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 😪

People need to calm down, and work on developing a bit of resilience.

There are certain gov agencies which are making serious plans for blackouts... that tells me all I need to know.

My frustration is that they'll occur during the night, and we are on economy 7, storage heaters. Which will really impact the heat in our home.

But, we are all electric and moved from a precious all electric where regular and extended power cuts happened all the time during winter. So when it comes to food and light, we are well prepared in what works. Lots of camping gas canisters, torches and candles feature in our prep. As well as soups and fried food!

Surely if this was happening they would tell us now so we can prepare?

I don't want to go buy a bunch of stuff I'll never use!

My blackout time is Friday morning and Friday night. Fab.

Saturday would be the easiest day as no school and many people aren’t working or needing to travel.

Luckily for us my parents live round the corner and are on a different schedule to us, so we can go to each others houses

Better be careful incase a 747 lands in your living room.

I am confused

If you know when your black out times are, so you know it might be happening.

You only need a torch or light per person. There are two of us we have regular black outs we manage with one torch.

I got a rechargeable lamp Here works great.

We've been near the limit of electricity supply for years. Then they shutdown the remaining coal fired power stations. Took away gas storage. Increased use of electric cars. Then the war jn Ukraine happened, putting further pressure on European, and hence uk gas supplies.

There's been plans in place for decades to do this, but now it's becoming more realistic that they may have to be implemented.

It's not scaremongering, it's called emergency planning and there's a whole system in place that is regularly tested.

Wait until some people find out about all the nuclear, chemical and other disaster planning is in place. It's all been thought about.

Some of us spend a lot of our working lives as if the 'what ifs' had actually happened.

Saturday though everyone's at home needing to use the power, during the week we'll be out at nursrry/work etc and not being home to use it so much. Week day is better imo

We have unplanned blackouts due to weather sometimes (north of Scotland) and really it's not that bad. If you know in advance then for most of us it's a minor inconvenience really and probably a novelty for the kids the first couple of times anyway. In terms of work, everyone is going to end up in the same boat.

Obviously if it becomes more frequent then that's an issue but if it really is three hours once or twice a week which is what has been spoken about (and not relating to that document but about what has been said specifically about this year) then I wouldn't worry or go spending money on equipment. Just make sure stuff is charged up and you have downloaded a couple of episodes of something on a film on laptop/tablet! We always have emergency CBeebies stuff downloaded on tablet at this time of year

To find out which zone you are in look at your bill, at the top where your address etc is. There should be a letter in a box. I had to really look to find mine.

Presumably in a warm country?

Whether it will happen will depend on factors like how cold it is - it it's warmer there will be less demand and so less chance of a short fall - and how sunny/windy it is, so whether renewables can make up for the shortfall which gas can't supply. And those things can't be predicted at present. I think if rolling black outs are going to happen we will receive a week or so of prior warning as certainty on the forecast increases, but I don't think it will be much more than that.

I've just skimmed the thread... Some of you must never lose power, but it's not that bad! We lost power (unplanned) for 9 hours on Wednesday. We are extremely fortunate that we have a wood burning stove for warmth and a bit of light, but it's still survivable without it. A few tea lights, a head torch and a supply of batteries, and a big torch if you can stretch to it. If you have a gas cooker you can light it with matches and still cook. Some fairy lights run on batteries.

We lose power every year, several times a year, and I make sure we always have candles and matches, torches, and wood for the fire. When it's stormy and I sense we're going to lose power I try to make sure I have a meal planned that doesn't need the oven, and that my phone is charged and download a film for the DC. They love blackouts 😂

I’m presuming the restrictions are during the busy periods for that reason! Otherwise they’d have blackouts at 2-4am for everyone.

There's also this scheme to trial voluntary reductions for customers with smart meters, in return for payment, which is quite an interesting idea and which could reduces the chances of blackouts if implemented

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63483668

Customers taking part will be given 24 hours' notice of a "test" day where they will be asked to reduce their peak-time electricity use if they can during a one-hour period identified by National Grid, likely to be between 16:00 and 19:00.
That could include delaying use of a tumble-dryer or washing machine, or cooking dinner in the microwave rather than the oven.

It will be up to individual suppliers to tell customers how much customers will receive and whether the money is taken off bills, credited to accounts, or if there's an option to withdraw the cash.

But that is the whole point. Limiting at peak times so that so much power isn't being used.

It's rolling so in my area there would potentially be no electricity during the day at some points of the rolling plan. If it happened I'd have to make up my hours another day/time but I would be able to pre charge my laptop and tether to mobile data for the hours my battery lasted (we cant access anything offline). Expensive and not ideal but manageable. Many can also decamp to offices on days when connections would be impacted. Its not ideal but it can be managed.

Anyone else noticed their electric provider sending more frequent reminders about notifying them if you are vulnerable? We used to get an annual reminder but we've had 2 recently.

I'd say that was good timing. If you aren't at work on a Saturday then it's much easier to get jobs done and the house warmed around the blackouts. Weekdays before or after work would be worst for us, changing the central heating timings to warm the house before an evening blackout and so on.

This is very much a worse case scenario folks.

Hi I can't seem to link but I have just read about this. There seem to be 3 exemptions:
V - vital services e.g. in same block as hospital
F - Food so major food distribution
O - other
I will try and link or screen shot

If you’re not working then Day out ! Better on a Saturday than in the middle of the day when you’re meant to be working and you’ve no power.

Could possibly be 8 because the document says it can take an hour for the power to come back on

most people are not that vulnerable that they can’t have a sandwich for dinner or eat late/ eat early.
I’m a bit confused about how power is saved if we all make hot food ahead/ fill flasks. Surely there will be a power serge before the blackout?
i feel for people with formula dependent babies and vulnerable family members.
personally I think we’d save more power if we all had a non heated dinner a couple of times a week.