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Wondering what basic measures you are taking for water storage, (pets & flushing) basic cooking, etc to assist "lights on Britain" if it got to a 7 day rolling or full on blackout.

Looking around I have..

I'm thinking 7+ 2x litre pop bottles for dog hydration.

some 5litre portable cannisters for intermittent loo flushing when "mellow yellow" isnt an option.
2x of the same prepped for car washer winter top ups, (bad weather means we can squirt through a good few litres per week, so thats winter prep as standard)

I have 2x s/steel beer brew vessels of 30 litre capacity (inc taps to dispense from)
1 x 15 litre sparge water heater (tea urn)
1x 120 litre fermentation tank (with tap)
5x PP lidded 25 litre buckets (car cleaning type from jenny chem, stackable) ...food safe, good for brewing rice, pasta, dry gods storage.

Ice blocks frozen (about 20) which are standard rotation in our fridges anyway)

Low energy Sous vide (water can be used for flush when changed for fresh) , Air fryer.
(Annoyingly the regular oven goes on first time in months to cook M&S "too good to go bags" pizza's tonight)

Am going to top up on some ikea AAA batteries for 4x PIR lights for larder, loo's, landing.
Found my headphones for fm radio on phone (aerial),
Moved lighters, matches, candles in one spot, ..grabbing some ikea tealights & looking at some plant pot heaters to tick over with, wife will doubtless ask "do you really need 500 tea-lights" till i point out dogs need night time heat provision, ..already use fleece blankets to cover a pen cage, & low energy heat pads mean no room heating yet, dog coats are normal here. & Itend to cook 5-7days of dog food in one hit as standard, which can be human use too.

If advance warning of definite power outs, i'll cook off eggs (2dozen) for minimal reheat (good for a week soft cooked in shells & kept in cold water with a temp probe as necessary) & maybe hit up the loperamide x3

Portable gas burner + cans, bbq charcoal, woodgasifier camp stove, 15 litres of petrol on reserve, teabags, coffee, oats to make oat milk with, flour for breadmaking, bog-roll, bleach, hand sanitizer / isopropanol.

(really ought get a cast iron dutch oven pot)

No check list but a bit to keep ticking over with, should we have a 1973 !? all over.

Wondering at what point to fill a hundred litre water reserve (wife wont be happy)

Fuel for my ancient generator, try and make sure the batteries stay well-charged, check that the camping gas stove still works. That's pretty much it. Water's no problem, as long as we have power, from either the batteries or the generator. Same goes for everything else. I can just about run the ASHP from the generator. I tried it a couple of years ago, as an experiment, and it was fine when running, but did sometimes refuse to start (although it always started up after trying to start it again).

Food won't be an issue, I'm sure the farm shop up the road will keep going. The freezers can run of the batteries or the generator, and we've usually got at least a couple of weeks worth of food, anyway.

We have a selection of torches always charged and ready to use, as we live in a designated "Dark Skies" area, so there are no street lights or outside lighting here, it can be absolutely totally pitch black here at times, so dark you literally cannot see the edges of the lane when walking down it. People around here only forget to take a torch when going out once!

Sorry but why?? Might make sure I know where a torch is, and if/when we get notification I will probably make sure they is plenty left in the batteries, but why the need to do anything else?? How is water going to be an issue? Power will be off for a couple of hours at the most and we will get warning. No wait! the toilet roll factory may get shut down, best pop out and stock up! Had plenty of power cuts here that last four hours or more with no warning, never been anything other than an irritation.

marshman wrote: ↑Fri Nov 04, 2022 10:23 am Sorry but why?? Might make sure I know where a torch is, and if/when we get notification I will probably make sure they is plenty left in the batteries, but why the need to do anything else?? How is water going to be an issue? Power will be off for a couple of hours at the most and we will get warning. No wait! the toilet roll factory may get shut down, best pop out and stock up! Had plenty of power cuts here that last four hours or more with no warning, never been anything other than an irritation.

We did lose water last time this happened, in the 1970's. The power rationing meant that the water board pumps were often turned off, leading to the water going off at times in places that were reliant on pumped mains water supplies (we were at that time).

The schedule for rolling power cuts shows that the planned off periods will be three hours, in a rolling sequence across the country, day by day: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... idance.pdf

However, those plans are three years old, and I seem to remember that the power cuts in 1970 were a lot longer than just three hours. Not as bad as 1987, though, we lost all power and the phone for about 5 days back then, it's what convinced me to spend a small fortune on buying a mobile phone, one that was the size of a couple of bricks.

We spent 2 periods of 4 days without power last year in Aberdeenshire in the depths of winter. It wasn't fun with having to trek 100's of meters to the stream to get water for the animals in sub zero temperatures and the dark. They drank in the region of 50 litres each per day. We now have a 1000l IBC and soon batteries and additional solar. I needed to run a burner in the garage to stop the heat pump and pipes freezing as well. I wasn't that

You never know when the next long power outage will be.

can take an hour or more to reconnect water flow ( energy back to pumping stations etc) & our water pressure is a dribble anyway.

Where the govt states "regulated power outs" ..its from liars in charge.
If you can set aside in normal times it leaves more for others on the shelves, in petrol stations, ..stressed people turn nasty fast.

Being in the countryside "popping out to shop" may not be for 2 -3 weeks.

When power go's out in places every ..damn..xmas it can take days to restore, so why assume its off for 5 mins.
This is like advance warning of a bad storm, Its easier to take stock of kit to get you through than rely on rescue.

Many arent on multi fuel gas & electric, so when its off, its all off.


Were you around for the winter of discontent or the water stoppages of 1976 may I ask?

Its going to have to be very bad for Nowty Towers to suffer.

Big Battery.

Whole house off grid backup.

Solar still works offgrid.

500 litre underground water tank, self filling from underground river.

GSHP.

A2A Heatpumps

Gas CH on standby.

Full gas bottle in shed if it really comes down to it.

Water distiller.

Significant quantities of red wine.

Fuel for both, tank of heating oil and food/drink in freezer should be plenty of provision for any power outages.
As with Andy, 4 days in winter in Aberdeenshire with no power was not fun.

I can distill 50 litres over 2 machines if need be, ..lots of ironing

Mr Gus wrote: ↑Fri Nov 04, 2022 11:07 am Were you around for the winter of discontent or the water stoppages of 1976 may I ask?

Yep & and the power cuts in the early 70's, & and the '87' hurricane and a similar storm that hit the extreme south east in Jan '90 and everything in between.

I live in a rural area. No local big supermarket or reliable public transport. Everything is electric. Lost power for several days in Storms Eunice and Franklin. Lost it for a week in the 1987 "hurricane". Even though Nowty is still insisting I live in a desert, when we do get snow and an easterly wind the lane can and does get blocked for several days - that has happened on at least 3 occasions in the last 15 years.

My point was why "panic" now at the mention of planned power cuts, basically all the long outages have been unplanned and we have survived - no panic, just "stay calm and carry on". If you store large quantities of water you have to keep "refreshing it".

Common sense says you should know where there is a working torch and maybe a portable gas stove to cook on should the need arise, the announcement of the possibility of rolling power cuts shouldn't necessitate and extra preparation - in my opinion of course.