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 😪

How do you know people aren't working'.the lights go out in our office when nobody is in them. Even in our last office which was an old Victorian building the lights turned off.

Automatically

Oh worry not, I share your views on that one! 😊

@bruffin

It was a glass building and absolutely no one working.

TV screens on and all sorts.

It’s not Germany or Putin’s fault that we will have power cuts. It out government fault. Putin didn’t t tell them to get rid of storage. Nor did he tell them to not build nuclear power.

This will sound stupid-apologies as obviously much bigger concerns if this happens-but our house alarm defaults to sounding in a power cut until the battery runs out. From past experience this can be 30 minutes 😳 They keypad goes dead so we can't deactivate it. Does anyone know how to stop this happening-because once or twice a year is fine-if this is going to be a "thing", I'm not sitting in pitch black listening to that bastarding soulless box for 30 minutes a day

It won’t just be yours going off either. Businesses etc.
my work have battery back up for theirs, maybe it’s worth looking into?

I do feel like crime is going to spike during blackout points. Lots of cctv, alarms, phones etc down.

And linked with wifi etc.
my guess is the big shops will close, from security as much as anything and smaller corner shops will stay open just with cash

@Damnautocorrect Yes I think supermarkets and Tesco express type places will have to. Chillers and freezers will have to stay closed.

Good for some pubs though. I remember working in my local during winter power cuts in the 80’s. Lots of candles, open fires and still serving.

Surely, they would have to close?! If blackouts were during the school day, it would be very difficult keeping children on task and learning with no light, heating, computers or kitchen. At least at home, they can go and get back in bed to keep warm!

I don’t know about hotels though. That’s all electronic doors too?
What happens if we have notice of blackouts, will hotels have to tell guests from abroad in advance not to come so they can claim on insurance or just suck it up and hope guests like the contingency plans.

The times are precisely for that reason - it's when most people use electricity, the peak time. The idea is to blackout during peak times.

So, many adult only households, or those with older children, could eat later, choosing meals with shorter cooking times that day perhaps.

Those with smaller children, make it an adventure. Carpet picnic with candles or torches, and cold fold. Or make things like soup or beans earlier and keep in a decent food flask. My food flask keeps my soup warm for hours - I make it at 7am and it's still hot at 12:30pm.

Good for some pubs though. I remember working in my local during winter power cuts in the 80’s. Lots of candles, open fires and still serving.

I doubt it. Can't use candles to light due to fire hazard, most beers are chilled, and payments can't be taken without a till or handset.

You can use candles in a pub.
And you can take payments to put them through later.... Just open the till drawer manually

So would it be rolling, as in a different day/time each week - or would we be stuck with the same day/time every week over a longer time period.

I'm group L, so two of our times are at the weekend, and one overnight.

Doesn't seem to be very fairly spaced out if it's the same ongoing. We'd have to deal with being at home for two of the times, over the weekend.

Now we'd manage but it doesn't seem very fairly worked out based in those grids.

Those grids were designed as a general plan to cope when supplies were shut down, We don’t have that really do we. The supply is known to be ok we just need to ensure it’s not all used at peak times.
There would be a new plan if needed for this winter surely?

All my local pubs and pub restaurant's currently have candles. Do yours not?

Ah, just read it's rolling, so days/times would change.

I work in a school. Wonder how that will work.

Rotas, etc wouldn't really work these days as so many more families now have both parents working, often both full time. So less stay at home mums (as sah dads were less common too back then) to be able to deal with advice school times.

Unless schools were exempt perhaps.

All my local pubs and pub restaurant's currently have candles. Do yours not?

No-there were no candles in the two pubs I went in last night. Too many pissed people for that to be a good idea! The bar was card machine only as well-no cash.

"From past experience this can be 30 minutes"

1. Put a new battery in your alarm. Capacity falls over time.

2. make sure the battery fitted is the maximum size possible.

3 In theory all alarms/bellboxes should go off after 15 minutes anyway and only leave the strobe on.

4 )I suppose you could attach fly leads to the battery in the alarm and hook it up to a car battery when the power goes out. They have a much bigger capacity so should run it for a few hours.

I live in South Africa and we have daily blackouts. Here are some of the things that make our lives easier: I work from home and have a UPS which keeps the WiFi going for 8 hours so no work interruptions and my laptop is always fully charged. We have a generator but we only use it at night - too much hassle in the day and it uses a lot of petrol. Look out for rechargeable lightbulbs - they replace your ordinary bulbs and charge automatically when the power is on. We have them in our bathroom, kitchen and bedside lamps. Of all our energy solutions they have been the best! We cook on gas and barbecue (even in midwinter). We use hot water bottles in winter (with water boiled on the gas stove) at bedtime. Many people have solar, generators or inverters, which look like a big battery on wheels (it charges from the mains when the power is on and can power a few devices at the same time). Inverters come in a variety of sizes and prices and can be used in apartments as they do not need to be outside like a generator which emits petrol fumes.

Do none of you get power cuts usually in bad weather?! We are quite prone to them here in high winds/snow and honestly if they are for less than 24hrs they're fine. Get in some torches, candles and a camping gas stove; don't open your freezer; open the fridge as little as possible; light an open fire or woodburner if you have one. We also have a little petrol generator but I wouldn't bother with it for a 3 hr power cut.

Oh, and of course we fling everything on charge at the first hint of bad weather coming!

@Dustybarn

I keep reading about the power cuts in South Africa. Has it always been like that, what is the reason and are they improving the power infrastructure? Do you expect it to get better or is it just the way it is and everyone has to live with it?

@BarbaraofSeville

We’ve had power cuts in SA for about 10 years. Unfortunately our government has not properly maintained our energy infrastructure, the only power utility was run by political appointees not technical experts and there was corruption at every level of the procurement chain, so very little money actually went to fixing or maintaining the infrastructure. We now have qualified people in place and the government is doing everything to encourage private power projects to provide additional power. In 3 - 5 years it should be resolved but the country has suffered huge economic losses as a result of scaled back production due to blackouts.