Tag: electricity

Power Cuts

Blackouts in England And Wales

www.brexitsurvivaljournal.comOn 9 August 2019, nearly a million people were affected by a major power cut across large areas of England and Wales, including the Midlands, the South East, South West and North East of England, and Wales. This affected businesses, homes and transport networks, with hundreds stranded at railway stations or on trains: and traffic lights stopping working. The electricity suppliers, the National Grid, said two separate power generators had failed but supplies had now been restored. (BBC News)

According to the National Grid’s director of operations, Duncan Burt, this was an “incredibly rare event” and the company would “learn lessons”, but the electricity regulator Ofgen, has demanded an “urgent detailed report” on the problem and could take action against the company, including a fine. The government also said it would investigate what went wrong. (More BBC News)

Incredibly Rare Events Can Happen

You may hear the term “rare, statistically speaking”, which means something is not very likely to happen but IT’S NOT IMPOSSIBLE for it to happen. It might be rare, but it is possible. And if it is possible, then sod’s law says it will happen at the very worst time possible. If it happens at the worst time, then the consequences, the results, will be the worst possible.

Problems With Power Cuts

The most obvious ones are:

  • The lights go out, no TV, no computer, no radio;
  • The stove cooking your dinner goes off;
  • The heat goes off -it’s cold in winter;
  • Traffic lights may go out, causing traffic chaos;
  • Electric trains like the underground stop running with trains stuck in tunnels or between stations;
  • Lifts stop operating, possible stuck between floors;
  • Petrol pumps stop working – no fuel;
  • ATMs stop working – no money;
  • Freezers defrost.

Planning Ahead

  • Batteries;
  • Battery radio, keep laptop charged up while electricity on
  • Rechargeable Torches kept on charge all the time. or candles and matches (be careful with these);
  • gas stove, camping stove, gas or charcoal barbecue or coal fire for cooking;
  • gas or coal fire for heating;
  • keep a stash of cash for emergencies
  • keep freezers closed, keep them topped up or use boxes and newspapers for insulation and lower heat gain.

Plan For Your Own Comfort And Safety

Make your own plans for your and your family’s comfort, safety and survival.

Power Outages

www.brexitsurvivaljournal.comPower Supplies Can Be Lost

Power supplies can go off at any time, not just because of Brexit. They can happen during a storm, with high winds, or because an electricity substation blows up, because a tree falls or can even be known in advance, when the electricity company needs to carry out planned maintenance on the system.

Did You Know?
In 1859, a solar storm, known as the Carrington event after one of the astronomers who recorded it, hit earth and caused a magnetic storm. In those days, the only electrical appliances were probably telegraph systems for long distance communication and these were badly affected, with sparks flying from them and starting fires. If a similar event happened nowadays, most of the planet would suffer electrical blackouts and widespread disruption, possibly lasting days or even years, until the damage could be repaired.

Effects Of No Power

If another Carrington-type event hit us, one of the most amazing effects would be powerful auras, lighting up the skies. At the same time, though, satellites would be destroyed and electricity grids would go out, leaving whole countries with no power and enormous amounts of damage that could take months, if not years, to repair.

Not As Severe

Hopefully, any power disruption from Brexit, or any other cause, would be on a much smaller scale that this, possibly only in local areas, but in those areas, the loss of electricity would mean:

    • No ATMs working,
    • Fuel stations not operating
    • Shops with electronic tills and barcode scanners would have to revert to manual operation.
    • Credit and debit cards would not work, cash only.
    • No computers or TV;
    • Data can be lost resulting in errors in bank accounts and other electronic information;
Did You Know? In July 1977 the city of New York was blacked out after lightning hit a substation and then power lines. The city remained blacked out until the next day. The city was in the middle of a heat wave, so all the air conditioning went off, people were stuck in lifts, TV went off, there was widespread looting and vandalism, the airports were closed, road tunnels were shut down because there was no ventilation and passengers had to be evacuated from the subway. Sports stadiums had to be closed and spectators sent home
  • Mobile phones, tablets and other mobile electronic devices could not be charged,
  • Electric cookers would not work – no cooking;
  • Your heating system might not work, as water is pumped around the system by electricity if you use an oil fired boiler;
  • Fast food shops would mostly be unable to operate;
  • Refrigeration systems would heat up, losing frozen and chilled food;
  • Businesses would have to shut before dark;
  • No street lights;
  • Public transport would stop when vehicles couldn’t have fuel pumped in;
  • Ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles might not be able to operate at full strength;
  • Electric trains and trams would just stop;
  • Escalators and lifts would stop, possibly trapping some people;
  • Store deliveries would stop if lorries could not get fuel;
  • The subway would stop, possibly trapping some people underground;
  • Medical equipment may stop operating unless it has a backup;
  • Medical records can be lost or be unreachable when needed for medical emergencies.

What Can Be Done At Home

There’s not a lot that individuals can do to prevent the mains electricity going off, however, it is certainly possible to make preparations that can make life a lot easier until the electricity comes back on again. And it’s always the worst time that it goes off – in the middle of a cold storm, in the middle of the night, when you’re cooking dinner ….

The Most Important Areas

Cooking: Do you depend on electricity for cooking?

Heating: Do you depend on electricity for heating?

These are the two critical areas. If Brexit happens at a cold time of the year, it will be vital to have some warmth and to be able to cook a hot meal. If your only source of heat and cooking is mains supply electricity, you may go cold and possibly hungry until power is restored, unless you have your own solar panels or wind turbine producing electricity for you. And if the power is off in a widespread area, then fast food shops will have to close too.


Of course, apart from having your own solar cells or wind turbine producing electricity, the big hitter to have in a power outage is your own generator. It may not be possible to run a normal electric cooker from one of these but it would certainly be sufficient for a microwave or slow cooker or anything that runs from a normal 13 amp plug (does not apply to electric cookers). There are also power generators that are specially designed for running home electronics, like computers.

If you don’t want to go to the expense or storage requirements for a home generator, you might consider getting a camping stove, that runs on gas cylinders and for light, you can get emergency lanterns that remain plugged in while the power is on and that turn on when power stops. Remember to check that you have all the parts you need if buying any of these and that you have a storage can for the correct fuel if getting a generator.

If you have any other source of heat, such as gas cylinders or coal, then check your supplies and keep them topped up as Brexit looms closer. And it’s also useful to add some blankets and extra layers to your bedding or clothing supplies, to ensure you do not lose body heat.

 

Stay At Home

www.brexitsurvivaljournal.comHome

For most people, staying at home is the easiest and safest option in troubled times and it is assumed that this is where you will be.

If you want to stay within your home and not have to go outside to get supplies, you will need to make sure you have enough stuff to last you for about 3 weeks at least, possibly even 6 weeks. You may not use your emergency supplies all the time, you may just need to call on them when there are shortages and then stock them back up again when fresh supplies come in. But isn’t it good to know that you will be able to feed yourself and your family and have some comforts if necessary?

Hopefully, any troubles will be over and supplies will be back in local stores again, within about 6 weeks, though there may be shortages and some items may take a lot longer before supplies are available whenever you want them.

Shelter

Your first priority will be shelter. But with Brexit, hopefully, this will be your own home and with any luck you will have your normal utilities, water, electricity and a cooking stove.

If you need to move out of your home, other preparations will be needed ahead of time, this is dealt with later.

Staying in your own home is the best bet in most cases but you will need to prepare in case any of the utilities (like water, gas and electricity) are interrupted, as well as store food that your family can eat: and store drinking water.

Cooking

How do you cook meals at present?

  • don’t – eat takeaways or eat out
  • electricity
  • piped gas
  • cylinder gas
  • solid fuel stove
  • couple of different methods

Your Plan

Think of how you could manage to cook if the power goes down, or the gas or fuel are delayed. If you have only electricity for cooking, for instance, you will need to think of another way of being able to cook. Maybe you have a coal fire? Maybe you need to buy a portable camping stove? Think about what you need to DO in order to be able to cook. Perhaps you need to stockpile some more gas cylinders or more coal?
What is the Plan……………………………………………………………………………….
When will you do this? ……………………………………………………………………….
What is the Budget? ………………………………………………………………………….