still had to throw a bit out such as lollies,ice cream, a bag of kippers, a bag of sweet potatoes so not too bad.
Then burger me DD brough a punnet of strawberries home from work :eek:
I got on the scales this morning and have lost 2lbs not surprising really

DD spotted Martin with his little girl at the zoo yesterday She couldn't wait to tell me when she got home.:rotfl:

Frugalsod

maryb wrote: »

Memory Girl's thermal cooker has really helped some of her friends who are on prepayment meters - several of them have commented on how much longer the key card is lasting. There's some more feedback on the thermal cooker thread, in particular post 80
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4934041

Sorry, don't know how to cross refer to a post on a different thread, but this is what it says

A month in and we have had feedback on the energy savings from one of our ladies

"Hi E,
Just wanted to give you a quick update on my gas cost over the last month having used my thermal bag for lots of meals.....
Gas units used in March were 406kWh and for April they were 377kWh and the only difference is my cooking on the hob costs as my heating has been off since March 1st! So we have saved 29kWh of gas in a month, so impressed with it and am using it today to make spag bol and everyone loves the results from it.
Let's hope everyone who made it has similar or even better savings!
Best wishes, H"

I make that about 1kWh per day which is a not too shabby saving for something made from an old duvet cover and some polystyrene beads

MG

It would be interesting to know the costs of the bag and the cost of the energy saved over what time period. That way it would be possible to work out what the rate of return is for home made wonder bags. It might also be possible to work out the rate of return for the ready made versions. At £50 each the ready made ones will have a longer payback period but one that is still worth doing.

the_cake

An unexpected visitor: I was just doing the washing up this morning when I looked out of the window and saw a small(ish) black pig trotting past, heading for the veg. patch. As a prepper, I probably should have chased after it brandishing a meat cleaver and calculating how many sausages I could get out of it, but instead I made some phone calls and then herded (can a single animal be herded?) or rather encouraged it down the lane back to its owner! I didn't know she had gone into pig keeping, so if it visits again I will know where it lives. It was a surreal, enjoyable interlude, and rather a pretty pig. I am now wondering if we should keep a couple: a porcine of the times?

maryb

Frugalsod wrote: »

It would be interesting to know the costs of the bag and the cost of the energy saved over what time period. That way it would be possible to work out what the rate of return is for home made wonder bags. It might also be possible to work out the rate of return for the ready made versions. At £50 each the ready made ones will have a longer payback period but one that is still worth doing.

Memory Girl sells a PDF tutorial on her site for £2.50. Apart from that, the cost of the bag is effectively the cost of the polystyrene beads assuming you have some old fabric like an old sheet. I've just bought a bag of beads for £4 from Hobbycraft but not sure if that will be enough. But if it's not, I'll raid DD's old bean bag, because I think two bags would have been too much.

I pay 3.5 p per kWh for gas but it would be more for people on prepayment meters. Even so, at the price I pay for gas, if I saved the equivalent amount of fuel to the lady who posted above, it would pay for itself in less than eight months. And, in practice, the saving would be more if you ended up cooking cheaper food rather than quick to heat ready meals

jk0

As a slightly clumsy person, I would be worried about spilling/ dropping my pot getting it in and out of an insulated bag.

Good job I can afford the gas, eh?

GreyQueen

the_cake wrote: »

An unexpected visitor: I was just doing the washing up this morning when I looked out of the window and saw a small(ish) black pig trotting past, heading for the veg. patch. As a prepper, I probably should have chased after it brandishing a meat cleaver and calculating how many sausages I could get out of it, but instead I made some phone calls and then herded (can a single animal be herded?) or rather encouraged it down the lane back to its owner! I didn't know she had gone into pig keeping, so if it visits again I will know where it lives. It was a surreal, enjoyable interlude, and rather a pretty pig. I am now wondering if we should keep a couple: a porcine of the times?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Oh, I love that line! I had a similar WTH?! moment when I left the titchy back yard of my former home with my pushbike, going down the back lane and there, in a pile of russet-red leaves, was a russety-red hen.

Right in the centre of the concrete jungle. I stopped and blinked, making sure I wasn't having a comedy moment then thought; OK, that's a hen. Obviously straying. Oughta do something about that but not until back from Morries with the YS bargains. Me and a lass from the RSPCA had a great time (not!:p) a couple of weeks later catching it. Never could find out where it came from, which is what I'd been doing in that intervening two weeks.

We also get the public reporting snakes in the city. Including non-indigenous species. We don't 'do' snakes but it's always entertaining hearing about them and calling the RSPCA.

Today I have been up to my eyebrows in floods as our city's drainage systems where overwhelmed by yesterday's rainstorms. Water is where it didn't oughta be, in quantity. And that some waters may contain anti-biotic resistant superbugs.........terrifying.

I'll never forget hearing an old man telling how he and his wife had lost their son as a young child from what is a minor infection easily treated by anti-biotics, only a few months before penicillin was released to the world. The pain of it was still raw all those decades later, and was a forcible reminder of just how lucky we have been to live in the era where these magic bullets worked, and how that may be coming to an end.

craigywv

I made my thermal bag with 3 old pillow cases good thick ones half filled 2 of them stitched ends up double stitched meant to say, and three quarter filled third one, bought a really big tub with lid in pooond streeeetchers ,put the most filled bag on the bottom....placed pot in with pork casserole (meat just browned)chopped carrots /onions and spuds and a satchet of casserole mix brought to the boil put lid on pot , placed in box ontop of pillow and squeezed the remaining 2 pillows snugly around it...........5 hours later done to perfection. now if I can make it..............schoolgirl sewing classes .....anybody can so give it a go. meant to say got the beans out of old Thomas the tank bean bag in attic so total cost was 7 quid for the big box, not bad as I have used it 6-7 times in last few weeks, will use it more as school holidays go by as not so busy now. give it a go its great. I went on the tube of you to see how its done soooooooooooo many ways and all easy peasy next challenge solar oven me thinks. will need oh for that one though