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?

@bellinisurge that's brilliant!
I did have a brief moment when reading your description imagining someone walking around with a milk bottle in front of their face 😚

@CherryogDog , it makes a potentially frightening situation less scary for kids (and grown ups) and it avoids the risk of open flame candles.
I remember power cuts as a kid in the 70s. It was exciting for a kid but I now remember how my mum wouldn't let us walk around alone with candles- I she was brought up in Ireland in the 1930s with candles as the default when she visited family in rural areas.

Some power stations use gas-fired generators to produce electricity.
So no gas = no electricity.

In a word: no.

Not especially but we do have a lot of tea lights and a wind up penguin torch that DS had as a kid!

Truss is prepping, she is off to the European political group to urge unity on Ukraine (good) and to share energy resources ffs.

I thought we held all the cards and Macron was our enemy?

I've got a whole shelf of ambient stored foods that are easy to cook. Bacon grill, microwave rice, porridge sachets, hot dogs, noodles, tinned veg etc. 25 litres of drinking water. We love camping so have a stove and a kettle etc. I am a candle fan so have plenty of lanterns and tea lights. Lots of card games like uno and cards against humanity and a few other easy activities to do. I can crochet in the pitch black so that's a great one. Best of all, my DH plays guitar very well and often entertains us during power cuts. I live in the NW and we've had 3-4 over the last 5-7 years lasting 4-8 hours.

Not too much prepping but have tacked some battery-operated fairy lights along the dado rail so will be able to use those. Have gathered all my candles and tealights together with a box of matches and have put torches at the top and bottom of the stairs. That's it!!! Not sure what I would do about heating food or having hot drinks though.

Its also a bit rich of Truss to expect EU countries to keep open supplies to the UK, when most of europe is already reducing demand BUT the UK has ruled out any energy reductions to help us during winter.

The only thing I'm worried about is the kids not being able to go online or charge their phones 🤯🤯🤯🤯

We did a bit of prepping after the storms last year as a lot of power lines went down in our area. We got a gas camping stove for cooking, wind up torches and radio and powerbanks for charging phones and other devices. We have a gas fire that uses cylinders so we keep that well stocked/serviced so we can at least have 1 room heated. We try and keep some cool blocks in the freezer too so we hopefully won't lose quite as much fresh food if the power goes off.

Loving the head torch lamp @bellinisurge , we have a head torch so will definitely be giving that a go!

Don't forget a supply of matches or lighters for the candles. Now that very few people smoke many people don't have lighters in their homes.

They can't do this as they have to prioritise industry and services, so power cuts are more likely out of working hours.

It's more likely to be overnight when there's less gas and electricity being used in general, not to mention whole businesses will be affected if its daytime.

I think we are into slight guessing territory, but my guess is that any cuts would be during peak demand time, on a rolling basis. After all, it is about the network not being able to meet demand. So that would be morning around getting up time and evening when people are home from work.

The main thing I want to do is move stuff, so if it’s evening and all the lights go off, I’m not groping around in dark looking for torches / blankets / camping stove where they are currently, which is in attic and shed. Instead I want a handy box under the stairs with all emergency kit in one place.

(I’m very jealous of the log burner people but we can’t have one without massive building work, so I guess heqting will be huddle in blankets ☹️.)

I always keep in a lot of spare water since we get some many burst pipes in my area - usually 1-2 ‘no drinking water for 5 hrs’ incidents per year. Will make sure we always have food we can heat on camping stove some bbq fuel.

Isn’t it amazing how much one man can mess up the world.

Oo and PHONE, cordless phones do not work in power cuts because the base unit needs constant power. If my mobile has no battery I don’t wanna be unabke to contact people. Sonhave bought a corded phone of the type that still works in power cut.

I did my prepping back in July anticipating a winter of unrest.

Logs to see us heated until next April

Kindling and fire lighters

Coal

Blankets and hot water bottles

Fleecy garments

Slippers

Thermally efficient curtains

Lagged the loft hatch

Water containers and purification tablets, but of an overkill but it was inexpensive for the peace of mind.

Serviced push bikes

Preserving into jars so only cupboard required not freezer.

Making a note on wipe board of contents of freezer so it only gets opened for the minimum amount of time.

Purchased an indoor gas ring for the BBQ gas with adapter. We cook on electric so it's my back up.

Lighting:
Solar lanterns
Torches (wind up and battery)
Battery powered fairy lights plus spare batteries
Tonnes of candles and night lights plus containers to put them in so they are safe

Staying warm:
2 woodburners so downstairs is warm
Hot water bottles
Duvets, blankets and sleeping bags
Large dog who acts as an extra hot waterbottle

Cooking:
Gas hob
Camping stove
Gas BBQ
Kelly kettle (with cooking add ons)
Waiting for my new woodburner with hob and oven to be fitted which should make some of the above redundant.

Power:
Jackery solar power station. This will mainly be used for DH's sleep apneoa machine and the pump that keeps the old well from flooding the cellar. I'm so tempted to get another one for the fridge freezer and wifi.
Battery chargers for phones.

Entertainment:
Wind up radio
Cards
Board games

Hot water just has to be boiled and if it was short term we have cool packs so could move milk etc into a cool bag to avoid opening and closing the fridge. We also have a plug in phone for communication. We had all the preps above apart from the power station and the woodburner with oven when we were without power for over a week because of Storm Arwen and managed ok. We added those 2 things to our preps as we really missed an oven and DH needs his cpap. Despite being on the priority register we got no help so needed something as a back up power supply.

We have a log burner with a kettle that can go on top, I suppose we could heat soup etc in a pan if we needed too
So many candles (need to gather these together and stock up on matches)
Solar fairy lights. Still in the box, so will get these out and put them up
Hot water bottles, extra blankets, fluffy bathrobes
Need to gather together and charge up head torches, power banks
We have a gas hob in case of no electricity, and an induction hob/air fryer etc in case of no gas
We can shower at the gym if we need to
Tempted to buy a power station so that OH can continue to use his CPAP - will also come in useful for camping

We will decamp to the VW campervan and go off grid!

Not that arsed about hot meals (sandwiches are fine) so that's ok. I have a kindle, power bank to recharge, candles and portable lanterns. Grew up with power cuts and water shortages so I think I can cope. Lots of blankets and throws and we also go to bed at 8pm. If the worst comes to the worst we can get in the car and go visit someone.

Not particularly; we have camping stuff, a BBQ and a woodburner, so should be fine. Any scheduled cuts should be for short periods so I'm not worried about the fridge/freezer.

The children have battery banks for their mobiles so they can still access their school homework apps on 4G.

Power cut/winter preps now complete after a summer of getting ready when the warnings came out in March/April.

Wood burner, lots of firewood, petrol generator, camping batteries, easy prep food, lots of USB lanterns, candles and tea lights.

My biggest worry during power cuts was my son's 500L aquarium.

I've now found out you can get battery powered air filters. As for keeping the water warm, I floated pop bottles full of warm water (had an aga then, just enough heat left to warm it).