AIBU to think the stockpile advice suggests something to come??

@LilyBunch25 Thank you! I agree, it's good to be prepared just in case. I remember as a small child mum cooking using a paraffin cooker and the coal fire & candles for lighting, think it was during the three day week, early 70s. I thought it was a great adventure.

Water purification tablets which DH buys online, he has a charcoal filtering thing too- he's ex military so I left all that to him 😅 boiling it is sufficient for some uses but would purify for drinking and cooking. The radio/torch/charger was ebay 👍but I think they're now widely available online. I think sensible preparation is a good thing- even in a power cut, bad weather, all these things can be really useful.

The tablets are a bit chloriney and can take a while to work, half hour or so but would be fine in the house as they are fairly cheap to buy from walking shops, Boots, Amazon, etc, so probably best to get a pack of them in. The filter things that DH uses when hiking are quite expensive but handy as you can just filter some water to have there and then, but it's only a like a small bottle of water. you can probably get some large scale filtering kits but if you are not likely to use all this stuff I would just get some tablets, some taste better than others apparently, I can remember DH discussing this in Cotswold Outdoor one day.

How do you purify the water? I read something about tablets and charcoal & boiling? but I'm a bit unsure of the correct ways. Wow, your wind up torch/radio sounds great, just the ticket, where did you get it from please? Thank you. My daughter teased that I'm turning into a prepper, although I can see signs of her going off grid in the future.

Yes I find the water stores we have outside reassuring, we have means of purifying etc. Re the wind up torch/radio we got a brilliant one that is radio/torch/USB charger. It winds and also has a small solar panel for extra trickle charging. It cost about £23. I tested it to charge a few things last week- it charged my phone, my kindle and even my cats water fountain battery (!) very effectively.

We store and rotate very much as you do. Its really important to only buy foods you would normally use as you say, just rotating and replacing on next shop. We don't have a log burner but do have an outside firepit and large stock of wood where we could boil water etc if need be, to save on the gas canisters. We already grow food outside in raised beds, we're just finishing with our summer crops, and turning over for winter crops including potatoes. I also have a herb garden which helps with flavouring and always includes natural remedies as well including mint, echinacea and others.

Found our old camping stove & kettle in the loft whilst doing a massive clear out recently. Also some candles and tea lights, so that's handy to keep. Will also stock up on a few more tins and packets of stuff, dried and long life milks. Will look into water purification for my water butts just in case & get some bottled water. Got torches and thermos flasks. We used to have a wind up torch, but it died after years of use. Will have a look at getting another and a radio.

I think the government don't want to say 'prepare for the possibility of war' but instead will use something like the El Nino to make the point we need to have at least 3 days' supplies in, either way, it's sensible to prepare, but make sure you buy things you like to eat!

Something that hasn't been mentioned is that during times of stress, as would happen during a prolonged power cut, many people who aren't well prepared (and even some who are) will do foolish things, or use equipment they bought for an emergency but have never actually learned how to operate when things were fine. Don't be fumbling about in candle light trying to figure out how to light your camp stove. I expect the Fire Brigade will be busy.

The other point is hot food/drinks boost morale. If an outage occurs during winter it's pretty miserable to be eating cold food. You'll survive, sure. It's sensible to cultivate good relations with neighbours so you can help each other out. Most of my neighbours have log burners, I'm happy to trade some tins of food for the use of that, say once a day, so I can have hot food and heat some water to fill a thermos flask.

We have a gas BBQ plus a log burning stove plus a small portable induction ring which works with a jackery battery (which has a solar panel to recharge). We'd get by for a while if nobody tried to take them from us. We have a good stockpile of wood in particular.

It's best to store food that is ready to eat though or that just require you to boil a kettle. Pot noodles, cous cous, crackers, long life wraps and cakes/biscuits, tins of fish or meat, tins of fruit and rice pudding. As long as it's things you will happily eat so that you can rotate your stockpile as dates expire then you're fine. Also a good idea to have back ups of essential meds if you can and to have a bottle of vitamins.

I have a very full pantry and lots of back ups of everything. Much of it depends on the electricity and water still being available though.

Those of us who can should also be thinking of incorporating food in our gardens too. Longer term as a country we need to be less reliant on the rest of the world to provide our food.

DH is eying up an RV.. He's wanted one for ages.

A lot of people have gas barbecues, couldn't you use that, we have a gas cooker in the caravan and would use that sparingly as no doubt there would be a run on calor gas cylinders for these and camping stoves

When there were power cuts in the 80s my mum would cook the dinner on a camping stove, perfectly safely. You do have to ensure there is good ventilation, it's on a stable level surface away from fire hazards, and it will be fine.

As i have said upthread, you need to watch the flames, if they become tinged orange/yellow then there is insufficient oxygen and your camping stove is producing carbon monoxide. This generally only happens in small spaces, gas stoves use a lot of oxygen (domestic stoves mix extra oxygen with the flame so this shouldn't happen). The flame on a gas stove should always be blue.

Poisoning with camping stoves generally happens when people use them in their tent for heat at night and fall asleep.

As long as people are being mindful it's fine. I just think about camping stoves like bathing your baby, you don't EVER leave it or take your eyes off it.

We've a log burner so we will try and warm food on that I guess. Though not so brilliant in the summer. We don't have lots of space to store logs so they stay dry so will have to use the ones we get sparingly. We might all have to camp in the lounge if it got extremely cold as it will only warm the one room.

Heat source is something I’ve been thinking about. I don’t much want to have to eat cold food and drinks for days in winter in a house with no heating. But I am also not keen on having a gas canister in my house. Do you have any thoughts about storage that you could share?

The only thing we do know is that none of us know what is going to happen or not going to happen.

Not going to happen redtoothbrush

If there was an ebola outbreak in London that could get interesting....

The jist of the suggestion is enough to tide you over until other arrangements are made. After living somewhere with frequent power cuts I always have a few tins, packets and jars and I'll make sure there is plenty of fresh bread if a storm is forecast. It's not exactly stockpiling.

Another pandemic and lock down.

No the gvt haven't suggested stockpiling at all. Just that its wise to have maybe three days extra food - tinned/dried/packets and some bottled water because in event of major power outages/ extreme bad weather - you have something to tide you over until services get back to normal

Rather like the same advice for going on holiday - ensure you have extra prescription meds/baby formula etc - in case your luggage goes walkies

what planet are you from?

A canister gas ring is perfectly safe to use indoors

I myself have had to rely on one every flipping year when the weather here knocks out the power

I grew up in the 60.s and 70's when superser gas heaters were common place

Well I think that's obvious.

If those people can read posts on here (or navigate the internet) then they can read the instructions that come with the gas camping stoves. Unless they are really stupid.. in which case Darwinism ftw.

On camping stoves. I'm on a couple of campervan groups where those suitcase type stoves have 'exploded' when I'm use. What they think is happening is because the gas canister is installed close to the flame, there has been unburnt gas that has gathered under a large pan, that has then flared and in turn ignited the cannister.

Having used this type of stove safely for years, I've just swapped to a stove where the gas canister is attached through a hose and can be kept at more of a distance instead.

Also my country staged a large civil defence drill for just the kind of thing this advice is for - cyber attacks affecting power and water supplies. Clearly my government believes this is a real potential threat, not scaremongering, they wouldn't waste money on drills for no reason when they're cutting spending everywhere else.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20244566

This has been the advice for years in Finland, its just simple preparedness. Also the advice includes having a portable stove e.g. a camping stove

https://72tuntia.fi/en/home-emergency-food-supply/