How to prepare for blackouts

[Erica56]

I’ve read on the news today that we should be preparing for blackouts between 4-7pm in January / February. How is everyone preparing?

If there is a power cut will 5G masts still work so I can use my phone to share signal with tablet etc? Don't forget to have a plug in old style telephone as cordless phones won't work.

I've just realised I will be stuffed as the stairlift won't work in a power cut, we are on priority with national grid.

Yeah, which I am sure they are aware of and because if you are worried about falls assume you won't work, you encourage your loved elders to get in bed early during any proposed blackouts, make sure they have a charged mobile nearby, and battery operated lights. What else can you do? (Unless you move them into your house until blackout season has passed).

This MIGHT be ONCE during winter. Not at all or a few times.

It is not being suggested at all that it's going to be 2 months of wall to wall blackouts every evening. If I end up in a position that I am wrapping a slow cooker up in a blanket for one 3 hour blackout they might as well cart me off now!

There has just been an announced nudge, buy some batteries you will probably not need them but just in case.

@PlantDoctor luckily the government aren't in charge of the power supply.

There are contingency plans for this every year.

Europe is working together on this to "sock it to Putin" if nothing else.

There won't be prolonged blackouts. The clever energy supply people know what they are doing.

@ivykaty44 a charged laptop battery pack, like you have if you’re away from your desk all day.

How on earth will this work for people who WFH? A lot of laptop professionals will not be able to work. Offices have got rid of desks now. Other people who WFH - online tutors, teachers etc.

I think this needs some thought.

I have a 4 cell battery charger and plenty of rechargeable batteries. Two battery lanterns for the bedrooms.

200 tea lights from Wilko and two large heavy-based glass hurricane lamps for ordinary candles.

We have a log burner so we can heat one room, and heat up food if necessary.

If the power goes, the dcs won't be able to access the internet so I've also bought ds's Gcse text books.
And plenty of things to do, art supplies, books for ds, board games, chess etc. Nothing worse than a bored teen, deprived of his computer game on a winter evening 😱

We bought some solar powered lanterns just to try them out as a possible candle alternative (we have young kids). They're surprisingly good.

i guess I could charge my phone in the car, stay warm in there for a short time. Appreciate not everyone has a car of course.

im in no way prepared as you lot are!

Am I the only one who thinks I might go to bed for 3 hours and catch up on some sleep?!!

Think I might order these to hang in rooms.

People will not be able to work. They are talking about outages with advance notice though so you can work your hours around it.

I know that.
But many elderly people will have to go to the toilet during a blackout. If my dad was still alive I would have been worried about him falling. I think most people will be fine though.

Yup

I don’t think it will happen🤞.
Most of us are cutting back already, when I look down our Avenue in the evenings there’s few lights on, we have only put our heating in twice for an hour, normally we would flick it on and not worry.
There is a brilliant website; www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk this site shows the uk demand, availability and different fuel sources at any one time.
We did close off our North Sea reserves, this has been the biggest set back for us…..how could anyone with half a brain sanction that?

We had a 17 hour blackout when storm Eunice hit last year. We were fine as we had prepared.

We have a wood burner so we made sure we had wood cut ready and indoors so we weren't rooting about outside in the dark.

We knew Eunice would hit around 12pm so we put the heating on constant and shut the doors in the rooms we heat. When it went off at 2pm as the storm hit the heat stayed in until early evening that way. Then we lit the fire around 5pm so there wasn't much drop in temperature.

We have summer duvets so they were brought downstairs to 'duvet up' as the evening wore on and it got a little chillier.

We have an electric oven but a gas hob so we were able to cook pasta with a sauce, boil a pan of water for hot drinks and hot water bottles for the beds (love our hot water bottles in bed). I did French toast for afters so we were well fed. We have a large 'spotlight' torch in the car so I made sure we had batteries for that and DH and DS took it in turns to 'spotlight' the pans whilst I cooked.

I'd moved everything around in our freezer so, if we were out for a few days (some parts of our town had no electric for four days), I wouldn't have to keep the freezer open for any length of time. So I put chicken, sausages, veg and bread at the top of our chest freezer so I could just grab what I needed.

We've always got torches ready as we do have power cuts now and then so we had one each to go to the loo/get drinks etc so the main room stays lit with candles/static torches.

We also charged up all the radios and just used one at a time to save the charge. We listened to radio 4 extra for a bit of comedy/drama then did board games by candlelight and read.

I'm getting plenty of batteries in for the torches. It's easy to do a stew or curry on the gas hob - gives the kitchen a bit of heat too - and I've always got some pasta sauces in. So food is covered.

We kept the freezer shut and only opened the fridge for milk so everything was still fine the next day.

What do we do about our fridge freezers during these Black outs?

You leave them shut as far as possible. If you put some freezer blocks in the freezer and whip them out and put them in the fridge when the electricity goes off they should keep the fridge cold for hours.

Power pack(s) to keep the computer going and you use your mobile to create a wifi spot. It's only three hours, ffs. I knew people in the Lake District who were without power for days after a storm.

I think you need a bell too.

I can't recommend head torches too highly. They give an amazing light and enable you to use both hands when cooking nappy changing or whatever. No need to keep picking torches or lanterns up. Something like this, which is rechargeable, makes a huge difference.

www.amazon.co.uk/Blukar-Rechargeable-Headlamp-Headlight-Waterproof/dp/B09BJV39FB/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=head+torches&qid=1666089305&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI2LjM0IiwicXNhIjoiNS42MSIsInFzcCI6IjUuNDQifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-11

Ideal for anyone elderly or disabled who needs both hands to hold onto something when walking/ moving. Lights up the area ahead of you. If you turn your head to look at something the light is on it. Honestly, game-changer.

It won’t work unless it has a battery pack

if you are on priority I don’t think they will do anything for three hour cuts (sorry we are in a similar situation)- our limit is six hours

Just to spin this positively, if you can find a way to get backup power to the piano and laptop, I bet you could go a bundle doing blackout performances. As another poster said, think of the ambience!

I highly recommend a wonderbag. It's a modern interpretation of a haybox cooker - you brown your meat and veg, add, stock etc. bring to the boil then put the whole pan into the wonderbag, seal and leave for a few hours. Slow cooking without electricity!

'Should', but in truth very unlikely to happen. But have some candles or lanterns, some foodstuffs you can cook on the hob (if gas). Batteries for the radio. Make it an adventure if you have kids!