What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

How are you preparing
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diamond lil
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by diamond lil »

The council put air pump heating in a couple of villages and people went mad because they were freezing and paying a fortune. I think most ended up using calor gas heaters. My old house was done when we moved out, so I'm glad they waited until I moved. The coal stove CH was hard work and messy but at least it was hot ! :evil:
jansman
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by jansman »

I have read that Air Source Heat Pumps are the least satisfactory option. Ground source and geo- thermal would not be an option for us, as the equipment needed would have to be craned over the house, as access is not suitable. I suspect this would be an issue for many, many households. A bit like the problem of charging points for the pie- in- the - sky idea of converting the entire fleet of UK cars, vans, trucks to electric. Many homes have ( like me) no off road parking.

It’s howling a hooley out there right now, and rain is bouncing off the window. Gonna chuck more wood in the stove.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
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diamond lil
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by diamond lil »

Same weather here, bloody cold and horrible.
grenfell
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by grenfell »

jansman wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 4:06 pm bit like the problem of charging points for the pie- in- the - sky idea of converting the entire fleet of UK cars, vans, trucks to electric. Many homes have ( like me) no off road parking.
Putting aside the idea that we can replace all ICE vehicles with EV's i find the "problem" of not having a drive to be one of the biggest strawmen arguments put forward by opponents. As a species we can put men on the moon , send probes to pluto with pin point accuracy but getting an electric cable from one side of a three foot strip of tarmac to the other is completely insurmountable. :roll:
Yorkshire Andy
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

grenfell wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 6:18 pm
jansman wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 4:06 pm bit like the problem of charging points for the pie- in- the - sky idea of converting the entire fleet of UK cars, vans, trucks to electric. Many homes have ( like me) no off road parking.
Putting aside the idea that we can replace all ICE vehicles with EV's i find the "problem" of not having a drive to be one of the biggest strawmen arguments put forward by opponents. As a species we can put men on the moon , send probes to pluto with pin point accuracy but getting an electric cable from one side of a three foot strip of tarmac to the other is completely insurmountable. :roll:

It's not just the three foot we live on a bend my car is a good 20m from the front fence due to the parking restrictions ..

The council send snotty letters about a few bits of hedge sticking out .. or wheelie bins left on the path . They won't like trailing flex

That and the claim culture I tripped over your wire or the drunk or local oiks tampering with it


We've got 2 cars so would need 2 chargers due to the milage we do rapids pull anywhere from 32a to 120a depending on type so based on that our 80a single phase domestic supply wouldn't like it especially if we add on a air heat pump and electric water heater ..

Those city centre / service station rapid chargers are good at the moment with so few EVs on the road .... However if you have 2 cars charging with 10 bays available you'll get full speed charging but bang 10 cars on at the same time they share the current between the chargers via a cat 5 network regulating charge current to avoid drawing too much from the dno (my mate installs them)

Same with the new housing estates all the units have a GSM communicator in them which lets the dno restrict load at peak times so not to black the estate out if everyone plugs their cars in on a night In one instance on a large estate they calculated each car will only charge at 10a to enable the lights to stay on if they all get plugged in together echo that at every street in the UK the generator capacity and grid network country wide will not like it no matter how many windmills they put up
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
grenfell
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by grenfell »

My point really being that there are a number of reasons why just continuing BAU with EV's is largely impractical and ultimately likely to fail but it amuses me when relatively minor issues of engineering are put forward as arguments. Practically every house in the country is connected to the national grid so the infrastructure is already there and getting that to the roadside is pretty easy really. Buried cables to bollards or an overhead gantry type of affair gets it over pavements without tripping hazards or blocking the pavements. We have deposits of lithium in this country particularly in Cornwall , in fact it's not particularly rare. The term rre earth metals is a bit of a misnomer and mahes people think they are really scarce. What we and most of the world lack and this is where the Chinese stole the lead is in the processing.
It seems to me that most of the opposition comes from those who simply don't like EV's as their arguments centre around why we should keep what we have , keep ICE's or power them with hydrogen or alcohol , rather than reducing the amount of travel we do , or using public transport.
jansman
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by jansman »

Here is an article that explores, the naive belief that society can merely substitute one energy source for another- and carry on regardless.
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2021 ... ying-this/
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
jennyjj01
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by jennyjj01 »

jansman wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 2:22 pm Here is an article that explores, the naive belief that society can merely substitute one energy source for another- and carry on regardless.
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2021 ... ying-this/
Oh WOW! He said it out loud. What even we preppers try not to see and what our leaders try to gloss over for 'another term in office'. WE ARE SO F****D!

I see no reason to dismiss that article.

What a terrifying reality mankind is turning a blind eye to... Basically, the maths shows that there is no way in hell that we can introduce renewable energy fast enough to scratch the surface... Not enough land space, not enough resources, not enough time and not enough inclination. Our best efforts so far have been the merest of gestures. Lip service to renewables.
the article wrote:"Nevertheless, without some yet-to-be-discovered useable energy-dense fuel source to replace oil, gas and coal, we will have to more or less rapidly simplify and shrink our economy to something more akin to that of the early nineteenth century. But, of course, nobody is volunteering to do this in a managed way
In the absence of a 'managed way' of going back to a 19th century life-style (That's the 1800s : not even 20th century) , the obvious alternative is the one we prep for 'An apocalyptic return to a 19th century way of life'

Resource wars? Seems obvious.

Coming soon to a planet near you. :o
Last edited by jennyjj01 on Fri May 21, 2021 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

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Jerseyspud
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by Jerseyspud »

Considering the national grid was at breaking point as it was in the early 2000s, I'm not sure how it would cope with people using it to charge their cars as well. Even renewable energy has its back ups
when it comes to catastrophic events, we never know when the day before is the day before. So we prepare for tomorrow

Prepping on a small island
Yorkshire Andy
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

Jerseyspud wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 4:03 pm Considering the national grid was at breaking point as it was in the early 2000s, I'm not sure how it would cope with people using it to charge their cars as well. Even renewable energy has its back ups

Many of the back up stations have also been shut ferry bridge and eggborough are 2 that were kept ready to black start until a few years ago... Renewable is great. Until winter short days solar doesn't keep up ... Windmills don't go round when you've got a winter high pressure front set up over the uk

Leeds city centre and some suburbs were at breaking point about 8 years ago... The grid could not keep up at peak times. (Read tea time ) ... How to fix it...... Bio diesel generators at the sub stations on remote start to plug the gap in how much could be pulled down the frankly archaic infrastructure


And you've always got the French to threaten to turn off supplies into the UK ... Or jersey ;)
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine