THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

[Deleted User]

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

As of this morning I've just had a count up and I have 61 people on ignore

I've got 4, and they've all been on there for ages.

Nobody added recently, yet.

[Deleted User]

Have any of you guys, with wood stoves, seen this?

https://www.aldi.co.uk/p/072454062316400?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxo7ir4r72AIVpLXtCh15HgZMEAAYASAAEgLS8fD_BwE

Karmacat

maryb wrote: »

I can't believe we would have drought restrictions in my neck of the woods (South East) this year after all the rain

Then again I can believe that there has been woefully insufficient investment in infrastructure by privatised utility companies.

We might do, Mary - I'm in the south east too, and I heard recently (can't remember the source, sorry) that reservoirs were at something like 47% ...

mardatha wrote: »

I wouldn't waste water on a shower every morning if there was a water shortage - you can have an all-over wash using just a wee basinful and a cloth.

Quite right too

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I can't see anything in there, about limited editing times :huh:

It isn't in there, Bob - it's what came up when I made that experimental post earlier today and tried to edit it. That's what it told me. Then when I tried to post about that immediately, it wouldn't let me, and told me I had to wait 17 seconds (I think) so that it would be two minutes from my last post. Don't know if that's still going, but thats what it was this morning.

Shropshirelass

Bob, regarding the water usage, this is not for an emergency, it is a crisis, will last for years. CTC now saying after 'Ground Zero Day' ? in April, will be reduced to 25L daily.

If it seems they don't know what they are doing, I agree.

[Deleted User]

In the summer months you can gather water from branches in leaf through transpiration, you fasten a plastic bag tightly round the branch and drop the branch down , peg it if you have to, and over the course of a day you will have a moderate amount of clean water that is drinkable, do this over many branches and you might supplement your allowance. The best trees are birches in the UK but you can't leave the bag on the branch for too long in the hotter weather or it may die so move the bag to a new branch every day. The water obtained is drinking quality. Obviously do not use yew, horse chestnut, sumac or any other known toxic tree to do this.

fuddle

My lesson for the day. As always MrsLurcherwalker (you're having your Sunday name ) you bring such knowledge to this thread. Birch. Bags. Water. Remembered!

[Deleted User]

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

In the summer months you can gather water from branches in leaf through transpiration, you fasten a plastic bag tightly round the branch and drop the branch down , peg it if you have to, and over the course of a day you will have a moderate amount of clean water that is drinkable

You could also build some solar stills, which would not only produce fresh water, but you could use them to distil soiled water, eg. urine.

zeupater

maryb wrote: »

... I've always fancied having a plot of land where I could build an eco house with a borehole and ground source heat pump powered by solar. You'd be so well protected from disruption.

Not a passiv haus - I do like to be able to open a window. But since we had some work done on the house which involved masses of insulation our cold Victorian house has been transformed and I'm sold on the benefits. It got to the stage where our builder didn't bother asking us any more if he should go for the thicker Celotex, rather than the thinner, he just did. I think that is a good use of plastic although I am trying hard to cut down my use of single use plastic

Hi

We have a small Air-to-Air heat-pump which is run from our solar PV ... it's okay as an additional heat source for the main living area during the winter or (as originally intended) to provide the majority of warmth during the shoulder months ... there's a thread on the G&E board describing what we've attempted to do & a couple of others have also done the same whilst the thread's been running ... link - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4715287 ...

A scan through the thread will give an idea of what's possible, but unless you have a very large solar PV system with 'islanding' capabilities and probably a decent amount of battery storage it's unlikely that it would protect from disruption at a level which would be required during the colder months ...

There's some useful information on seasonal variability of solar electricity generation & solar thermal collection on this link ... Solar PV & Thermal: Seasonal Variability ... we use the site for short term weather forecasting using animated satellite images to help plan use of high wattage appliances such as the washing machine etc as standard forecasting isn't granular enough! ... anyway, hope it's of some use ...

HTH
Z

GreyQueen

Nonnadiluca wrote: »

GQ, you're probably spot on with that; have you read 'The Shock Doctrine'?

I've never even heard of it. Is it fiction/ non-fiction? Details would be welcome, please.

I've been playing on the allotment for four hours and have dug up the last strawberry bed. After many years of swithering, a cost-benefit analysis of labour vs output means I'm switching over to more root veggies and some top fruit, for ease. So much easier and I can buy one or two punnets of local in-season strawbs and be no worse off than if I was competing with everything which crawls, slithers flies and hops for the home grown berries.

Interesting infographic about water. Lots of ways to increase efficiency such as ditching the shower to have a strip-wash in a bowl, and then using the wash water in a bucket-and-chuck-it stylee to flush the loo.

I'm a singtleton who is out much of the day and my household uses 1 cubic meter of water a month. So, 12,000 litres a year, 32.9 litres a day, which includes 90 washloads on an energy and water efficient washer.

You can also save water by doing things like washing hair in soft water gathered in a water butt, something one of my country grannies used to do.

We've had some more water problems in my neighbourhood but the big accident-prone main wasn't one of them, thank goodness. I haven't any statistics from my local water company to back it up, but subjectively, I feel that I am encountering a lot more emergency repairs to the water infrastructure.

A few years ago, I asked an acqaintance who was something clever scientifically in the water company what I felt was an important question; is the water company consulted as part of the planning process when new homes are proposed, to check that the mains and sewers are capable of handling the extra demands on them?

In a word, NO. He told me that the water company can make representations to the planning bodies, but there is no obligation to heed them.

This astonished me then, and now. Given that there are parts of the UK which are pretty dry (south east and east) and that these are the most heavily populated areas, it seems that we should eventually reach a point where the supply cannot be guaranteed.

My city's drinking water comes out of the river. Through a lot of purification processes, obviously, but it's a pretty small river. :eek:

maryb

Thank you very much for that Zeupater. When I get into something,I do like to research things thoroughly in general, but so far, it has been in the realms of lottery daydreams. However we will be downsizing at some stage and if I have any choice in the matter, energy efficiency and resilience will be major factors in any decision we make so duly bookmarked for future perusal