Threat of black outs

[uks]

Its on TV and in all the newspapers the threat of gas storages and power blackouts over the winter months. How are you going to cope and what are you going to do?.

[Stewart]

have got agarage full of firewood, can cook most things on top of wood burner,have got a small gas stove and spare gas,have 2 wind up led lantens,2 parrafin lamps (50l spare parrafin) and then onto candles when that lot runs out.looks like some early nights in bed if no tv with oh

[Scythe13]

BP gave me a heads up about this late last week. This could well be a blessing in disguise. It could well turn people on to the realisation of the program Blackout. The masses might start to realise the government can't look after them. So, mini-rant over with, next, how WE are going to cope. By we I mean myself and the wife. I'll add recommendations for other people, but please feel free to criticise ideas, as that is how we learn.

First up, the gas issue will not effect us directly. In that sense, we are off grid. None of the things in the house run on gas. We are not even connected to the lines. As for the power outages, that's what would hit us the most.

Light, we have hundreds of candles and proper candle holders. We even have designated places where we have allowed ourselves to put them. Certain restrictions are heavily enforced. Something about pyromania...who knows? The good thing is, we think nights like that are romantic, and in winter seem to be our norm. Best of all, we have a fire bin out in the garden, so I'm up for lighting that up and having a Christmas marshmallow moment haha.

Okay, cooking, this is going to be pretty simple. Over 90% of the food we have does not need to be cooked. Yep, life's easy when you don't need to cook. But with that, it can nearly all be cooked as well, e.g. cold soup (I love it), hot soup (She loves it). Cooking will largely be done outside on the fire or the BBQ, but also in the kitchen with the gas cookers we have. The room is very well ventilated, so it's all good.

Entertainment, if you're stuck at home and you can't find anything to do with your OH, then you should really be concerned. Otherwise there is always cards, books, and preps you can do together. A pen and paper, coupled with plans of what to do next on the house, garden, or other stuff...hours of time consumed.

Water...that'll still be running, but if it doesn't that's covered.

Sanitation...you should really be carrying 3 months of TPaper, soap, toothpaste, razors, and the alike. But that's just as normal stuff, I'm not considering that in amongst your preps.

Heating the house. Last year we were in a cold flat, single glazed, and no heating. We used our genius brains and just put on jumpers around the house. She slept in joggers and a long sleeve tshirt (winter PJ's as she calls them), while I just stole the bed covers...allegedly. But for those with kids, if you have a log burner, use that room for most of your time. If you have an awesome big sofa, why not sleep downstairs?

There were plans for small candle heaters using plant pots and metal washers. Was going to make a few of them, but got distracted. Might be a good project for a few weekends time.

What extra precautions will we be taking? The only difference is that we will be bringing out the winter clothing. Maybe reprofiling the snowboard blade. But that really is it.

If you can't survive a cold winter in luxury, post SHTF, there's not much hope.

Recommendations:

Have a torch in every room and make sure you have spare batteries for it. Rechargeable batteries are best, if you have a solar charger for them. If not, Lithium Ion. In fact, lithium ion are just generally awesome batteries, you cannot go wrong with them.

Next up, candles. Lots and lots of candles. Remember ways to light the candles.

Power, a genny is a great idea...if you have fuel for it.

Solar power should not be overlooked! The sun shines in winter.

As for entertainment, there are some brilliant books out there. Why not go on a walk and get to know plant types. While you're there, you could always just pick up some firewood. Even wet wood can become dry. To dry it out, place it near enough to the fire to enjoy the drying effect of increased heat. Trust me, this works. It might not work as well as 4 year seasoned dry wood, but would you rather have some wood that may not be ideal, or no wood at all? If all you have is crap wood, it's still better than no wood.

[Highlander]

We are ready for what ever come our way,..

We have the heating covered with the multi burning stove with the wrap around boiler, so that the fire heats the central heating, and the hot water

We have a generator that is rigged up to run the house via a Caravan type socket outside, and a `Generator on, mains off` switch linked to the mains fuse box inside.

We are over half way to getting our off grid wind turbine up and running, everything is in place, but its a weekend project, not a full time job, so will take a little time yet

If we need extra for cooking then we have a double ringed bottled gas cooker, and a few smaller camping cookers, though we are not anticipating using those.

[Lightspeed]

Power and gas supply failures this winter:

We are off grid for gas, using 12Kg bottles piped into the house. Already I've been living in semi bug out mode g=for the last six months and know that one 12Kg bottle will cope with my cooking needs for 4 months. We have 4 reserves and one live cylinder. Important consideration for winter months is to ensure that any gas cylinders that you are relying on are Propane as Butane will not become gaseous at temperatures less than -1c

Backup cooking is electric ( oven and microwave), wood ( multiple stoves and oven), and charcoal BBQ.

Heating: Currently gas fired at primary home and electric storage heaters at BOL. Backup is wood fired stoves. Stoves, and chimneys have been refurbished over the summer. Wood stock sufficient for at least two years permanent off gris bug-out.

Light: Parafin lamps, candles, solar lamps, and before winter sets in, a solar charged 12v system very similar to the one SD is describing on the main site. Since early summer my radio coms have been entirely solar powered. This afternoon I checked performance and the small cell was still putting out around 12v until two hours before sunset.

Water: at the BOL, if power is cut,, so to is the water supply. As of last weekend we now have more than 2,000L of stored water that is able to be fed into house plumbing as soon as mains pressure drops off. Rainwater harvesting very simple to implement if water supply is threatened long term.

Sanitation: Cess pit based system, with backup dry toilet with humanure-type composting bins.

These solutions are for survival. The wood burners can maintain 25C temperatures in the main living areas, and these are now equipped for sleeping as well now. But we are under no illusions, if electrical supply were to fail for lengthy periods, life would be considerably less comfortable than it is today.

[Straight Shooter]

We are well sorted, new multi fuel wood boiler , now seven cords of wood two tons coal ,full tank lpg, two butaine cookers oil lamps thirty lts parafinn three gennys loads of petrol .....bring it on! Got a spare oil lamp for little gwen down the hill to. I do wonder about BLACKOUT ......was that a warning of what's coming to bloody wright it was ....ask yourself WHY did they take out solid fuel power stations not decommisioned .....mothballed? .

[Steve]

Loads of wood, 2 tons coal, 1200 litres LPG, generator and 120 litres petrol, 400 litres diesel, more water than I'll ever need, plenty of thermals and thick duvets.

I think we'll be fine, but if there's anything we need we have a 4x4 tractor that will get through most things.

[Straight Shooter]

I want another tractor worst thing I ever did sell my old furgy with cab and my minni digger with full cab and heater what an idiot I am

[Sunna]

the last gov lab did not build any new power stations con/dem the same why the public dont want nuke power nwo says no coal , scair the public with storys of blackouts or russian gas so we will except FRACKING .
its a money making game ...

[bigpaul]

they said on the local news that the new power station at Hinckley point-which they haven't even started to build yet-which was supposed to be on line by 2017 now wont be online until 2022, yet loads of coal fired and diesel power stations are due to be shut down by 2015??