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 😪

@babynoname22 can you just make it up with bottled water instead? IDK what the guidelines are now but I'm sure that was what we did with DC1 in 2019 when we did the 16 hour round trip to PILs for Christmas.

The electric in my street are buggered (but fixed now) we had frequent 3 hour power cuts. Just keep the freezer shut and you’ll be fine.

Yes things in fridge will be fine - avoid opening the door if you can

My hardwired smoke alarms have battery back up, they have never beeped during our frequent power cuts.

Thank you guys:)

Mine do, they're proper shit.

Well a quick look on the timetable and it seems very unfair. Some people have multiple offs during key times. Others only one in the middle of the night. So I doubt that timetable is legit.

Some good tips. Thanks. I'm freaking out having had approx 3 hours sleep in 24 hours!

I guess boil and flask it is. I've got cold water steriliser.

We need to get some torches and candles and matches

3 options for bottles I can think of

1. premake and refridgerate early in the day. This is fine, it's the approach recommended for care settings etc. Even once your fridge is off it will keep cold for hours

2. fill a flask with boiling water. A decent one should keep water hot long enough, you could experiment to see how long it stays above 70

3. ready made cartons

For those worried about vulnerable family or taking care of DC, a timely reminder of the Priority Services Register; so you are marked down with the Utilities as needing extra support in the event of an emergency.

Look up your actual wholesale provider in your area (eg SSE rather than Octopus Energy) and just search for “Priority Services Register”.

You can do it for your water company and gas company as well as electric.

I thought bottled water had too much sodium for babies but it might be ok for a one off.

The rolling blackouts are based on an already published government document, covering 17 scenarios, ranging from enerly is a bit short (9 hours outage spread over the week) to shit, most of our power stations have been bombed (3 hours of power a day, at best)

The schedule is based on where you are, with various zones. Iirc, I live in zone s, which loses power early hours Friday, plus Saturday lunchtime and dinnertime, for stage 1.

See for yourself. I'm not that arsed if anyone believes it. But forwarned and all that..

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/995049/esec-guidance.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiSu_LqjpP7AhWMSkEAHVZfAmYQFnoECBEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1Bi_PyEUkSMmVCFokR9wm-

Being planned would surely be better and easier than being random, like normal power cuts. Longer term power cuts are relatively unusual of course but do happen, for my area specifically we tend to get a couple of short ones a year and occasionally a longer one (of more than a few hours long). Although uncommon, power cuts are surely frequent enough that you need to have a back up plan already in place. A falling tree took out our power for nearly two days in a storm this year, we aren’t rural.

Candles, battery lights, camping stove, thermos, and blankets. Or, just go out - go to a public place, shopping or leisure centre, friend or family member’s house who has power, if you can and really need to.

You can check the code on your energy bill to see what times/days your blackouts would be. They’re throughout the week/day.

@User963 see I was told to avoid mineral water but that regular bottled water was fine. I'm probably out of date now though.

I'm a bit leery about this happening, tbh. Tory ratings are already in the toilet. I think blackouts will be a nail in their coffin with the older generations. I'm betting they'll pull off (finance!) something miraculous to prevent this from happening. But, maybe, I'm being optimistic. I've got my candles at the ready.:)

We managed perfectly well before. The worst thing that happened was that the electricity would go off just before the end of a murder drama and you never got to know who-dunnit. At least we have catch-up now. Do young people realise that some of us remember the days when most people didn't have a fridge?

I've bought my mum an led head torch....really bright...lights up her whole lounge

They'd have to be rolling blackouts surely?

How true is this. Some of the comments on this thread romanticizing blackouts are reminiscent of lockdowns. The furloughed crowd baking banana bread and learning to play an instrument, living their best life while the the little people had to deal with the reality of bad governance and public disastrous policy.

@Dyrne how do I figure out who my wholesale energy provider is?

Lots of people will be in the same boat. I have no gas, my heating, hot water and cooking is all electric.

The trouble is society and households aren't set up for it anymore though. My dad got his first fridge in 2008 and it replaced the cold concrete shelf in the larder. In emergencies people had phone boxes. Now most people are on mobile phones and a lot of houses used to have oil heating and open fires and now it's all gas - regulated by an electric thermostat - and electric.
Short blackouts shouldn't be too bad though.

Baby formula isn't sterile so it needs to be prepared with water 70 degrees or hotter. So bottled water isn't safe