Winter blackouts

Gerry1

MattMattMattUK said:

Alnat1 said:

In the 70s there would only be a single TV for the household. Many didn't have central heating, so a coal or gas fire in the living room, not that many had a phone in the house either. Twin tub washer, once a week. Definitely no tumble dryers.

I would imagine energy usage was pretty low compared to how we live now, quite hard to cut down in any way

The current UK household average is 3,731 kWh per year

Ofgem think it's 2,900kWh??

Mstty

Having seen the run on toilet rolls and the empty shelves in supermarkets in the first lockdown I suspect it will be everyone for themselves,selfishness and over use of energy using it to it's max before any cut off period.

Can't change the way a locust swarms.

Sea_Shell

Mstty said:

Having seen the run on toilet rolls and the empty shelves in supermarkets in the first lockdown I suspect it will be everyone for themselves,selfishness and over use of energy using it to it's max before any cut off period.

Can't change the way a locust swarms.

Which then leads to "if you can't beat em, join em"😉

But then you can't really blame people wanting to make their evening cuppa a bit earlier while they still have power.

Or making up that hot water bottle etc. in the middle of winter.

It's just preparedness, surely.

It's a fine line between that and panic buying (using), admittedly.

What do you NEED v what do you WANT?

chris_n

Gerry1 said:

Sea_Shell said:

Ultrasonic said:

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. 

Hmmm, I wonder what the average household electricity usage was in the early 70s?
I'm guessing a lot less than the "typical" household today.

I rather doubt it.

Most domestic lighting was incandescent: you might have had a fluorescent tube in the kitchen bit that was about it.  Lighting probably used about eight times what an LED bulb would use today.  The TV probably still used valves so that would also have used several times what a larger TV would use today.

Electricity prices were just pocket money compared to today: the quarterly bill came in, you paid it without difficulty and that was that.

Infra red heat lamps in bathrooms, 1 or 2 bar electric fires in rooms with no fires, same with fan heaters were very much a thing in the early 70's.

aaiiee

Ultrasonic said:

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.

I take your point, but gas and electricity are connected surely? If we use less gas for heating, there will be more for generating electricity? Also, is there a situation where there would be electricity blackouts, but no problems with gas supply? Just theorising, I'm not personally expecting any problems other than extremely high prices.

Silvertabby

Some years ago, we woke up on Christmas morning to a blackout.  Storms had taken some power lines down, and while the leccy board recorded message said that they were doing their best to restore power asap, they reckoned it would be 4pm at the earliest.

This was during daylight, and we had a battery radio for entertainment, gas hob for cooking and gas fire for heat ....so I just de-boned the turkey and chopped enough meat and veg for a stir fry.

Some of the neighbours were still moaning about their 'ruined Christmases' at Easter.  

GingerTim

When I was growing up in the Highlands I remember one year, possibly '94 or '95, when it started snowing on Christmas Eve which took the electricity off until Boxing Day morning (we're talking waist-high snow drifts).

Fortunately, my parents owned a shop so we could get hold of Calor gas bottles without much trouble - and we spent much of the 36 hours supplying the locals with bottles too. It was quite an experience, but not one I care to repeat.

QrizB

Gerry1 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Alnat1 said:

In the 70s there would only be a single TV for the household. Many didn't have central heating, so a coal or gas fire in the living room, not that many had a phone in the house either. Twin tub washer, once a week. Definitely no tumble dryers.
I would imagine energy usage was pretty low compared to how we live now, quite hard to cut down in any way

The current UK household average is 3,731 kWh per year

Ofgem think it's 2,900kWh??

2900kWh/yr for a dual-fuel household, 4200kWh/yr for a single-fuel one. And I think those are medians not means.

Mstty said:

Having seen the run on toilet rolls and the empty shelves in supermarkets in the first lockdown I suspect it will be everyone for themselves,selfishness and over use of energy using it to it's max before any cut off period.

I did my panic-buying in early February. You could see the coming storm even then.

MWT

QrizB said:

2900kWh/yr for a dual-fuel household, 4200kWh/yr for a single-fuel one. And I think those are medians not means.

Exactly, this is from the last TDCV Decision Letter in 2020...

"Most consumers consume relatively small amounts of energy, while few consume large amounts. The median or second quartile is a more representative of the typical “medium” usage. We use the first and third quartiles to represent the typical “low” and typical “high” usage respectively. In real terms, if consumers were ranked in order of energy consumption, the lower quartile reflects the annual consumption that only 25% of all consumers use less than. The higher quartile reflects the annual consumption that only 25% of all consumers use more than."

markin

Alnat1 said:

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

If it happens i would expect it to go on daily all winter.

The Rota Plans were it seems last updated in 2019 when we had far more coal, and far less smart meters.