Winter Blackouts

[preppingsu]

Ooh, we do love our Kelly kettle! Of of our best buys ever, that!

I had forgotten about mine too. It's currently in my forest school kit for school - must take it out!

[jansman]

It seems most of us have pretty much thought this through. Preppingsu asked for the simple, inexpensive ways to deal with powercuts, and I think simplicity is the key. It is certainly my preffered approach. If (big if), it becomes a regular situation my freezers are my concern. I have chest freezers, which are more efficient. So keep the lids shut.They will hold easily for 24 hours unopened. In one of my freezers I keep 10 x 2litre pop bottles that are 3/4 full of water. If the power goes off then 3 of those bottles on the top shelf of the fridge keeps it cool for the day. Remember that cold air sinks. The other bottles lay on the top layer of the freezers. I also chuck a space blanket then an ordinary blanket over each freezer. This works, as we do get more than the odd powercut. They tend to last up to 1/2 an hour. Howevever,as mentioned , we had a 1 week power/water cut some years ago. Fortunately I am the proud owner of a site generator which it is planned for keeping the freezers cold. Although it is capable of powering the house it would be a draw to neighbours. So it can be used an hour at each end of the day to cool the freezers.
Incidentally, the frozen water bottles are a source of emergency water too. Dangerman said that water storage is rather an overkill in the UK. I would disagree. A source of clean water, immediately to hand is a blessing. Back in 1990, when the water went off, my Wife and I were boiling snow. Let me tell you that situation is a pain in the proverbial! If the water went off right now, I would not want to have to go and find a (questionable?) source of the stuff, then have to filter and treat it. I am in the situation that I have at least a week's worth stored, which gives time to filter and treat more water for when the stock runs dry. Incidentally, this Summer has been very, very dry. My back up to my stockpile is my rain catchment system. Normally there is no problem, but this year it ran dry. The brook over the road is my third fallback and even that ran down to a trickle. Powercuts happen in Summer too.
Anyhow, another question asked earlier was cooking. Many preppers have a back-up camping stove and gas. I have this, and the good old Kelly Kettle too! They are brilliant. I use one frequently on overnight fishing trips. It has a cookset thet fits over the top , which is great for warming tins of my favourite Irish Stew! I am fortunate in that I have two mutifuel stoves in the house, so heating is no problem at all. In fact as I write this it is so warm in here I have had to open some doors!

[Aky208]

I'm considering in investing in a BV (boiling vessel). If I recall correctly, these ran off a 24v supply from the vehicle batteries. I'm not sure what sort of current they draw but I would assume they are okay running off of a leisure battery bank or similar.

[poppypiesdad]

Need to be a big bank of batteries , they are 24v usually 1400w in power which uses 58amps .
and big cables

[bobbydog1]

hi all, this is my first offering on this site so if my stuff is nothing new. sorry.if you have a home bargians store near you, they sell scented candles in glass jars for £2.99 which burn for appx 100 hours(they last longer than my wifes £20 yankee candle of the same size).they actually smell ok too.

[ukpreppergrrl]

Not much to add to the others' lists. But I do have one bit of advice: over the course of a week make a note of all the little electrical items you use around the house and then make sure you have a non-electrical version or an alternative non-electrical way of doing things. Or be prepared to do without! I'm talking electrical tin openers, coffee grinders, coffee machines, kettles, shavers, toasters, alarm clocks etc.. The little things that you use for 5 seconds and take for granted, but will be stuffed if you don't have electricity. People often think about lights, but never remember the tin opener. Boiling water for tea in a pan on a gas Bistro stove is doable, but much easier and more efficient if you have a stove-top kettle. If you have to get up for work, a wind up or battery operated alarm clock (don't rely on your smart phone because it may not be able to get a signal and its time may not be right). Etc..

[farnet]

Totally agree with UKPREPPERGRRL on all that, the one thing to make sure you have and thats excluding TSHTF situation and that is a good old fashoined corded phone.

I fell for it one when we had a power cut and realised we only had cordless which requires power... 45minutes in the attic I found a really basic old phone that came with the house originally..... worked a treat.

[poppypiesdad]

Oooh wind up alarm clock there's a good point, pg is right about all the small things you don't think about , my alarm Is my phone as is the wife's .

J

And farnet good point .

[dangerman]

Great idea, I'll be getting a wind up alarm clock. Expensive though. :/

I've got a dozen or so liters of bottled water stashed around the place, but I cannot envisage ever not being able to acquire enough water from rainfall or other Bear Grylls srtyle methods.

[DustyDog]

Lets not forget good 'ole Tilley lamps, they give off a nice bit of heat as well as light, help keep a room warm. Keep two of them fully fueled hanging up in spare room, with a pre heat torch, spare fuel, mantles and mathches at the ready. Like Jansman, i'm lucky enough to have three woodburner stoves, so heat, cooking and water boiling is not to much of a problem. Would like more info about the battery and inverter setups that some have, have looked at some of the threads but still not sure.

Have never heard of a kelly kettle before, must look up, Mmm, looks interesting.

And common sense prevails, with any kind of living flame in your house, be aware of accident and fire risks, especially with young children around, it is easy to forget when we are all used to just flipping switches for heat and lighting.