So if the power went off (indefinitely) how long would you last on the basis of what you have in the house?

[atticusclaw]

So the power's gone off. Everything is suddenly dead, shops can't sell you anything since the electronic tills don't work, petrol pumps don't work, lifts don't work, traffic lights don't work, tap water won't last for long since the pumps won't work, mobile phones won't work, gas/electric heating won't work (and most oil and solar systems also need mains electricity to make them work unless they're off grid systems) - MN won't work!!

How long could you last with what you have?

There are no zombies, this isn'"t necessarily a "top yourself now - who would want to live?" scenario since the power could be restored at any time….or it could last months…

We could cook on the wood burner and have plenty of wood. Not sure how long our supply of matches would last though.

And I have a hand crank sewing machine

We would probably last about 5 days, would cook on the Barbie, water and keeping warm would be the 2 main problems

About 3 months. I'm a bit of a food hoarder. Plus I have fruit and vegetables growing in the garden, and eggs from the chickens.

Hmm... Six months easily. After that we'd have to start slaughtering sheep. I keep vast stockpiles of tins and dried foods. We have spring water available, a gas tank that would last a couple of years if only used for cooking, a wood fire and a wood to feed it.

We'd run low on veg pretty quickly, but hopefully by the summer we could grow things.

We also have plenty of hunting and trapping available too and the skills to do it.

I might steal a horse for transport. That's the main thing I seem to be missing :o

A month maybe longer. DH is a hoarder, so we have a cupboard heaving with tins and jars and dried food. We have one open fireplace and lots of hideous G-Plan from DH's parents logs so could easily keep warm and heat water for tea and washing or cook on the bbq. I have a cupboard full of clothes I'm too fat for so the apocalypse could slim me back into them. Quite looking forward to it now.

I think I could get by for a while. We have big bags of pasta, rice, cous cous, quinoa etc, lots of tins and cereal and things like that. There is a very clear shallow river near us which I reckon would be okay to drink in an emergency. For some ungodly reason while I was PG I decided for the first time in my life to plant a vegetable patch which I haven't touched since but it seems like a lot of cabbages have appeared. In fact I think we would have to board up the windows and barbed wire our garden or something so people don't come and steal our food.

Enough food for me & the dog for a good 2 months, got a woodburner & water purification tablets, river at the bottom of the road. Main problem would be other people running out of food & what they would do - stealing etc.

Not long at all. I do have 6 1l little of water from when our water went off a few months ago but I need to do a food shop so only have a day or two of meals. I have a gas hob and a gas bbq so will be OK cooking until it runs out.

I have 3 teenagers. They would curl up and shrivel without a phone charger. Me and DP would just hump and drink warm beer.

Yy lastlines I was just reminded by another thread that actually a lot of peoples body shapes would change dramatically! id be well fit and toned from having to transport myself instead of driving, hard labour plus lack of food - and id probably have a marvellous suntan to go with my lithe, sleek body

lol

Bikes would be valuable. Probably a bit easier than stealing a horse.

And yes we'd all be slim and toned though walking and cycling everywhere (and less food!).

Its all good til someone develops dysentery and shits in the river...

Lots of wells and a reservoir very near us. Food wouldn't last so we go to in laws who stockpile EVERYTHING. Dog would catch rabbits and fishing lakes nearby.
There was a drama about this a while ago- Blackout.
Someone was killed over food quite quickly.

I bet there are loads of people who only have a couple of days' of food in the house. Particularly those who live in cities.

i have no cash for shops that might suddenly sell off things cheap. there would be riots wouldn't there?

there are plenty of woods nearby to light a fire and cook, so a week or more i imagine. otoh, lack of water would be detrimental

need to stock pile on matches.

I bet the prices would soar in any shops with stuff to sell for cash. Rather than being sold off cheap you'd pay £40 for a tin of corned beef.

Not long at all. The frozen food would spoil quickly and without electricity we couldn't cook it. We don't camp so have no stove, we have no garden so no barbecue and don't have a log burner.

We don't eat much packet food. What we do have is mostly pasta, cous cous and lentils and would require water and power to cook.

We eat very little tinned food and the tin opener is electric.

I do have some bottles of crabbies alcoholic ginger beer, and thanks to a recent party an indecent large amount of harribo and crisps. They might last a week, if I ration them.

HELP!!!

You at least need a tin opener Prue

Would blag water off my parents who have a spring, until we could unearth the one allegedly (according to neighbours) running into a massive storage tank under our drive.

Calor gas for cooking would last a while. Kerosene could be burned in lamps since it would be no good for heating without the pump. Plenty of logs and access to more for heating. Hot water would be a pain, though. Food wise I think we would be OK for a while - a fair amount of non-perishable food, and surrounded by farms who I am sure would start doing the "one sheep/pig/cow at a time to feed the village" approach after a while.

We'd outlast a fair amount of people, I think. DH also has a shotgun.

I live in a city in a house with electric heating. I think we'd be a bit stuffed! Water would be the big problem I think...

We have a trangia stove somewhere with a small bottle of fuel but that wouldn't do more than boil a few kettle.

my parents (not far away) have a wood-burner so sure they can rustle up food on that... my stepfather has an axe. They also have a BBQ.

me: totally and utterly bloody useless have got food in the house but no means of cooking it apart from electric hob/microwave and fridge small. parents at least have double fridge/freezer thing. I do have a BBQ out the back but not that good with it. i think my cat is safe for now despite waking me up at 6am the bastard scratching at my door!

ah just remembered my mum has an aunt about 1-2 hours drive away in countryside with chickens, eggs etc... her DH has a shotgun too, they grow their own fruit and veg. and she makes pates, sloe gin etc... could come in quite handy staying with them.

atticus our tin opener (which we used once every couple of months) had been dodgy for about a year. I kept talking about replacing it but as we used it so infrequently it wasn't a priority. Then we got an electric one for Christmas so I chucked the windy up one in the bin.

no one warned me there would be a power cut of unknown length.