POWERCUT!!!

[jansman]

I got home from work yesterday afternoon to a house in total darkness. Only one thing it could be-POWERCUT!
Only my house though...
Jan said she'd smelt burning from the consumer box(brand new too) and that was it. Our home became nothing more than a cave I rang the power supplier and established that it was a problem at my end. So then I rang our electrician. He was at the airport in Spain!!! He told me he was on the way home and he would see us at 8AM today. True to his word and bang on time there he was. Dodgy switch fixed and done in 15 mins. Lo! There was light!
Top Tip: have a good relationship with all your tradesmen.

What did we learn from a night with no electricity? Well, sitting by the woodstove with no Sky TV means you drink rather too much Vino Tinto!

Now, I have to confess that after an hour of LED lighting-which is very good by the way-everyone was climbing the walls. Except me, 'cos I had me head in a good book. Sooo...

I fired up the generator. Now this is not just any generator,it is a great big ex-site gennie I bought from a bust builder. It is an animal. Rather overkill just for one lightbulb and the telly!
I have changed my mind about emergency gennies. I do not think they are that vital. Bit that is another topic.

So , to conclude, Always make sure you have emergency lighting-LED camping lanterns are great. And batteries. And a radio. And an ordinary torch for walking round with.

And paracetomol for the hangover!

[mongrel]

It may sound funny but up here in the Highlands power cuts aren’t that uncommon, get them every winter and I quite enjoy them!

Weird maybe, but as a prepper I'm prepared so the wood stove carries on heating, the wind up lanterns come out and the wee wind generator makes sure all the touches are fully charged. It's comforting in a small way, that when something happens you cope, no big drama. Even if it's only a power cut!

Mongrel

[redskies]

We get them here too. Just a normal feature of winter life. And I expect one tomorrow night in the force ten we're forecast!

We're stuck with an all electric house, thanks to the HA - although I'm working on making them change that. We could do it, but it'd have to be at our expense and we'd have to put everything back as we found it before we left, again at our expense. Makes more sense to make the HA change things, so that future tenants get the benefit too.

The torches and various electronics will be fully charged, and the house will be heated a few extra degrees - it holds that quite well now it's been insulated properly. I can still work with my head torch on, or get on with making things for various family members. Kids will amuse themselves til bed time, either playing board games, reading or playing games on their DS thingies. Cracks me up sitting in here in a power cut listening to them linking up and playing Plants vs Zombies and hearing my son try to eat his wee sisters brains

[12mp82]

We're stuck with an all electric house, thanks to the HA - although I'm working on making them change that. We could do it, but it'd have to be at our expense and we'd have to put everything back as we found it before we left, again at our expense. Makes more sense to make the HA change things, so that future tenants get the benefit too.

Out of interest what solution have you put forward redskies, my MIL lives in an all electric bungalow out in the sticks and it would be useful for her to know what was available as they get a few outages a year.

[redskies]

Oh gods, it's not a matter of available. The HA's attitude seems to be that we should just sit here and fester, without doing a damn thing to improve our situation. So not only are we looking at viable, affordable solutions, we're having to change their attitude as we go, as well as keep reinforcing the idea that anything sustainable that lowers their tenants bills will get them brownie points. When you're dealing with that sort of organisation, a lot of it is what they get out of it as much as the tenants!

The first thing we're doing is getting LPG put in for cooking. There's two reasons for that. After the initial investment (about £600 on our part, which we have to save up for), we can then work on them to let us put in a biodigester, which should produce sufficient gas for cooking. After that, we'll see about heating. There are 10 houses, with a total of twenty people in this street, so between them all, we should be able to generate enough methane for all to see a substantial reduction in their power bills.

The next step after that is to start moving them towards power generation. I'm crap with electrics, but OH has an MOD HND in electronics, and is very good. Add my Dad, the frankenturbine man, to the mix, and the two of them can come up with power generation for us. Of course, we'd have to talk the HA into letting us hook it up, but I think we can do that, with backing from other tenants, once we explain to them how much it could lower their bills.

For power generation, we're thinking small turbines (gotta watch the wind here), and possibly a gassifier.

It's all about suiting the method to the area you're working in. There's spare land round these houses, which can be used for all sorts of things - it's currently sitting there doing sod all. You could even set up a rocket stove to power a steam turbine, using a good chunk of the land put to willow coppice for the fuel. There's so many options.


For your Mum, if she's not up for those kinds of battles, try a gas bottle heater, tilly lamps and a small, single ring, camping stove. With the exception of the heater, that's what we use at the moment. I can't tell you how hard it is to get long entrenched attitudes changed; it's taken us more than six months to get them to agree to us renting land off them and it'll be another month after that before we get the paperwork sorted. It takes time, and determination.

[jansman]

I have said before that I consider LED, wind-up and small solar appliances to be the way forward. True, I do have wood heat, but small solar is definitely the way (for us).My Daughter is now in an all electric place, so we shall look at kitting her out with these items.

[redskies]

Small solar just isn't going to work well enough for enough of the year to justify the outlay here - we have to find other ways.

[Plymtom]

A forced seperation from our electric world especially if very temporary is a good reminder not to be too reliant on modern tech, I can totally understand the concept of enjoying a power cut, allthough in the city it's rare.

[diamond lil]

I second the LPG calor gas cooking. I have a nice big Cannon cooker running on propane and a cylinder lasts me 7-8 months.
Some wee solar thingies are handy for finding stuff in a hurry. An old fashioned phone. Windup/battery radio.
We get a lot of powercuts here and I love the peace and calm. Nothing as relaxing as sitting round a coal fire talking or reading by candlelight. Get a nice spooky Victorian ghost story or supernatural horror
We're the furthest-away tenants of our HA and they pretty much let you do as you like, as long as you get a proper tradesman. The next village had solar heating installed by the HA and the people were going mad saying they were cold. Maybe doesn't work up here.

[redskies]

Lil, I don't think it does, or not as well as in, say, the sunny south!

Our HA are idiots. They'll let you do whatever, but only at your own expense, and even if it's certified, they won't leave improvements for the next tenants. It's stupid, it really is. They won't even ask incoming tenants if they want brand new flooring that the previous tenant is leaving behind - they rip it up and throw it in a skip! And this is what I'm trying to change, just one more thing on a list that means they're legally compliant but totally immoral and unethical.