3 Hour Blackouts

[pyjamafashionista]

If they happen, they are saying they'll be planned between 4-7pm. Surely this is the most ridiculous time, when most people will still be at work/ travelling home/making tea etc.
Any genius thoughts to get through a 3 hour blackout besides blankets and 🕯
I feel really sad for vulnerable people on their own if it happens 😪

Well yes the government has acted beyond stupid for decades on this

As a country we have huge renewable potential

The idea of energy instability was known decades ago

If out government had invested this country could be selling power to the EU now not heading into recession and facing power cuts

They won't light with the push button but should work with matches.

Really blunt here but that's such an ott reaction to few hours of planned blackouts.

While I think it's ridiculous anyway (the blackouts) as someone who grew up with them with every thunderstorm, people need to calm down.

You can't compare few hours without electricity to months of lockdowns....

@RewildingAmbridge yes it's shit but I don't know what you want people to say? Because you have PCOS you should definitely have priority over other people?

But there are always round problems and we need to face the world that significant percentage of people here must have voted for

I’d recommend voting for a party for which prioritises sourcing renewable energy sources on UK territory/ in UK waters.

rather than banning farmers from using their fields for solar where it makes commercial sense.

Exactly right. Years of incompetence has led to this state of affairs.

Me too.
And that’s why I kept my hot water tank and immersion heater. If the gas goes off, and we had none for 3 days one Xmas, I can still have a hot shower.

We didn’t even have any heat until man discovered fire.

Why the fuss?

Well help the aged, disability charities, people working across health and social care and a whole load of politicians, families etc aren't so sure. Before we lived in mains heated homes, we had other means of keeping warm, which is why we had a thriving coal industry. Vulnerable people didn't live alone. People didn't survive. So it boils down to us accepting lots of deaths again. Why do you think that you know better than Help the Aged and Scope, who are presently lobbying the government over this issue? On what basis are you sure everyone will be fine?

In some areas we will need police on the beat to stop the crime wave that will happen and it's been brought up by local police. Every emergency service is asking the government for clarity because as it stands, it's going to be a shit show.

Actually not converting farmland to solar is probably sensible

Currently we face a fuel crisis but we are equally vulnerable to food shortages and a food crisis is as probable as fuel crisis going forward

So it needs to be profitable for farmers to make food

I guess there is no point looking at the current government at that point is there

Presumably we can still cook on a gas hob if we light it with a lighter?

Absolutely hate my gas hob and longing for an induction, but quite pleased we can’t afford a kitchen reno yet. Need to stock up on matches.

Our main contingency plan is making trade-offs with friends in different letter zones – we’ve all got small children and all wfh; with a bit of planning we can work at each other’s houses and such. Not looking forward to having a new baby in January in a big draughty house anyway but if it’s anything like the last one, it’ll want to stay warm by sleeping in my armpit anyway.

Of course, it will affect many people in different ways, some much much worse than others. Let's just hope it doesn't come to blackouts.

TBF its a war in Ukraine that has led to this, no one could have predicted a war in Europe 5 years ago.

Least of all the tories, who Putin was funding - we shouldn't forget this, no matter how hard they try to make us do so.

Looks like the government nudge unit is at it again.

Scare people into thinking millions are going to die so they voluntarily lock themselves up and report their neighbours for taking a second walk of the days.

Scare people into thinking your energy bill is you up by 10x so you are grateful when they tell you it’s only going up 5x.

Scare people into thinking that you will have 6 hours of power cuts every day so that you are grateful when only lose power for 3 hours a day.

Simply to hide their own incompetent policies.

@midgetastic
i agree with your principle 100% but I think very few UK food farmers are able to make a decent profit these days.
I’d rather farmers prioritise food if for example we could get enough renewable energy offshore (currently we can’t). However if it is solar or going bust/selling the land to developers then surely the former is better.

Ridiculous response were not going back to prehistoric times it's 3 hours without electricity on a planned rota. I wasn't much bothered in the 70s as I was a teenager but my parents generation had lived through air raids maybe that's why they didn't complain as much.

It happened in the past and it looks like it might happen again. It shouldn't but we are where we are. You can stick your head in the sand or prepare for it.

Pragmatism meets idealism 😀

Is there really a plan for alien invasion? What is it?

I meant - Ridiculous response. We're not ...

Solar farms still allow for some agriculture and can be beneficial to regenerating land and for certain crops; the proposed Tory ban is about regrading land so solar can’t be built on land that isn’t brilliant for farming anyway – taking the solar away just removes income revenue for farmers, it doesn’t magically make the soil better or boost food production.

We’ve got a few lanterns, lots of batteries, power banks, duvets, blankets, a log burner.

Just think of it like camping. I think we’ll just sleep earlier.

Being given advance notice helps avoid a truly miserable scenario.

Not sure about alien invasions but emergency services do prepare for dirty bombs and huge industrial accidents. They even prepared for a pandemic, the government were told plans were inadequate and did nothing.

My ex was in the army and they had a saying PPPPPP - Preparation and Planning Prevent Piss Poor Performance.

When we moved to our present house in 1985 it had a generator socket wired to an outside wall and a second consumer unit indoors. We were told this had been installed in the 70s for a dialysis user. In the event of a power cut a generator would have been delivered. Presumably this sort of provision is available still?