Blackouts for beginners

Browntoa

From memory the 70s ones were planned and listed in the newspapers ( unless there was an emergency need to do unplanned ones ) 

You knew in advance what days and hours 

I assume something similar this time if it actually comes to blackouts 

kethry

some good ideas here! I esp like the one about coming home in the dark, esp useful for those of us who live in cities and who aren't necessarily used to walking down the street in the dark.

For those people who don't have camping stoves, either plan ahead with a hot meal (haybox style), or put into a thermos to keep warm, or the other alt is to have a makeshift stove - if you have a gas stove with metal prongs you can put tealights on the stove together and then a pan over them, or if you don't have that, you can make a pan support somehow, lots of ways. this video uses empty drinks cans, but its very possible to reheat soup on candles if necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XalAon3rlk. Just be careful!

cornishchick

I have dug out the kelly kettle and a selection of cup soups that I like. a power bank from camping, the gas camping stove is in the shed ready to use to warm foods if needed, but also have a haybox type system already in place.
I have candles and matches,
and wind-up type torches so no batteries or recharging to do. 

Si_Clist

Never go to bed without first filling a thermos flask with boiling water.  Then if you awake to no power or no water, at least you can make yourself a cup of tea to set yourself up for working out what you're going to do next ...

I feel really sorry for those who have no experience of anything other than the lights always being on, the house always being warm, there always being what you want in the shops and so on.  it must be a bit worrying concerning (as they say instead nowadays).  Perhaps that's why our Dear Leader keeps pretending everything's going to be just fine, when the rest of Europe is facing up to the new reality and has been for six months now.

GaleSF63

Establish places where you keep torches or whatever your lighting is, so that you know where to find one when the power suddenly goes out because you didn't realise it was time.

Scrimps

Madbat60 said:

I remember the blackouts in the 70's when I was a child, I quite enjoyed them.  Wd have a camping stove  batteries, torches and a log burner.  I'm not worried but I think the news and media make people panic buy things

It does to an extent but I'm now thinking of buying a power bank...I'm not sure of that is panic buying or just being sensible.

It was the same with the pandemic, the possibility of having to isolate for a couple of weeks (or multiple if we got it one after the other...I can't recall what the rules were at the begining) did make me go and buy more food to make sure I had enough in....i didnt go berserk over it but certainly bought more but it was labelled panic buying then too. Its tricky to balance the being sensible and allegedly panicking.

We have camping gear and candle so can cook and light. Candles and tealights will be put in glass jars. The good thing with having nervous kids is that they're not silly with fire and things

Si_Clist

The #1 rule for blackouts after dark is -

DO NOT PANIC.  Stay where you are until you've had chance to adapt to the change, and worked out what to do next without tripping over something or otherwise adding to your problems by injuring yourself.

Scrimps

I think we would be fine with rechargeable devices. We have work laptops, a home laptop and a couple of kids tablets ( will keep some programmes downloaded for the nightly bedtime numberblocks episode...Will obviously lose WiFi) and games to play by candles. I don't actually expect blackouts to happen but I'm glad to have thought about it beforehand.

I didnt consider that streetlights would be out too. The kids love seeing the stars before bed in winter...so that actually be a bonus if there are no clouds as we live in a small city and the light pollution does affect the view.

I'll dig out the numerous torches scattered around the house...pretty sure the batteries are flat because the kids love playing with those too!

Flugelhorn

the difference with the blackouts of the 70s was that we didn't have loads of batttery powered things - it will be much easier if all these are charged up 

MsPennyMinder

I'm thankful for all the tips. I've dealt with very short term powercuts before but blackouts just seem more.... alarming