Winter blackouts

Sea_Shell

Silvertabby said:

Sea_Shell said:

Good job I'm an early bird rather than a night owl..so if they can turn the power off at 9.45pm that would be great, cheers. 😉

I remember the power cuts of the early 1970s.  In order to save energy even further, the telly shut down at 10pm in an attempt to encourage people to go to bed early and switch all the lights off.  Wasn't there a baby boom 9 months later? 

Trouble is now, you'd have to shut down the internet too 😉

Alnat1

Surely we can all manage a couple of hours once a week with no leccy. Think of it as an adventure.

doodling

Hi,

There is no need for speculation as to what would happen - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electricity-supply-emergency-code explains it all in detail.

The only thing that document doesn't address is the use of disconnection to cope with peaks in demand - it is focused on achieving a level of demand reduction throughout the day. Having said that, once rota disconnection starts then the concept of peak and off peak times just disappears as people will "save up" demand for times when they do have power no matter what time of day that is.

Ultrasonic

aaiiee said:

If there's a real risk of power cuts next winter, it makes even less sense that there is no government drive for improved insulation, or other measures to reduce energy usage (in my humble opinion).

Potentially but of course only relevant to the minority (<15% from quick Google) of homes with electric heating.

MattMattMattUK

aaiiee said:

If there's a real risk of power cuts next winter, it makes even less sense that there is no government drive for improved insulation, or other measures to reduce energy usage (in my humble opinion).

There is not a real risk, the risk is there as far as hysterical headlines exist and it does exist on paper but it depends on one key factor and that factor is Putin. If he cuts off gas to Europe then there will be power cuts, if he does not then the likelihood of power cuts is very low (although never impossible).

Much of what can be done in the short term to reduce consumption already has, hardly anyone is still using incandescent lightbulbs, people who are running older, less efficient domestic alliances are unlikely to change soon and it would not be financially viable for the government to fund upgrading them. Insulation as you suggest is one area where demand could be reduced, but there are already grants for the most effective forms of that (loft insulation) and much of the rest (cavity wall as an example) has marginal returns over a long period, the short term reduction in energy consumption would be minimal. 

The biggest changes are ones we can all make personally, lowering the thermostat when the heating is on, taking showers rather than baths, taking shorter showers at lower temperatures, washing laundry at lower temperatures etc. Apart from that cooking uses some, but not much and the fridge/freezer is for most people the next biggest user of domestic energy, all other home usage is generally low and comes down to basic lifestyle choices. 

MattMattMattUK

Alnat1 said:

Surely we can all manage a couple of hours once a week with no leccy. Think of it as an adventure.

Depending on timings I would either make it an adventure to the pub, or an adventure to bed, neither of which are terrible options. 

Alnat1

Exactly Matt. 

I have vague memories of the 70s power cuts as a child. Parents sitting round the table with me and my bro, playing cards by the light from the Gaz lamp we normally used in our touring caravan. Don't think we had the central heating then, would have been the coal fire still. I guess wearing a jumper inside was the norm, as was breathing on the bedroom window in the mornings to clear a patch of "Jack Frost" and see out. It didn't seem so terrible

MalMonroe

MattMattMattUK said:

Alnat1 said:

Surely we can all manage a couple of hours once a week with no leccy. Think of it as an adventure.

Depending on timings I would either make it an adventure to the pub, or an adventure to bed, neither of which are terrible options. 

Wouldn't the pub also be cut off? And what about my electric blanket? It's just miserable and not an adventure at all.

Plus I lived overseas in the 70s so I've never experienced any power cuts. Only accidental ones. . .  In the 21st century we should be a bit more advanced, I think. I'm not a hardy kind of person. And I never wanted to be.

MattMattMattUK

MalMonroe said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Alnat1 said:

Surely we can all manage a couple of hours once a week with no leccy. Think of it as an adventure.

Depending on timings I would either make it an adventure to the pub, or an adventure to bed, neither of which are terrible options. 

Wouldn't the pub also be cut off?

It depends on the naturel of the cuts, rolling blackouts unlikely, they would cover different parts at a different time, so I would go to a pub with power. If the power is out across the whole region/country then that is a far bigger issue as that likely means gas supplies have failed and we have bigger things to worry about. 

MalMonroe said:
And what about my electric blanket? It's just miserable and not an adventure at all.

You will have to live without it for a while, or use it earlier before the cuts to warm the bed. There are many things that can make life miserable, but I doubt a few short power cuts can really be regarded as something that way.

MalMonroe said:

Plus I lived overseas in the 70s so I've never experienced any power cuts. Only accidental ones. . .  In the 21st century we should be a bit more advanced, I think. I'm not a hardy kind of person. And I never wanted to be.

We are more advanced, but that does not mean we can produce electricity from nothing. We should have built a lot more nuclear power, but that was opposed in the UK. The generation issue is not something that can be addressed in months, it will take a decade or more. Whilst many in the UK might not be as "hardy" as those in some other countries people can cope without electricity even if they will whinge about it. 

Ultrasonic

Out of interest, in the '70s was there any attempt to persuade people to voluntarily limit/redistribute their energy usage before the rolling power outage approach was introduced? 

You'd hope that given the choice most people could be persuaded to voluntarily say limit their use to lights and maybe a TV in a single room for a period as an alternative to actually have to cut off power completely.