living without electricity

[Tarrel]

Refrigeration issues? Move to Scotland! OK, we did have 20+ degrees here last week, but typical summer highs are 16/17 and, during the core winter months, typical daytime highs are +4 degrees (same as the inside of a fridge).

OK, I know I'm trivialising, but seriously, we did survive for an awfully long time without electric refrigeration. A lot can be achieved with shade, ventilation, insulation and use of moisture to create evaporation.

I went to stay with my middle son and his partner a few weeks ago. Half the stuff in their fridge didn't need to be there. I'm talking ketchup, jam, eggs, chutney, etc. Just because it says; "keep in fridge once opened and consume within 3 days", doesn't make it so.

On the broader topic of living without electricity, the one thing I will do my utmost to hang on to will be lighting. LEDs are the great saviour here. Small and easy to store, robust and long-lasting. I did an experiment in our large open-plan kitchen/diner/ hall recently, comparing just one 4W halogen-replacement downlighter with 4-5 candles. The difference was literally like night and day. One of these will use just a third of an amp, meaning that a 100Ah battery will last for 150 hours, even if only discharged by half before recharging. At, say, 4 hours a day, that's over a month of decent lighting if the battery is used for nothing else. That 100Ah battery, if treated with care, should provide many hundreds of recharge cycles, which means it would probably outlast me! Even a small solar panel, operating in less than ideal conditions, will keep that battery charged.