What is a "blackout"?

[Fiestyfish]

I keep seeing in the papers about possible "blackouts" this winter due to the energy issues but what will this entail? Short power cuts? Power cuts that last days? No heating?

When I was a kid in the 80's these were quite fun. We'd sit together and play cards by candlelight but recently our electricity went off for all of five minutes but obviously at the time I didn't know how long it would be off for and it was quite freaky to suddenly be plunged into the dark.

@Fordian

Stupid question (maybe)- but what are LED lights? Presumably needing batteries? That will go flat and leak?

LED lamps use very much less power than filament bulbs. I have several in the shed and they last for years with occasional use I don't know what the shelf life of alkaline batteries is, but, again it could be years.

I think they were £3 in Aldi.

Reading this thread and I’ve had 2 bloody power surges 🤣. House alarms going off in the area and WiFi having to restart.

all my LED candles use AAA batteries and I don't keep them in there all the time, only put them in when we are using them. Although they die long before they can leak anyway.

Amazing that so many posters are so blasé about the possibility of black outs like it's a totally normal and acceptable thing to have happen

@Samanabanana

Amazing that so many posters are so blasé about the possibility of black outs like it's a totally normal and acceptable thing to have happen

Perhaps it's those like me who get them anyway because of where we live? It's annoying if I happen to be cooking a meal (no gas here). Otherwise no big deal if it's only a couple of hours. Once you get to 24 hours it's much worse because freezers start to defrost.

@OhYouBadBadKitten as I understand it there's a very manual process where gas engineers go and turn off valves locally - equivalent to a water stopcock. I cannot emphasise enough though, that this would only happen after a long list of other very well understood and rehearsed options had been exhausted.

And as usual someone up thread blamed it on Brexit !

Is this actually going to be a thing? I'm self employed and work fully from home online, is the government planning to make up the loss for people who wouldn't be able work otherwise?

Dh is setting us up with two car batteries and an invertor so we can still have Internet and charge phones

You don’t need to muck about with batteries if your budgeting runs to one of these
www.amazon.co.uk/s?hvlocphy=9046250&hvnetw=g&hvadid=259038744711&k=ups+power+supply&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_KWp1r698wIVEpCyCh2UjwJxEAAYAyAAEgIxmvD_BwE&ref=pd_sl_61tv3mfh4x_e&hydadcr=4397_1795148&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=kwd-1683655290&adgrpid=50650840022&hvrand=13289386982924025187

We live in an area prone to power cuts and brown outs. We have 2 of these, one connected to the tv and WiFi and one in the office running the lights and monitors. There’s usually secondhand to reconditioned ones kicking around online.

I remember blackouts, but they were not planned. Lasted sometimes for days. 80s and early 90s (in 2 diff countries)
We had torches, gas cooker so food was never a problem. The freezer was an issue.
We had 2 of the huge box freezers usually full of meat. Once we had a power cut for 3-4 days just after we got in all the meat from overseas. My mum started making stews and such to freeze back when power came back, but only a small amount could be saved. :(

@GalaxyPostcard no, it's not.

Life has really got pretty dystopian hasn’t it….

I remember blackouts, but they were not planned. Lasted sometimes for days. 80s and early 90s (in 2 diff countries)

I think its important to point out to people who are worried, the poster has written this was not in the UK.

@XingMing

They're quite common in most of the world. Even in California, the decrepit power infrastructure browns out at times of peak demand. No streetlights, etc. Hospitals using back up generators. Candles and matches in stock, and a camping stove is a good shout.

I was in South Africa a few years ago and power cuts were a regular occurrence. Some people I know had a 5 day power outage!

Bit of a bugger when you have a gas boiler that needs power to run and no open fire. And an induction hob. Wish I live in my old house which had a wood burner. I do have a camping stove!!

Bumping this due to the ongoing power outages across the northwest.
Itl be the 5th day without power for thousands of people and some areas aren’t expecting to have power before the weekend

No hot water
Can just about keep warm with a fire
Light in the evening by candles and torches only. The candles ran short on day 2 and buying more candles is hard due to shortages and also that many shops are also shut because of the outages
Can only cook if you’ve got gas hob.

There’s only so many times you can play monopoly by candlelight before you need an alibi.

Even less fun when you have young children/toddlers/babies

Our 4 year old thinks it’s an adventure. The 1 year old is scared and won’t sleep and I can’t rest because of the amount of fire hazards everywhere