Power cuts in rural Scotland

Orkney already has the highest rate of EV ownership in Scotland.

North Sea oil went to oil terminals in Shetland and Orkney before being transported south.

Quite.
I don't think anyone is going to deny that burning solid fuel is bad for the environment but needs must when the devil drives. We have an open fire in one room. We only use it occasionally. We also use a diesel generator that I'm sure is also very environmentally unfriendly. Again, it doesn't come out very often. But I'm not going to freeze/go hungry for days when we lose power, and there isn't really a practical alternative. And let's face it, it's not usually mid Summer when there are prolonged power cuts is it, so you do actually need heating especially if you have young children or elderly people in the house.
I only know one family who are self sufficient with "clean" electricity. They live on a small holding and have a substantial bank of solar panels, a wind turbine and some very big batteries. But we don't all have the land (they have 7 acres) or enough money to fund a project like that so it's hardly a practical solution for most people. And even that is only clean at the end point. There are significant environmental impacts from the production and eventually disposal of all the hardware and of course arguments about land use. When I replace my car I will probably get an EV with vehicle to load capacity which will be a cleaner solution to power outages than we currently have but I'm not kidding myself that it doesn't have an environmental cost too.
I'm old enough to remember what air quality was like in the days when coal fires were the norm. I grew up in a small mining town in the shadow of massive coal powered power station belching out fumes day and night. I don't need reminding of the environmental impact of solid fuel. I do try my best to be environmentally conscious and if new and better technology comes along I'm all for it. But in the meanwhile I'm not going to be beating myself up too badly over the few days a year we light a fire or drag the generator out because we have no power.

I agree that stoves are an essential of rural life. We are regularly without power for 3-5 days in the winter, that's the only way we have to keep warm. I honestly don't see how we could function without them.

Quite remote location which gets regular autumn/winter power cuts?!
What do you do then to stop yourself from freezing from multiple day power cuts which the last 5 years have been minimum 2-3 between Oct-March?!

You can think what you like about them they are essential for rural locations due to conditions when the grid goes down which it does.

There isn't the luxury of decamping to a hotel when there is only 1 hotel in a 25 mile radius also with no power.

Also you don't burn anything on them it's 2 year minimum seasoned wood as otherwise its pointless and won't give any heat whilst producing a large amount of smoke.

Ok great, but that doesn't answer the major part of my post which is: what do you do when the grid goes down because of a power cut?

Solar or other power banks are fine but they don't last long when you're running literally everything from them, which is a problem if your power cut lasts more than a day. And if the weather is bad you are unlikely to be able to recharge your solar power bank.

A diesel generator is no better for the environment.

Fires and stoves are really the only thing we can have full control over as individuals which we can use to keep going if other options aren't available.

I guess you make sure you’re more prepared if you live there. Open fires, charged power banks all the time, open fires. Guess i’d have a shower at work!

It's not a rant, it's pointing out reality. They're horrible things.
Just to clarify, I do live in quite a remote location.

I'm not personally burning oil or gas.

Edited to add that, without fail, within 20 mins of our power going out the mobile signal goes too.

Same here, I have to call/message people sharpish before the mobile signal goes off. If the power goes out in the middle of the night it's too late by the time I wake up, so I've no way of contacting anyone. And BT are in the process of removing some phone boxes in the Highlands which leaves us even more cut off.

We were lucky in this latest storm. Broadband was off for 24 hours but at least the power stayed on.

I try not to worry too much about that. We have a fantastic air ambulance service which I fundraise for voraciously.

I know a land ambulance isn't coming to us in a proper emergency even in calm sunny weather. Anything that doesn't require air ambulance we will get to hospital ourselves quicker.

Most people have absolutely no idea what living rurally properly means. There's no corner shops. No fast food outlets. No deliveroo, no neighbours to borrow bread from. You are utterly fucked if you aren't prepared and you will freeze to death if you don't have a simple means of heating the house 'off grid'

I live in Aberdeenshire. Since 2022 I am aware of at least 3 events where power cuts have exceeded 5 days in my area.

Many people round here also rely on private water, which more often than not requires a pump and so when the power goes out you can't even wash your hands or flush the toilets.

I can cope with most of it, but losing the water is the bit that pushes me over the edge.

Edited to add that, without fail, within 20 mins of our power going out the mobile signal goes too. Landlines are disappearing with fibre and now rely on power.

The storms that take out the power inevitably take down trees so we are also nearly always blocked in.

My husband is away with work frequently and I could not be trusted to use a chainsaw. I worry often about what happens if one of my children gets seriously sick or injured during a power outage where we are blocked in and I can't even call for help.

It's not privilege to point out the reality of burning things!

Feel free not to use one then, I'll be keeping mine.

@scrowy yep well said!

Many on MN seem to love a wood burner rant without ever living the reality of harsher weather conditions not in urban sprawling areas.
They are definitely not for aesthetics up here, nor the posh thing to do but a life line on a regular basis throughout Autumn and Winter storm season.

I think the community who live there full time will be well prepared

It's just unlucky you were there as a guest

I live very rurally and we have powercuts several times a year.

We have a large woodburner which keeps the main living area warm, we have plug in emergency lighting in a few key plug sockets (stairs, hallways) which run on battery if the power goes out although they are more about general fire safety all year round.

We have a back up power pack which is always kept charged up which we plug the modem and landline into and any phone chargers etc as needed so we can still call in/out and access information.

We have a gas camping stove and are well versed in 'campfire meals'. I over shop every winter always on high alert for potentially being stranded on the farm for a week.

The poster whining about log burner pollution has clearly never lived six miles further than the middle of nowhere in a stone house 4ft deep in snow and a cold and hungry farmer to defrost after 12 hrs of unburying sheep in huge snowdrifts.

We would have probably frozen to death without our log burner during beast from the east and Storm Arwen @Icannotthinkofagoodusernamerightnow, I don't think you have a clue about living outside of your urban bubble.

That’s a fairly recent development though. For decades, it was the other way around.

We had to have our house phone connected to an online service recently so now if the power goes down for a while or you don’t have a mobile you are cut off

Errrr are nt the windfarms in mainly remote areas or at sea -maybe they should only supply those near to them rather than spend millions pyloning it across the country

And this is why everyone was up in arms at the SNP loonies trying to ban wood burning stoves.

North East Scotland here and power cuts are fairly regular through Autumn and Winter storms.
It's pretty mild at the moment usually we get them with snow on the ground.

Your not wrong in saying that elsewhere it would make national news but even Scottish govt is good at the silent treatment and inaction til day 5/6.

Many people have wood burners installed it's why there was a outcry and back track when Scottish govt tried to ban them from planning permissions etc. They really are a life line multiple times a season up here. Our longest power cut was 7 days in minus temps. Our wood burner kept us going as there was nowhere else to go with our dog.

We also have solar power banks, torches etc.

You do get very used to it. The air bnb owner should probably provide info on the local shelter point in a pack though

And all that oil and gas we're burning to keep warm isn't helping either.

The long and short of it is that green energy, by which I mean electricity generated from wind or solar power, is excellent - when the grid works. But when the power goes down - what do you do? Bearing in mind the likelihood of a power cut goes up quite significantly in the winter, when it's dark, cold, and probably more difficult to travel given there's probably extreme weather involved.

At the moment, solid fuel stoves are the most reliable way to keep yourself going when the grid goes down. You could always get a diesel generator, but I'm not sure that's going to be much better environmentally and at least wood is a renewable fuel.

The island of Eigg has developed its own community funded electricity system which is renewables based.

We've be slowly killing our planet for years too.

Absolutely not.
It's not privilege to point out the reality of burning things!

I'm aware of the situation in Orkney. 🤣