Preparedness for when

nuatha

cornishchick wrote: »

Re boilers. I had mine serviced ready for winter and asked the guy about the condenser pipe freezing. He told me that as mine was only two years old this wasn't an issue, because it " insert some technical lingo I can't remember " but not to worry ..

Mine was fitted four months before it froze. Unless there is a major design change, I wouldn't take the risk.
When I spoke to the guy who'd installed mine, no one he knew had come across this problem until that winter and that the problem was very widespread that year.
As my combi is in the garage I added a small oil filled radiator for use if temperatures head sub zero.
I don't want to be alarmist, but its fairly simple to insulate and could save a major problem.

GreyQueen

nuatha wrote: »

Mine was fitted four months before it froze. Unless there is a major design change, I wouldn't take the risk.
When I spoke to the guy who'd installed mine, no one he knew had come across this problem until that winter and that the problem was very widespread that year.
As my combi is in the garage I added a small oil filled radiator for use if temperatures head sub zero.
I don't want to be alarmist, but its fairly simple to insulate and could save a major problem.

Yeah, some of that foam tube lagging and some gaffer tape, 5 min job, but hellacious to rectify if the water in the condensate pipe freezes as it'll shut the boiler down. Then you might, worse case scenario, end up with frozen and burst pipes indoors. We've replaced copper with plastic on some of ours when the copper was nicked. But it's the water which is freezing, having a plastic pipe as opposed to a copper one won't stop that happening.

I got the distinct impression from the gas engineers that the industry was surprised in 2012 when this became a common problem. I guess stuff gets designed, put out there, and then tested IRL.

nuatha, yes, concerns about the supply of any number of skilled people. None of our communal boiler engineers are less than middle-aged. Even 10 years ago, I was talking to a corgi engineer who was servicing the combi boiler in my other flat. He was heading towards retirement and had done his apprenticeship with British Gas, back in the day. He told me that they used to train lots of apprentices but by the time of our conversation it was shockingly few. Can't recall the exact figure, but I think it was in the tens.

SG has family connections with BT and 66,000 peeps applied for a handful of apprenticeships recently. There's a lot of people trying to learn useful stuff, and a lot of short-sightedness about not training them. I can see the situation where we'll be technocratic idiots in a world where the utilities don't work because no one attached enough importance to the engineering and technical side. Scary thoughts.

As it is, water tanks for our communal systems are usually imported from the scandinavian countries, where such systems are more common than here in the UK. They're highly-pressurised systems (you can't bleed our rads, f'rinstance) and when the water tanks blow, it's a fun time for that individual flat owner or tenant. I'd have to turn my water off at the stoptap. In The Towers, a tank is blowing every few months, it's like whoops there goes another rubber tree plant, when you come past and see water all over the walkway. They do them as needed not ahead of time (£2k+ job) and one day I'll come home and find mine dead and spewing water outside via its overflow. SG's already went, among others, and the engineers are just waiting for the remaining ones to pop.

moneyistooshorttomention

nuatha wrote: »

There were two in the town I live in, though I believe that we only have one now. We regularly get leaflets advertising this service at a local market or carboot sale.
I've noticed that it was originally textiles, but is now just clothes. There were documentaries a few months back claiming the trade was damaging African economies. Charities used to sell surplus clothes for recycling, the recyclers started selling them as clothes to African countries. Now there are a number of businesses selling clothes to Africa, most working from a profit motive. Meanwhile local clothing manufacture across most of Africa has apparently collapsed.

Which, I guess, means its now not ethical for anyone to sell clothes on as "scrap material" for recycling type purposes, unless they can absolutely guarantee (errr...how?) that those clothes wont then head to Africa and deprive people there of a livelihood??

Obviously less of the worlds resources used in manufacturing clothes because of these clothes going on to have a "second life" on the one hand BUT worlds resources used in shipping those clothes to Africa.

On balance, and allowing for locals losing their livelihood, I guess that adds up to a verdict of "Don't do it Di to remain ethical"?

thriftwizard

Hmmm - a really cold winter would see us hanging on a wing & a prayer! We have a BIG combi boiler which is running a wild assortment of pipework of varying composition & diameters, with more patches & bungs than I care to think about. Probably gaffer tape, too... We do have an electric shower which is independent of this & an urn which sits on the draining board whenever the boiler's "down" - which has happened twice over Christmas. Both of those devices obviously depend on electrickery too...

We currently have an open fire in the living room, which I am seeking to replace with a small wood burner that I can cook on; the garden is quite heavily wooded & we produce a fair amount of our own wood supply. (There are also two other chimneys that could be used, in other downstair rooms.) However, I am on my own with this idea; it's over OH's dead body - he loves his open fire - so I have to earn the money for it by myself, and I have lots of other calls on anything I earn. I am getting very frustrated; I can SEE what needs doing to increase our resilience, but OH thinks I'm being completely daft & won't entertain the idea for one minute. He doesn't bother himself with any "news" except the sports reports & thinks the idea of power cuts etc. is just scaremongering in order to put prices up, and all we should do is use less. I can see the point of that, but... I was horrified to find, this spring, that he thought I should have given up any ideas of growing produce, and just leave the garden as a recreation area, somewhere to sit & enjoy the view. As far as he's concerned, Peak Oil & financial woes are fairy tales, nothing to do with folk like us.

Sorry - longstanding gripe there! But actually quite worried that we are riding for a fall & there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it...

GreyQueen

thriftwizard, I feel your pain; I get the same kind of feedback from my parents, who are in their early seventies. They've known real hardship and lived in homes without any more heating than one fire in one room, and one water tap for the whole house. But those were The Bad Old Days and won't come again, will they? :wall:

I have persuaded Mum to let me buy her one of those flat gas stoves and some canisters, but my intro to that conversation is that she still insists on retaining the small parafin stove last used in the 1970s power cuts. Even though she has no idea if it still works or where to get parafin these days. Because of emergencies. I demonstrated my gas stove and she agreed it was a handy little thing. Only has 4 cyclinders with it, have given instructions to go get more asap the power supply looks iffy.

But more prepping than that? Nope to bread flour and yeast, even though she can easily bake bread and has done so in the past, because there'll always be some in the supermarket, won't there? And no to a supply of bottled water/ provisional water carriers in case of supply cutoff-water bowser issues. No to more tinned and dried foods.

I have managed to slip some boxes of candles and matches into her home (she knows) and a candle lantern, but I am concerned that they are woefully unprepped. But I'm the nutjob bossy daughter, aren't I?!

I can never get a satisfactory explanation from most people about how they think the future will shape up, once we've accessed all the economically-accessible oil or gas. Beyond an airy They'll think of something.

We're not there yet and we have passed Peak Oil already, according to many resources. Soooo, on the downward side of the slope, the smart money would be looking at getting the most insulated home they could find, and retro-fitting it for woodburners/ coal/multi-stoves. The best tech is the one which will work when other things won't, and at an economical way, and a way which the individual householder can control.

I can see things over the next few years shaping up thusly; we have insufficient electricity supply to meet the demands of a rising population. Brown-outs become a common phenomenon. Out and out powercuts aren't unknown. The supply becomes iffy, with spikes which damage domestic electronics.

There will be a lot of interest in candles and lamps and alternative ways of lighting. Supplies will be in demand and prices will increase. The days of the unused 20p pillar candle at the bootfair are numbered; only a lunatic will part with candles in a crisis.

More people will think about going to woodburners, which means that there could be a run on existing suppliers, and price increases, plus entry of cowboys into the market. Prolly a good time to think about training as a fitter for same or a chimney sweep. Logs will increase in price, and woodland managed for commercial firewood production will become more costly. If you want to be a forester/ coppicer, now's the time to buy in.

I expect to see the next 30-40 years which I can expect to live being rather less comfortable and certain than the last 30-40, which had plenty of moments to enjoy. I don't think a lot of people have a clue that we're effectively living in the last of The Good Old Days and that things are going to be changing a lot, and that people who are presently mid-life or younger will be living these changes.

thriftwizard

But I'm the nutjob bossy daughter, aren't I?!

Me too, GQ! My parents (now both 89) live right behind their local Co-op & cannot conceive of a day when there might not be fresh bread & milk easily accessible... but they do have a little store-cupboard. However almost everything in it would have to be heated by electrical means... I keep meaning to ask the complex manager what the back-up plan is in case of power cuts, but rarely have time to think about it when I'm down there. There's a full nursing home on site so there must be something, surely?

[Deleted User]

The best way to cope with the future is to learn the past in all areas, as that expression 'Back to the Future' is going to become a reality. Our forebears had the skills and knowledge to live and survive, not the comfortable and pampered lives we've become used to as the norm, but they managed or we wouldn't be here today having this conversation. Learn how to do things the old fashioned ways while the internet is still available because the electricity supply is still constant, learn all you need to know while it's still there to teach you. It doesn't have to be expensive courses, you tube has such a fund of knowledge all available at the click of a button. Do it NOW, do it TODAY don't fall into the mindset that says it will always be there, I'll learn that later...... It might not be there tomorrow!!!

the_cake

Huge thanks all for your support. I did reach the top of my paper mountain yesterday, but have another to climb today, and again tomorrow, as I think things are really going to start happening next week and we need to be as prepared as possible. I am really worried about finances as we spent our meagre savings on having the house made weather-proof for this winter, getting the car serviced, and a few other very sensible things (!!) but it means we now have so little slack in the system. Ah well, OH has many practical skills so hopefully will be able to find other work quickly. We have survived before ....
If anyone is able to get a woodburner and does not yet have one, I would definitely urge you to do it now! They are SO much more efficient than an open fire (you can enjoy the flames through the glass anyway). Ours is our best friend all through the winter; it's the only heating we have. We cook on it, heat water, dry clothes round it; it may be a clich! but it's the heart of the house for about six months of the year. We had the chimney insulated too, and this has made it both safer and much easier to get going, as the chimney is warm and dry rather than cold when you first light it, which makes it draw better. I do so hope for everyone's sake it's not a hard winter; everything is made so much more difficult (and dangerous) by snow and ice.

[Deleted User]

THRIFTWIZARD if your DH doesn't want another closed stove would you consider having some PARKRAY type doors put on to the exisiting open fireplace. It wouldn't give you the cooking facilities but would make the burn more efficient, keep the room warmer when the fire wasn't in use as you could keep the doors closed and theoretically you should be able to shut everything down, bank the fire up as you go to bed, close the doors and be able to get it away again very easily in the morning. Might be a half way house that you'd both be happy with?

themarsbargirl

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Which, I guess, means its now not ethical for anyone to sell clothes on as "scrap material" for recycling type purposes, unless they can absolutely guarantee (errr...how?) that those clothes wont then head to Africa and deprive people there of a livelihood??

Obviously less of the worlds resources used in manufacturing clothes because of these clothes going on to have a "second life" on the one hand BUT worlds resources used in shipping those clothes to Africa.

On balance, and allowing for locals losing their livelihood, I guess that adds up to a verdict of "Don't do it Di to remain ethical"?

Actually, second-hand western clothing trading is big business in Africa-at least Western Africa. Bought by the barrel load, split into bundles and sold o b. I'm reliably informed by a Benim priest that they prefer britiash clothes to american as the american clothes are far to big and take a lot of alterations.