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?

May be a bit of an odd one but has anyone got reptiles etc ? What plans do you have in place in case of extended power cuts ?

might have to get used to eating cold baked beans

@667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast I don't but if I had any situation that was power dependent, I'd probably look at a solar generator. Lots of research rather than my usual trick of picking off second cheapest/highest rated on Amazon.
If it was, say, health related, I would speak to a GP/consultant first. And then, possibly, my MP.

We have a large fish pond and a manual hand crank generator as a back-up when we had power cuts last year to keep the filter going. It was quick to charge and the power lasted well. We do have a solar one too as recommended by @bellinisurge, but haven't yet used it for the pond (which is by far our biggest energy guzzler).

I keep gel heat packs in the car. And blankets. If it is cold I take a flask of hot water to make drinks. I generally check the OYBBK/Gloria long range snow forecast and rearrange.

You'd be better off camping indoors Inthe warmest room of your house in a small tent / blanket fort with all your family/ dog than using candles in a large room.

We are moving in the next few weeks (fingers crossed) and our new house is a draughty old property. It has a gas hob which I presume will still work in the event of a power cut?

We've already got rechargeable head torches etc plus camping stuff. Once we've moved, I might stock up on ambient/tinned food that II won't need the fridge for, but currently I'm trying to not have any extra stuff in the house prior to moving.

It has a gas hob which I presume will still work in the event of a power cut?

you need to check the manual. ours will not work without electricity. but we have a camping cooker that we can use.

We are moving in the next few weeks (fingers crossed) and our new house is a draughty old property. It has a gas hob which I presume will still work in the event of a power cut?

If it has an electrical connection, turn it off and see if you can light the rings with a match.

Thank you. We do have a camping gas hob as well as a last resort!

This morning I’ve noticed battery packs appearing at major junctions below traffic lights and street lights.

Just thinking about getting a UPS for the router - as dd is in Year 13 and probably mid mocks (yesterday's news reported Jan/Feb time weekdays as most likely time for blackouts in the week). I have a Hub 3 which says +12v -2.5A on the box its from Virgin Media. Does anyone know what or how to pick one, apart from buying the cheapest on Amazon?? I ideally want it to run for at least a couple of hours if poss. TIA

That wont help you if the IPS and or local exchange also suffer a power cut.

Smaller exchanges and comms rooms don't always have great battery back up themselves, usually just enough for short power outages, not 3 or 4 hours and with stupid cut backs are not tested until needed and then all hell breaks loose when they realise the batteries are knackered and haven't been tested for 5 years... and yes i have seen this happen at major defence and public service contractors.

APC were always very popular when i was involved in IT, they give 3 or 4 13amp 3 pin outlets which you plug your routers brick type psu into.

@Damnautocorrect - that's interesting. I'll keep an eye out here too.

I have a basic one that runs my router and laptop. It's 2000va and runs for 2 hours using both and about 4 hrs with just the router.

My isp has massive backup batteries and we aren't on the same grid as they are, so when my power is out, usually theirs is on. We have had some issues when their batteries didn't have enough time to recharge before the next outage, so we had some signal problems for a while. I have to say that it hasn't happened often though thankfully.

A UPS won't last forever though. I've just had to replace the batteries on mine, which lasted 18 months. Before I replaced them it only powered for 8 to 10 minutes. You can spend a lot and get those with lithium batteries, but I just have the cheaper gel ones in mine and it does what I need it to.

I needed wifi for the DC as well as they both wrote finals during blackout times. It's rather stressful so I would advise trying to be as prepared as possible so they can continue to work/study. You cannot run a printer from a small ups though, so any printing needed to be in the prepare plan.

So it's sounding like these balck outs are real possibility now. They are saying 4-7? I'm thinking I could cook things in the slow cooker or pressure cooker that stay warm for a long time after.

@isthismylifenow would you mind telling me the brand of UPS you have?

I have the Liebert Vertiv @ScatteredMama82

here

I am not in the UK so just to give you an idea (I didn't buy it via this link, but it's sold out where I did). This one has some funky plug sockets, but I am sure the ones available to you will be more user friendly. You just plug what you need into it, so those items wont lose power when the mains go out.

It has a very annoying beep when its in use though. But that is a small price to pay to be able to carry on with some normality.

Hi thank you, a hand crank generator ? Isn’t that going to need a lot of well cranking ? Sorry I’m not being sarcastic but it sounds like a lot of effort, I’m not sure how much energy a filter uses in fishpond but I’ve got a heat lamp for my tortoise so not sure how much power that would need I think it’s a 150w bulb but it does give out a lot of heat. He doesn’t hibernate as he’s not big enough yet

My husband has said he’s noticed black boxes been installed on street lights in the last three weeks, I’m presuming this is the same thing.

Can I ask those of you who have a solar generator in the UK if it has to be sunny or just daylight please ? Sorry if this seems like a silly question but I have no experience of solar panels etc

relatives have a large roof and photovoltaic panels.

there are different kinds of sensitivity but usually 'bright daylight' even on a slightly overcast day produces energy.

it's worth checking what kind of set up they have. most common are one way systems, i.e. the panels feed directly into the grid. the household then receives electricity as every other. they would not be of use (to the household) in a power cut.

If you can afford too and gave room to run one then an inverter generator can help you keep lights tv and modem going . We run one after the storms last year .

You made me laugh 😂

It does indeed require quite a bit of cranking, but not too much (easy for me to say, my husband does it, not me!) I should also have clarified, it's not a stand alone hand crank generator but an 'add-on' optional we bought with the filter, so it's specifically designed to work with that particular filter system. It's a pretty chucky filter; the pond is 14k litres, but I don't know how that translates into energy use, only that when it's off our bills go way down.

If I needed a stand alone generator I'd probably use a solar one, we've only used ours for my husband's motorbike so far, but it seemed to work well.

I hope you fine a good solution for your tortoise - I love them!

@RosettaTheGardenFairy thank you 😊 ah ok maybe I should ask on tortoise forums online about light. He would be fine for three hours but without getting my tin foil hat on, I don’t trust what the government tell me ! So I’m not sure if they are really expecting worse than three hour black outs.

It’s been a bit of an eye opener coming on here, I did say much earlier on this thread that vulnerable people will get help from electricity suppliers but I think that was very naive as someone pointed out this is only relevant when a few properties are affected such as a road or a small village not whole areas.

Solar is incredibly useful but it has its disadvantages. The UK is at a disadvantage to a certain extent due to its position on the earth and the way in which the sun is positioned in the sky, especially during winter. The simple way of looking at Solar as a method for generating power is by itself its not much good. Combined with a method of storing the energy it creates (usually in the form of batteries) it becomes more useful. Then you need to think about the size of the batteries. A little battery won't store much energy. A big battery will. Therefore a little solar panel won't create much energy so it would be useless connecting it to a big battery. A bigger solar panel would create more energy than a little one but if that feeds into a little battery, whilst it would charge quicker, the ability to draw power from it is reduced. In lower light conditions an instrument called an MPPT controller works to convert light into power.