Winter blackout contingency planning

Astria

Get yourself some decent battery storage, I've got 3.5 kWh which can be charged during when we have power and switched to when we don't. You are not going to be running electric heating from it, or boiling the kettle, but I'll be able to have the lights and heating on, along with the TV and watch movies, etc for the duration of the outage. Even if the power grid fails completely for several days, you can at least partly charge it from solar energy.

mmmmikey

Astria said:

Get yourself some decent battery storage, I've got 3.5 kWh which can be charged during when we have power and switched to when we don't. You are not going to be running electric heating from it, or boiling the kettle, but I'll be able to have the lights and heating on, along with the TV and watch movies, etc for the duration of the outage. Even if the power grid fails completely for several days, you can at least partly charge it from solar energy.

....with the important caveat that not all battery storage will run in island mode (i.e. when there's a power cut) and/or not all solar panels will work off grid.

Having said that. I'm in much the same position - if we had a power cut now I might not even know about it until the neighbours told me tomorrow. I'm running off batteries at the moment.

QrizB

TheBanker said:

I used to iron everything. My mum told me that's what you were supposed to do. She even irons dishcloths!

I got some good-natured stick from a work colleague when I stopped ironing. I pointed out to them that the purpose of ironing is to kill the parasite eggs in the seams of your clothes, and since I don't have lice I don't need to iron

Mstty said:

Have a spare BBQ sag cylinder ready for blackout cooking.

I'm quite partial to sag aloo but I didn't realise you could buy it in a cylinder from B&Q!

facade

Astria said:

Get yourself some decent battery storage, I've got 3.5 kWh which can be charged during when we have power and switched to when we don't. You are not going to be running electric heating from it, or boiling the kettle, but I'll be able to have the lights and heating on, along with the TV and watch movies, etc for the duration of the outage. Even if the power grid fails completely for several days, you can at least partly charge it from solar energy.

And, even if you can afford it, your chances of getting a system supplied and set up in the next 6 months are similar to winning a decent prize on the lottery.

basketcase

Astria said:

Get yourself some decent battery storage, I've got 3.5 kWh which can be charged during when we have power and switched to when we don't. You are not going to be running electric heating from it, or boiling the kettle, but I'll be able to have the lights and heating on, along with the TV and watch movies, etc for the duration of the outage. Even if the power grid fails completely for several days, you can at least partly charge it from solar energy.

Can you give a link to the sort of thing you mean please?

Much obliged

QrizB

basketcase said:

Astria said:

Get yourself some decent battery storage, I've got 3.5 kWh which can be charged during when we have power and switched to when we don't. You are not going to be running electric heating from it, or boiling the kettle, but I'll be able to have the lights and heating on, along with the TV and watch movies, etc for the duration of the outage. Even if the power grid fails completely for several days, you can at least partly charge it from solar energy.

Can you give a link to the sort of thing you mean please?

Much obliged

Just as an example but not a recommendation, something like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284976433044

Edit to addd: this one is closer to what Astria has:
https://www.bimblesolar.com/ongrid/self-consumption?product_id=2416

[Deleted User]

QrizB said:

basketcase said:

Astria said:

Get yourself some decent battery storage, I've got 3.5 kWh which can be charged during when we have power and switched to when we don't. You are not going to be running electric heating from it, or boiling the kettle, but I'll be able to have the lights and heating on, along with the TV and watch movies, etc for the duration of the outage. Even if the power grid fails completely for several days, you can at least partly charge it from solar energy.

Can you give a link to the sort of thing you mean please?

Much obliged

Just as an example but not a recommendation, something like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284976433044

Edit to addd: this one is closer to what Astria has:
https://www.bimblesolar.com/ongrid/self-consumption?product_id=2416

Really interested in how you get a return on investment with a device that stores 50p worth of electricity and costs £3.5k?

You would need 7,000 full charge / discharge cycles to capture your excess solar and I’d guess the batteries will be knackered well before that point.

QrizB

[Deleted User] said:

QrizB said:

Just as an example but not a recommendation, something like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284976433044

Edit to addd: this one is closer to what Astria has:
https://www.bimblesolar.com/ongrid/self-consumption?product_id=2416

Really interested in how you get a return on investment with a device that stores 50p worth of electricity and costs £3.5k?

You would need 7,000 full charge / discharge cycles to capture your excess solar and I’d guess the batteries will be knackered well before that point.

There was a thread a few months back where we looked at that. Some posters did get a bit rude at the OP and it seems to have been deleted.

Astria

Deleted_User said:

QrizB said:

basketcase said:

Astria said:

Get yourself some decent battery storage, I've got 3.5 kWh which can be charged during when we have power and switched to when we don't. You are not going to be running electric heating from it, or boiling the kettle, but I'll be able to have the lights and heating on, along with the TV and watch movies, etc for the duration of the outage. Even if the power grid fails completely for several days, you can at least partly charge it from solar energy.

Can you give a link to the sort of thing you mean please?

Much obliged

Just as an example but not a recommendation, something like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284976433044

Edit to addd: this one is closer to what Astria has:
https://www.bimblesolar.com/ongrid/self-consumption?product_id=2416

Really interested in how you get a return on investment with a device that stores 50p worth of electricity and costs £3.5k?

You would need 7,000 full charge / discharge cycles to capture your excess solar and I’d guess the batteries will be knackered well before that point.

I use multiple Lithium-Ion Phosphate batteries, 100Ah, 12.8V, 1280Wh, each one capable of at least 3000 discharge cycles at 80% DOD (so last at least 10 years), cost about £400 each. You can get batteries which support up to 10,000 charge cycles but I didn't fancy spending so much up-front and my system is kinda self-built so I much doubt someone like Tesla will interface their tech into it.

EssexHebridean

ariarnia said:

EssexHebridean said:

Someone with a kettle which won't simply accept a single cup of water to boil could pour the over-fill into it for use next time they make a drink.
Someone on E7 electric might choose to boil a full kettle first thing before the rate switches and then use the contents of the flask to make their subsequent cups of coffee. 

and this thread is about blackouts. being able to make a hot cup of tea half way through seems like worth a small expense to me. 

As a tea drinker I can confirm that it would have to be a FAR longer power cut than the ones being discussed to convince  me I wanted to make a brew using water from a flask! (I would however cheerfully tip said water into the camping kettle and pop outside and boil it properly on the little gas ring!)