Are you all prepping for power cuts?

[User112]

BBC reported the other day about possible power cuts this winter due to gas shortage. Other than having a few torch light and candles, are you all prepping with anything else?

I agree that battery keeps recharagje lights are easier and cheaper than candles. They’re so widely available now. Amazon have sets of six usb rechargeable puck lights for about £16, which would to most peoples hallways and loos. Battery fairy lights are only a few quid. A headtorch per person and a couple of lanterns for sitting room and kitchen (and maybe onset DCs rooms) is going to add a little more, but not much.

However, candles do really help with heat. And, unless you have a chimney and fire already, there’s not much you can do to heat in a powercut. Candles (well out the way and on a non flammable surface, of course) really do help with a bit of background heat.

how long are these proposed power cuts going to go on for?
what about my full freezer?

A candle produces somewhere between 30W (tea light) - 80W of heat output. You need a lot to sufficiently heat a room. Somewhere between 20-50 candles to replicate that of a 1600W space heater.

Three hours at a time. So freezers will be fine.

thank you @ClaudineClare

I did get round to buying a neck light so I can knit in the dark, I've been looking at them since June so it's a good time. I live rurally enough for two hour power cuts to be one of those things and I think I'd rather take a three hour one with an announcement of when it was coming. I've all the things you need to have to hand for a sudden plunge into darkness, I could put my hand on a torch with my eyes closed.

I would hope that rolling blackouts could be publicised as well now as they were in the 1970s, back then we cut the table out of the newspaper that said when the power would be off for us.

Upthread someone said that the burglar alarm will go off when the power does - not if you have it serviced. They have a back up battery that covers power failure, it needs replacing about every ten years (except mine was still doing its job at 17 years). It is the way I know that a power failure is not just us - I have three neighbours who need the battery replacing.

Has anyone got a gas heater for indoor use ? I’m old enough to remember when houses weren’t central heated and we used to have a paraffin heater, which I think were very dangerous! But I’m a bit worried about using a calor gas etc heater indoors now, do you need to have window open to vent them ? I have an open fire but the rest of my house is old and gets very cold very quickly without heating. I’ve found a lot of them are sold out anyway at moment as I think a lot of people have probably bought them instead of putting their heating on.
@Knotaknitter good idea with the neck light for knitting!

Please be kind.

If there is a power cut I did not think the landline or gas hob would work?

The gas hob will work but if you have an electric ignition switch, that won't. So you will need to light it with a lighter while the power is off.

Actually some gas hobs won’t work. Newer ones often have a safety feature which requires electric so you can’t just light with a match.

telephone lines will work if you have not been switched to digital and if you have an old manual phone

Candles will also raise the temperature of a room. Obviously you wouldn’t use them as a heat source but if you literally had no heat source they will help. It’s why we encourage people to keep a few tea lights in the car if travelling in the snow. If you are in an emergency in the cold it can mean the difference between life and death.

Tea lights in the car in the snow is because of a confined space of a car. Not the same as a room. Even a little room .

Thank you for the head torch/plastic milk bottle tip, I've just rescued my empty bottle from the recycling bin and it gives off a good light.

Talking of tea lights in the car in the snow, one of my husband's employees tragically died in his car in a blizzard, and it was recommended to carry a tea light along with snow shovel etc. Tea light should be put into a holder, not directly on the dash.

wrt tea lights/lanterns - we have a few tea glasses with handles.
contains the flames, gives out nice light and is (relatively) safe to carry around.

Yes but they will raise the temperature of a room by a few degrees.

Not really. A candle or two won't make any significant difference to the temperature of a room. It certainly won't keep you warm.

Sometimes a couple of degrees make all the difference. Hopefully nobody will be in that position but if they are it does raise the temperature in a small space.

Obviously nobody is suggesting it will keep you “warm”.

We've got a camping stove and some gas bottles but I'm really not happy about storing gas indoors. I was wondering about using some sort of container to bury it outside. We've no shed or garage, they'd only get broken into.

how long are these proposed power cuts going to go on for?

Three hours, apparently. Your freezer stuff will be fine as long as you keep the door closed.

Nobody is going to starve either.

I answered earlier upthread, that we keep a torch in a specific place.
I am old enough to have experienced occassional power cuts, and in all cases, it was very sudden - a plunge into darkness, which can be a bit disorientating at first.
For my DMIL (now deceased), we bought a plug in light, which would light up, if the power was cut off. ( I do not know if they are still available)
There is a Youtube video of heating with a tealight candle and an upturned flower pot, but frankly, naked flames can be espcially dangerous, and I would not try any kind of camping stove without adaquate ventilation.

i had a look at the blackout plan after someone else referenced it on here. The levels of the rotas get more onerous in terms of the impact of the blackouts depending on what level of energy emergency we are at. If we got to a higher level then the planned power cuts would be longer than three hours. The first level is less than three hours.

After the winter storms when we lost power for 3 days and then 1 day I have got loads of torches, including a solar powered one, lots of candles, a camping stove (which I must get a gas bottle for!!), tea lights and a charging bank.

We have an open fire in the living room so three hours would be easily doable.

My only problem is that DD has SEN and is very scared of the dark. She also thinks the world has ended when the internet is down!

Having experienced one tonight - burglar alarms went off down the street. I discovered that our solar stick lights were great so we weren’t completely in darkness straight away. Dd calm , ds was not. Within 2 mins had camping lanterns on, did discover hadn’t put batteries in head torches but fortunately had stored batteries for them in same bag so took 30secs to sort out all 3. Ds was annoyed - what’s for dinner now? Dd annoyed when internet dropped out. Fortunately once lighting sorted and kids calmed, power was restored. Ideally a light source in each room..

We had a 90 minute cut yesterday. It was in the middle of the day so not the end of the world but still disruptive

@etulosba "Nobody is going to starve either."

Sigh. Nobody is suggesting that. Wind your neck in.