In the event of a power outage like Spain.......

debitcardmayhem

The Spanish p.m. said because euro coins don’t work on our meters we are asking people to donate any leftover 10 peseta coins to help out !!

Qyburn

QrizB said:

But for most people, 24h without electricity shouldn't be a big deal.

Current government policy is to encourage people to plan for three days.

pete-20-11

mmmmikey said:

RavingMad said:

Guessing alarms might not work. I wonder if burglers will have a field day?

Most alarms (almost all?) have battery back up so they can't be disabled by cutting the power.

Assuming the battery isn't dead. I'm not sure they last forever.

The ones in the control units certainly don't (which is why you hear your neighbour's alarms going off during a power cut). Not sure how long the one in the bell box lasts. 

mark_cycling00

I created my 3-5 day emergency box a few weeks ago. There can be a "weakest link" in every aspect of infrastructure so I assume that everything might fail. 

Big black sealed box to keep daylight out, and in a cool location. Tape a windup torch to the top. This gives you enough light to open box, find batteries and insert into proper torch and then find candles and bagged matches and other essentials to take into house. 

Assume it's winter and you are low on food. Ie worst case. 

I've tested cooking on the log burner and baked potatoes inside it. Wow they are yummy. 
Crackers, dried fruit, cereal uht milk etc. drinking water takes up a lot of space. 

Plan for toileting in the garden. 

Ideally keep some battery packs charged, tech companies will be quite resilient. Mobile phones and internet may recover quite quickly.
State run services will be a mess 

If you rely on the state for medicines, food or other support I think you should be taking this scenario very seriously 

MWT

mark_cycling00 said:

I created my 3-5 day emergency box a few weeks ago. There can be a "weakest link" in every aspect of infrastructure so I assume that everything might fail. 

Similar mind-set here but different solution, we have 27kWh of Tesla Powerwalls and another 40-80kWh available via V2L from one of our EVs.

RavingMad

mmmmikey said:

RavingMad said:

Guessing alarms might not work. I wonder if burglers will have a field day?

Most alarms (almost all?) have battery back up so they can't be disabled by cutting the power.

BBC news speaking to a resident who says her husband is helping a shop owner board up as the alarms are down and there's reports of crime (resident's words)

mmmmikey

pete-20-11 said:

mmmmikey said:

RavingMad said:

Guessing alarms might not work. I wonder if burglers will have a field day?

Most alarms (almost all?) have battery back up so they can't be disabled by cutting the power.

Assuming the battery isn't dead. I'm not sure they last forever.

The ones in the control units certainly don't (which is why you hear your neighbour's alarms going off during a power cut). Not sure how long the one in the bell box lasts. 

..... which is why it's important to check the alarm periodically in accordance with the manufacturers maintenance schedule. A bit daft to invest in an alarm but not bother to keep it working IMHO. It's a very poorly designed or maintained alarm system that can be disabled by simply pulling the fuse where the supply enters the property - often at an external meter box.

HillStreetBlues

mmmmikey said:

pete-20-11 said:

mmmmikey said:

RavingMad said:

Guessing alarms might not work. I wonder if burglers will have a field day?

Most alarms (almost all?) have battery back up so they can't be disabled by cutting the power.

Assuming the battery isn't dead. I'm not sure they last forever.

The ones in the control units certainly don't (which is why you hear your neighbour's alarms going off during a power cut). Not sure how long the one in the bell box lasts. 

..... which is why it's important to check the alarm periodically in accordance with the manufacturers maintenance schedule. A bit daft to invest in an alarm but not bother to keep it working IMHO. It's a very poorly designed or maintained alarm system that can be disabled by simply pulling the fuse where the supply enters the property - often at an external meter box.

On the other hand if they all went off when power was lost Spain would be a very noisy place ATM.

mmmmikey

HillStreetBlues said:

mmmmikey said:

pete-20-11 said:

mmmmikey said:

RavingMad said:

Guessing alarms might not work. I wonder if burglers will have a field day?

Most alarms (almost all?) have battery back up so they can't be disabled by cutting the power.

Assuming the battery isn't dead. I'm not sure they last forever.

The ones in the control units certainly don't (which is why you hear your neighbour's alarms going off during a power cut). Not sure how long the one in the bell box lasts. 

..... which is why it's important to check the alarm periodically in accordance with the manufacturers maintenance schedule. A bit daft to invest in an alarm but not bother to keep it working IMHO. It's a very poorly designed or maintained alarm system that can be disabled by simply pulling the fuse where the supply enters the property - often at an external meter box.

On the other hand if they all went off when power was lost Spain would be a very noisy place ATM.

That would be another example of a poorly installed and/or not properly maintained alarm system. Properly installed and maintained alarms don't go off when the power fails. That's the whole point of the backup batteries. 

dunstonh

MattMattMattUK said:

MouldyOldDough said:

Scary then?

Not really, a few hours, maybe half a day without gas or electricity is perfectly survivable without any real issues.

Indeed it is.  In rural areas, it is not uncommon to suffer 6-12 power cuts a year and have 6-12 hours of no electricity.   It is partly why so many rural properties still have woodburners and AGAs