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 😪

Bloody hell, it’s a power cut not the end of the world!

Live rurally and regularly experience power cuts. Get a decent battery light, some candles, charge up your power banks for phones, download some tv programmes onto your iPads. Buy a bookmark light from Amazon and start a book you’ve been meaning to read. Good opportunity to have some social media free time if you spend too much time on there. Get your hot water bottles filled up before the PC starts. Thick blankets at the ready.

Also have a newborn and think somehow we’ll all get by!

Generally, I disbelieve governments, but I wouldn't be surprised if the power generators are over-egging this a bit to encourage people to cut back on usage.

Why would you need to buy things like camping stoves? Just have a salad or a sandwich. It’s a couple of hours, not weeks at a time.

Buy some portable charging packs? Tell your clients in advance that you'll be unavailable at X time? You presumably get sick sometimes and/or take leave.

I've got a gas hob too, and I'm very glad. I'll be able to have hot drinks, hot food and fill a couple of hot water bottles if it gets really cold. My oven is gas, but it has a safety device that shuts off the gas when you open the door, so it can only be lit electronically, which is a bummer.

I also have head torches and camping lanterns in the loft, so I'll get them out and check they're all working. I've got a stockpile of books to read, too. I'm lending camping stoves to a couple of friends who have electric cookers.

If it's just for three hours at the beginning or end of the day would the school buses run early/late? In the middle they'd have to stay at school surely.

@CocoLux I work when I'm not well because if I don't then I don't get paid. Even if I could work in a blackout my clients might cancel because its too difficult for them. My MIL looks after my kids while I'm working and I doubt she'd want to do that during a power cut.

It depends how many blackouts will happen but I do see it affecting my business massively.

Is anyone else in zone ‘V’? It doesn’t seem to have a section in the blackout charts.

For most people it will be just a minor inconvenience.

for those who are disabled and rely on powered devices to survive, or even just for quality of life, it could be a major problem.

for ds if i knew in advance I would be able to charge pumps and the likes up but other people have devices that need to run off mains.

Working from home: we have a signal booster/hotspot and hotspot iPads in place of the pc when power is down. Plus lots of power packs.

I say it on every thread, if we have a blackout, use that time to protest in the streets. There are protests across Europe, we are the only ones not protesting. Having a power cut is a big deal for whole groups of people. When we had power cuts in the 70's, the institutions (were we shoved disabled people into) were open. We didn't have people 'suppoetted' to live at home. We didn't live with the health conditions that we do now. There must be people living in fear at the thought of this. How do you think the autistic etc children and adults are going to cope with this massive change in routine? This is going to cost social care a fortune in support services. They are talking about opening public buildings. Our libraries have already started opening extended hours and serve tea and coffee.
As for posters saying that we'll manage with no traffic lights, at peak times, in the dark when children are coming home? You don't think that there are going to be fatalities? Are you the posters who were telling people that milk wasn't essential and to put cheese in their coffee? Or that walking in a empty field was risking infection, during lockdown? People's mental health is only just recovering from lock down, many won't survive this. Give a shit about other people and protest this.

I'm not too fussed as we have torches and power banks and food isn't too hard to sort out. But evening showers are going to be a nightmare.

Being old, I've been through this before, during the miners' strike in the 70s. It really wasn't that bad, and it was only for 3 hours at a time, same as they're proposing now. In fact, some of it was good - we got sent home from work early or started late when the cuts coincided with working hours, and our pay wasn't affected.

We spent a lot of time playing board games by candlelight, and I learned how to play bridge and backgammon. It really shows how we've become so much more dependent on electronic devices since then.

One thing I can't remember is whether traffic lights worked during power cuts. All the streetlights were out, but I don't remember having to be extra careful at junctions that were normally controlled by traffic lights, so I wonder if they might have some sort of emergency supply.

People who may have to travel would do well to make sure they keep a reasonable amount of fuel in their tanks, as the petrol stations used to shut when the power was off.

Schools, services, transport etc would run as normal I think

Did you seriously just say that many won’t survive this?

Doubt schools would open if they didn’t have electricity. They’d be sent for h&s reasons I suppose

during the 70s cuts we went to school in shifts. Some of us went to our own school in the morning, some of us to another school in the afternoon. I was miffed as I lived 5 mins walk to my school but had to get a bus to go to the school I was allocated in the afternoon. I’ve got such a shit memory I can’t remember what DM did about our dinners but I do remember reading by candlelight, very early nights and being sodding freezing and getting chilblains. I don’t know now it would work now as we are so dependent on Wi-Fi and electricity in general for our current technology in our everyday lives at work and home. For those romanticising the 70s cuts, I just remember being very cold, miserable and hating the hassle and disruption of having to go to another school.

I am thinking put it in the slow cooker in the morning so it is cooked before the power goes off then reheat when the power comes back on.

Use a slow cooker if you have advance warning (see the timetable PPs posted). You don't have heating unless you have an open fire or log burner, so you make sure the house is as warm as possible in advance and you all wear layers. You wash bottles as you use them so you always have clean and you use a cold water steriliser. Most washing machines use cold water but you won't be able to do any washing. The fridge and freezer will be fine as long as you don't open it too often.

These kind of rolling power cuts are happening at the moment in South Africa and have been for quite some time. Google "load shedding". My work involves a bit of interaction with people there.

When their power is off we still continue to have Teams calls but they use a mobile hotspot and make sure their laptop is fully charged before the power goes off. I notice that their background is very dark because the lights are off. Sometimes people deliberately change from office to home or vice versa depending on where the power is due to be off. If the laptop battery runs out and their power is still off they just flex their working hours and catch up when the power is back.

I understand that zone 'V' is an exempt zone, it means there's a large hospital or water power plant or something in the same region and therefore it won't be included in the blackout rota?

However, I can't understand why my zone seems to say 'F'....I didn't think the F letter is used, and it doesn't appear on the chart. I have entered my postcode several times in case I have got it wrong, but no.... Is F a misprint? Should it say 'E'? I can't seem to find out....

You dont (we live rural this happens after most storm for more than a few hours!) sleeping bags for baby, log burner if you have one, layers of clothes for little one. As for bottles it's wise to get some the pre made formula in for this time. Cold food for tea is fine we get picky bits that can be eaten hot watching the storm if it doesn't take out power or cold. Things like pies, sausage rolls, precooked pizza etc

We've invested in solar batteries for green reasons but hoping that will give us enough power to do most things if we charge them from the grid during the day.

If you have a gas hob you should be able to light it with a match btw

What do you want people to protest about? The fact the world relies on fossil fuel? We’ve had years to campaign about that already.

It has been all over the news for the last month? For example:

Britain could face three-hour power cuts this winter, National Grid warns
www.reuters.com/business/energy/britain-could-face-forced-power-cuts-this-winter-national-grid-warns-2022-10-06/

Britain could face rolling three-hour blackouts this winter if imports stall
www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-blackouts-power-cuts-electricity-b2197267.html

Homes could face three-hour power cuts this winter, warns National Grid
www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/06/national-grid-warns-households-could-face-three-hour-power-cuts-this-winter

Energy crisis: Plan for three-hour power blackouts to prioritise heating in event of gas shortages
news.sky.com/story/energy-crisis-plan-for-three-hour-power-blackouts-to-prioritise-heating-in-event-of-gas-shortages-as-eu-agrees-to-cut-electricity-use-12713253

Exact time your home may be hit by blackouts this winter revealed in gloomy breakdown
www.mirror.co.uk/money/exact-time-your-home-hit-28296199

But more to the point, the actual plan is included in this government document:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/995049/esec-guidance.pdf

The proposed schedule for blackouts (Variable Rota Disconnection Plans) are in the Annex. It starts at level one which are the 3 hour slots being discussed here. It goes up to level 18 with increasing frequency of disconnection. Of course, blackouts may not happen at all, depending on how cold the weather is. Or they may happen to a greater extent than being discussed here.

But it's not scaremongering to say government has plans in place for rolling blackouts if needed, starting with three hour slots. That's in the public domain.

For you maybe. For me it says 2 of them are on a Saturday both during the day/early evening!! How shit is that 😭

6 hours with no power during the day on a Saturday 😩