Mail online article about how the rolling blackouts will be planned and implemented.

Niv

I am a J so according to the list someone kindly produced on page 1 I am scheduled to not get alot of cuts. I wonder how we got away with that.

*~Zephyr~*

I'm in L, so the weekend will be boring, but at least hubby will only lose one afternoon of working from home a week (in level 1 at least).

Not sure what his employer is going to say if there ends up being more of them.  I can only hope that his Head Office building is on the same band so they can't insist he start commuting back to the office 

ariarnia

*~Zephyr~* said:

I'm in L, so the weekend will be boring, but at least hubby will only lose one afternoon of working from home a week (in level 1 at least).

Not sure what his employer is going to say if there ends up being more of them.  I can only hope that his Head Office building is on the same band so they can't insist he start commuting back to the office 

if he works from home is there a way he could swap his days around (if that worked for you or child care or whatever). the thread meant we had a conversation and theres probably at least a day a week worth of paperwork stuff that i dont really need anyones input on (checking and processing invoices and things) so if we had a mid week blackout. the problem we can't really pin down is what happens if the school has a blackout and the kids are home on odd days or odd times. lucky i think the mil would come through in that situation as shes just down the road from there school and sometimes takes them for us when i'm not going to e home when there clubs finish. 

Astria

Grogsy78 said:

Level 18 blackout is pretty spicy! At level 20 do they turn off the sun?

No, but you'll be expected to carry on paying the standing charge for a service you are not receiving

molerat

The_Green_Hornet said:

As LilacPotato posted earlier, if you want to know your block letter then you can use this Find Your Network Operator website.

No need to wait for an updated electric bill.

I know what my block is, it is just that it isn't on my current bill and according to those other posts it should - maybe - be on my next one.

The_Green_Hornet

Grogsy78 said:

Level 18 blackout is pretty spicy! At level 20 do they turn off the sun?

https://youtu.be/IyjJbhuwGkU

pete-20-11

*~Zephyr~* said:

I'm in L, so the weekend will be boring, but at least hubby will only lose one afternoon of working from home a week (in level 1 at least).

Not sure what his employer is going to say if there ends up being more of them.  I can only hope that his Head Office building is on the same band so they can't insist he start commuting back to the office 

They’ll make him work a weekend day instead 😄

pete-20-11

Still not sure what block letter is mine.

Octopus bills says "TBC".

Powercut105 website says postcode not found. 

Octopus Twitter team says I'm in "E" but I think that's the region. 

My previous supplier shows a small box with an "N" in it. 

Two other previous suppliers also show "N", another shows "X" (unknown?) and the other shows a small blank square. 

So I guess I'm in "N", unless three previous suppliers were all wrong. 

t0rt0ise

I'm in G but my local pub just round the corner is a J, so that's a good result!

deano2099

EssexHebridean said:

It comes into the meter through the same cable. For I suspect the majority of E7 households in the case of the storage heaters and the timed immersion element it then leaves the meter again via a cable that is ONLY live when it is switched on overnight. There IS no timer for the storage heaters in our case - they can ONLY charge when that circuit is switched on, so on older heaters without a "boost" option it is not possible to "make up" that charge by just asking the heater to charge at a different time - it will have no electricity supply, and so cannot charge.  

For those who then need to use extra heating for the evenings for days as a result of short charged heaters - that can be around £1 an hour in some cases - and no, for many people that sort of additional cost for heating is not affordable. (Remembering that the cost "saved" by less charge occuring overnight will be substantially less than this)

The advantage of buying a battery pack for your phone is that the significant part of that investment is a tangible asset that can be used again in the future - you pay £10 plus the cost of electricity for the first use, subsequently you only pay the pennies it will then take to recharge. I presume you wouldn't consider it quite so affordable if every time you needed to use a powerbank on your phone you had to purchase a brand new one?  

As for "sleeping through the blackout" - that is precisely what I would be happening if the blackout is the one that has been mentioned as adversely affecting those with E7 heating, ie midnight>3am. 

For avoidance of doubt I have lived with storage heaters for nearly 20 years, including having (I think) 4 different models and 2 different makes of heaters over that time. At this point we still have two different makes and three different models in the flat, so I do have a reasonably good understanding of how they work!  ;-) 

As I mentioned before, wasn't aware of that design "feature" - can only imagine it's a nightmare all-round with the tendency for old E7 meters to drift significantly over the decades too?
But outside of that, yeah, anyone without a few quid to spare will have an uncomfortable time in a period of national emergency. Same as it's always been. I think you're underestimating the amount of people buying power banks right now that'll never get used if these blackouts don't actually happen, then get shoved in a box somewhere and if we get a similar story in three years, will buy new ones then.

But to answer your question directly, no if every time there were going to be a series of nationwide powercuts I had to pay £10 to increase my comfort level during those periods, then I certainly would find that reasonable. Just like I don't think it's unreasonable for me to pay £10 for a taxi home on the rare occasions I miss the last train.

The crucial thing to understand is that the plans being shared are the *emergency* plans. They're what we will use if problems happen. They're designed based on what the grid needs, rather than any concept of fairness or equality. *If* this were to become a long term problem, we've move to a different system that is "fairer" and address some of the issues here (like, for example, prioritising replacing these old E7 meters with smart meters and having legislation in place that extends the overnight tariff by X hours if a blackout of X hours happens). You can see what that looks like by looking at places like South Africa.