Thought I was a prepper but I'm not

[Indoctro]

I have a full stock of food in garage and medicine etc

I thought I was prepared

We lost power on Friday at 2pm and it might be another couple days before it's back due to the storm

We are all freezing

My husband wanted to instal a log burner but I said no due to environmental reason but now I'm thinking of changing my mind and I also want a small generator as it's been a nightmare having no phone to check what's happening with electricity etc on line

We ended abandoning the house due to the cold and going to stay else where.

Turns out im not that prepared after all

You are a prepper, its all about never ending improvements. Yes get a log burner (you can burn coffee logs and seasoned wood only) and get a small generator or maybe a very large power bank.

We have a gas hob and a instant hot water heater that is flow activated, so even in a power cut i can cook, make hot drinks and have a hot shower. Last time i let my neighbor bath her kids, cooked them dinner and sent them home with hot water bottles as they live in an all electric house.

P.s. I hope when you decamped you remembered to turn off the water and drained the system.

@1Dandelion1

You are a prepper, its all about never ending improvements. Yes get a log burner (you can burn coffee logs and seasoned wood only) and get a small generator or maybe a very large power bank.

We have a gas hob and a instant hot water heater that is flow activated, so even in a power cut i can cook, make hot drinks and have a hot shower. Last time i let my neighbor bath her kids, cooked them dinner and sent them home with hot water bottles as they live in an all electric house.

P.s. I hope when you decamped you remembered to turn off the water and drained the system.

No I didn't but I'm returning tomorrow to do that They are going to update us again on Tuesday 12pm so I'm worried about freezing pipes now

We have booked into hotel

@Indoctro so long as you do it tomorrow i think you will be fine.

I have four power banks all fully charged. I can re charge my phone possibly ten times over. I have six led camping lights and candles.

However I have decided that sometimes it's just as easy to prep spare cash so if your phone is charged you can decamp after 24 hours of no power. It's less hassle and requires no room to store

I've been thinking about this a lot over the last few days. I've got a stack of food, candles, toiletries etc but I've started to realise if the electric went out (we're all electric, rental property) that if the power went out we'd be very cold and very hungry quite quickly.

Are there any ways of cooking/heating water aside from a camping stove? Am going to invest in one but am also thinking of alternatives.

Anyone else read the thread title to the tune of "ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus"?

I do hope it's sorted soon

Our power went off on Friday evening and only came on at 4pm today.
We have an open fire which we'll be replacing with an inset stove in January. We won't be getting rid of it! But we only use it in extreme weather conditions/power cuts. We also have an LPG powered hob which has been a godsend this weekend.
Our 2 freezers full of food have been at risk and have had to throw a lot of it out today as it was thawed/thawing.
Power packs are handy to have- We have quite a few as we camp every year. Our phones have stayed charged.

I live somewhere the power goes down regularly, so I have a log burner which heats the sitting room and the bedroom above. I can use it for cooking if necessary - food wrapped in foil in the ashes, and small saucepan on top. I have a shed full of home grown wood.

Food to last 10 days. Bottled water and UHT milk. Candles and matches. The last time we lost power for a couple of days, my elderly neighbour came to stay.

@haba

Anyone else read the thread title to the tune of "ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus"?

I do hope it's sorted soon

ha ha

Yeah 68 hours and it's back on

Yippee

Lots of lessons learnt

Oh I'm Annoyed at myself I didn't fill bath and sinks with with water when power went out

Rookie mistake

As many lost water too

Pleased to hear it's back on!

Glad power has been restored, maybe while things are fresh in your mind it's worth doing check lists.

Glad to read your power is back on now op. The storm took out my internet and electricity also. I thought I was prepared but like you have learned lessons.

I couldn't find tourches/candles so I am going to fill a box with items we would need if it happens again. Then everything is in the one place/easy to find.

Do you have cards, dominoes etc to keep you busy during power cuts?

@UnsolicitedDickPic

I've been thinking about this a lot over the last few days. I've got a stack of food, candles, toiletries etc but I've started to realise if the electric went out (we're all electric, rental property) that if the power went out we'd be very cold and very hungry quite quickly.

Are there any ways of cooking/heating water aside from a camping stove? Am going to invest in one but am also thinking of alternatives.

Google 'gel cooking fuel', 'gel fuel stove' and 'gel fuel chafing dish'. Its safe to use indoors and the cans can last up to 6 hours.

Glad your power is back on! I've got the usual camping stoves, blankets etc but if the gas goes then cold showers would be pretty miserable. Remember if you're installing a log burner / open fire, you should still get yearly checks by a chimney sweep of your flue even if you aren't using it. If it gets blocked and you don't notice until you use it in an emergenct, you'll just get a house full of smoke (or heat loss through gappy mortar).

A good torch to have is one that plugs into a socket. When the power goes off the torch comes on automatically. It only gives about 6 hours of light but definitely long enough to locate your lights out box, candles, camping gear etc. ours lives in the kitchen and is one of the most used items in the house. Trips to the freezer, dog toilet trips down the garden, nip to the car for something, looking for an item at the back of a dingy closet. You get the idea.

I've just come onto the preppers board as I was prompted to think how we would cope with no electricity. I wasn't expecting anyone who was on the midst of power outages to have Internet.
I'm glad you're ok and have power back on @Indoctro

@Mischievous12

I've just come onto the preppers board as I was prompted to think how we would cope with no electricity. I wasn't expecting anyone who was on the midst of power outages to have Internet. I'm glad you're ok and have power back on *@Indoctro*

I abandoned my house after one night as it was too cold, I left at 7.30am (lost power 3pm day before)

Frozen cold and dead phone. Went and sat in a Morrisons supermarket cafe to charge it
But yeah your phone doesn't last you long in a outage.

To be far a lot also lost phone signals as phone lines damaged too.

I do not blame you one bit @Indoctro!! I'm pleased you're ok. I keep thinking how tough it must be to be minus power for a long stretch. Happened to my family in the hurricane in 1987 but it was October and not too cold. We lived on a farm and the power was down for days, but we could still find places to get hot food and we were young and resilient so it was an adventure. Mobiles and Internet not an issue of course, but I think phone lines were down too. I remember going to the phone box.

For cooking without a gas camp stove, a couple of ideas.

If you have any of those stands to keep food warm at the table with a couple of tea lights, it takes a while but you can use that to heat things up at least (just do what you want so smaller amounts at a time to help faster heating.

If you have a BBQ, whether gas or charcoal, that can function fine I the garden even in winter. Admittedly, a decent one with a lid works best but even just a plain grill is fine. Put a small pot with a lid on the grill to heat water or liquids, put wet foods in tinfoil parcels, you can put potatoes in foil amongst the coals if charcoal, all sorts - it's not just about a steak or sausages on the grill.

With charcoal, you do need the coals to have greyed over to cook directly on them (eg grill meat or skewers of veg), but you can always have a pot with water and other pots sitting on the grill while the coals are just started to make the most of that heat.

The only downside of BBQ is having to don outdoor gear going out to tend to it...

But we've done that plenty of times in winter weather here

Our log burner has saved us many a time as we’re in an area prone to power outages. It has a flat surface and the pipe at the back not the middle so you can put a kettle on it or a Dutch oven. It has done hot water bottles, coffee, scrambled egg, stews and steaks. It does make the living room smell of food but if I’m warm and fed and have coffee, then it makes me feel better about no hot water. If you get one, you shouldn’t need all the other stuff I don’t think.

We're about to enter day 8 without power. We are not rural- in a village within spitting distance of sunderland.
Dh will never again take the mick out of my candle collection and battery powered fairy lights. I'm beyond grateful that we had a second logburner fitted recently- it has meant downstairs was actually warm. The priority list with the electricity provider has been useless- Dh is medically dependent on electricity and we've had 1 phone call in 7 days to check on us. We ended up sending him to a hotel, but we couldn't get one that could accommodate the kids and the dog as well. However, Dh in the hotel has meant we could charge our battery packs and have showers.
My top tip is to.plan for what else could go wrong. I slipped and have fractured my wrist and elbow, making even stuff like striking a match difficult. I want to give a massive thank you to @bellinisurge whose suggestions over the years have meant that it we have managed this far.

@DespairingHomeowner

A log burner would probably only have kept part of the house warm…. Re phone, you can get a wind up charger/radio which I have for emergencies

I love the sound of a wind up charger. That's genius. Can you recommend one?

We have a jetboil camping stove. It’s great for heating water quickly for tea or hot water bottles, or simply warming soup if you have no power for several days.