Power cuts and going electric
Discussion
The "government" it trying to convert us all to electric power, cars, heating, lighting, everything and doing away with fossil fuels.
Our electric supply went off mid afternoon Friday and came back on about 12.30 today (Sunday). Many areas are still without electric.
We've had no heating and minimal hot water (Air source), lighting (dark from 7.10pm until about 6.30am), no internet, no mobile phone as the mast must have been off too. No landline either as that is electric. and of course no BB internet so no access to banking, utilities, friends and family.
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
There were over 250 outages in Scotland*, no idea how many households as we had no access to news.
First storm of the year and the place is brought to a standstill, businesses out of action etc.
We either need to go back to coal/gas/oil/petrol etc or substantially upgrade the electricity system of this country.
No idea about the outages in England/Wales/Ireland.
Our electric supply went off mid afternoon Friday and came back on about 12.30 today (Sunday). Many areas are still without electric.
We've had no heating and minimal hot water (Air source), lighting (dark from 7.10pm until about 6.30am), no internet, no mobile phone as the mast must have been off too. No landline either as that is electric. and of course no BB internet so no access to banking, utilities, friends and family.
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
There were over 250 outages in Scotland*, no idea how many households as we had no access to news.
First storm of the year and the place is brought to a standstill, businesses out of action etc.
We either need to go back to coal/gas/oil/petrol etc or substantially upgrade the electricity system of this country.
No idea about the outages in England/Wales/Ireland.
That's annoying. I guess they might say you need to go solar or wind so that you don't rely on the network 100%. Or go petrol or diesel, and park a shed outside so the car is not trapped in the garage - or have a manual option for the garage door! I suppose the other aspect is that it is unlikely to happen - how many times a year does it happen to you?
The how will you 'keep the lights on' question seems to be the one all the political parties don't want to entertain.
As for a local situation get a generator and have a change over switch installed so you can switch over to local power. For an independent source of heat, this is what log burners are for.
Things like the garage door, etc you need to ensure there is a mechanical opening method in addition to electric operation.
It might sound a little 'prepper' but relying on a single power source to power ones life has its risks.
As for a local situation get a generator and have a change over switch installed so you can switch over to local power. For an independent source of heat, this is what log burners are for.
Things like the garage door, etc you need to ensure there is a mechanical opening method in addition to electric operation.
It might sound a little 'prepper' but relying on a single power source to power ones life has its risks.
Next year, we are replacing our Kia Soul electric with a Hyundai Inster Cross.
It has a 'car to load' option: a three pin outlet which turns the cars battery into a powerstation.
We have power cuts here in Suffolk. Not as bad as the OP's. Hopefully, the 'car to load' system will take much of the strain.
It has a 'car to load' option: a three pin outlet which turns the cars battery into a powerstation.
We have power cuts here in Suffolk. Not as bad as the OP's. Hopefully, the 'car to load' system will take much of the strain.
Skyedriver said:
The "government" it trying to convert us all to electric power, cars, heating, lighting, everything and doing away with fossil fuels.
Our electric supply went off mid afternoon Friday and came back on about 12.30 today (Sunday). Many areas are still without electric.
We've had no heating and minimal hot water (Air source), lighting (dark from 7.10pm until about 6.30am), no internet, no mobile phone as the mast must have been off too. No landline either as that is electric. and of course no BB internet so no access to banking, utilities, friends and family.
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
There were over 250 outages in Scotland*, no idea how many households as we had no access to news.
First storm of the year and the place is brought to a standstill, businesses out of action etc.
We either need to go back to coal/gas/oil/petrol etc or substantially upgrade the electricity system of this country.
No idea about the outages in England/Wales/Ireland.
An electric car will still work if the power is out, just the same as your ICE car. In fact it could provide power to your home in an outage. Both can't be refuelled easily without electrical power. Likewise a gas boiler won't heat your home without electricity.Our electric supply went off mid afternoon Friday and came back on about 12.30 today (Sunday). Many areas are still without electric.
We've had no heating and minimal hot water (Air source), lighting (dark from 7.10pm until about 6.30am), no internet, no mobile phone as the mast must have been off too. No landline either as that is electric. and of course no BB internet so no access to banking, utilities, friends and family.
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
There were over 250 outages in Scotland*, no idea how many households as we had no access to news.
First storm of the year and the place is brought to a standstill, businesses out of action etc.
We either need to go back to coal/gas/oil/petrol etc or substantially upgrade the electricity system of this country.
No idea about the outages in England/Wales/Ireland.
Skyedriver said:
The "government" it trying to convert us all to electric power, cars, heating, lighting, everything and doing away with fossil fuels.
Our electric supply went off mid afternoon Friday and came back on about 12.30 today (Sunday). Many areas are still without electric.
We've had no heating and minimal hot water (Air source), lighting (dark from 7.10pm until about 6.30am), no internet, no mobile phone as the mast must have been off too. No landline either as that is electric. and of course no BB internet so no access to banking, utilities, friends and family.
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
There were over 250 outages in Scotland*, no idea how many households as we had no access to news.
First storm of the year and the place is brought to a standstill, businesses out of action etc.
We either need to go back to coal/gas/oil/petrol etc or substantially upgrade the electricity system of this country.
No idea about the outages in England/Wales/Ireland.
Most of the outages were due to power lines being down etc.Our electric supply went off mid afternoon Friday and came back on about 12.30 today (Sunday). Many areas are still without electric.
We've had no heating and minimal hot water (Air source), lighting (dark from 7.10pm until about 6.30am), no internet, no mobile phone as the mast must have been off too. No landline either as that is electric. and of course no BB internet so no access to banking, utilities, friends and family.
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
There were over 250 outages in Scotland*, no idea how many households as we had no access to news.
First storm of the year and the place is brought to a standstill, businesses out of action etc.
We either need to go back to coal/gas/oil/petrol etc or substantially upgrade the electricity system of this country.
No idea about the outages in England/Wales/Ireland.
Fossil fuel generation would have made zero difference to that!
Also most heating systems, gas etc, need electricity ..
Nothing to do with the government..
Tens of thousands of homes lost power (e.g. ~62,000 homes at one point) due to multiple faults across the network.
Fallen trees and debris are heavily implicated in the outages, because the winds blew down trees onto lines and infrastructure.
Some areas are more difficult to repair quickly because of ongoing high winds or blocked access, slowing down restoration.
Skyedriver said:
The "government" it trying to convert us all to electric power, cars, heating, lighting, everything and doing away with fossil fuels.
Our electric supply went off mid afternoon Friday and came back on about 12.30 today (Sunday). Many areas are still without electric.
We've had no heating and minimal hot water (Air source), lighting (dark from 7.10pm until about 6.30am), no internet, no mobile phone as the mast must have been off too. No landline either as that is electric. and of course no BB internet so no access to banking, utilities, friends and family.
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
There were over 250 outages in Scotland*, no idea how many households as we had no access to news.
First storm of the year and the place is brought to a standstill, businesses out of action etc.
We either need to go back to coal/gas/oil/petrol etc or substantially upgrade the electricity system of this country.
No idea about the outages in England/Wales/Ireland.
Are you new to "Oban, Arygll and Bute" ? All the stuff you've listed is standard fare for rural living as the power always goes out whenever it blows harder than a stiff breeze. Log burner (with ample dried wood stores), genny/UPS, off-grid solar, torches, candles, tinned food stores and a couple of 20 litre jerry cans full of fuel are the bare minimum you have should have ready to 'deploy' if a storm is heading your way.Our electric supply went off mid afternoon Friday and came back on about 12.30 today (Sunday). Many areas are still without electric.
We've had no heating and minimal hot water (Air source), lighting (dark from 7.10pm until about 6.30am), no internet, no mobile phone as the mast must have been off too. No landline either as that is electric. and of course no BB internet so no access to banking, utilities, friends and family.
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
There were over 250 outages in Scotland*, no idea how many households as we had no access to news.
First storm of the year and the place is brought to a standstill, businesses out of action etc.
We either need to go back to coal/gas/oil/petrol etc or substantially upgrade the electricity system of this country.
No idea about the outages in England/Wales/Ireland.
Sheepshanks said:
Skyedriver said:
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
Mine's electric but I can open it manually too. If I didn't have access through another door, then there's a key release that can go in the door.I'd be surprised if any decent electricity operated garage door didn't have a manual override. If it didn't what would you do if developed a fault and you didn't have another means of entry?
We're a bit further north but I got the generator ready on Friday afternoon as we tend to have up to 5 days a year without power. For once we were an island of electricity continuity in a sea of outages but we can cook, light and heat without mains power. If we lost access to petrol for more than 2-3 days we'd be struggling a bit more but if you're rural than a woodburner and standby gas cooking is essential for us.
Work has invested heavily in solar panels for the new building but crucially, we have three large Tesla batteries as back up in the event of a power cut.
Think they've only been called into action once when some fool cut through something they shouldn't have somewhere close by.
Think they've only been called into action once when some fool cut through something they shouldn't have somewhere close by.
Edited by slopes on Sunday 5th October 20:39
Yep, it's borderline irresponsible to be entirely reliant on electricity in a rural area served by overhead lines. We've been off for 10+ days twice in recent years.
Wood burner and big store of firewood gives heat, cooking ability and plenty of hot water if you stick a big kettle on top. Add in a gas BBQ and you can cook almost anything with a bit of imagination.
Headtorches for task lighting and a big box of long lasting pillar candles for background lighting.
I don't have a generator at the moment to keep the fridge going but I keep a few 5L bottles of water in the freezer which will keep a good Yeti style cool box cold for over a week.
A diesel pickup and PHEV Rav4 both with 500+ mile ranges give some flexibility although our nearest filling station have a standby generator so getting fuel generally isn't a big deal.
I found myself reading a lot of books and listening to the radio a lot but otherwise I was pretty comfortable. Would have been pretty desperate in an all electric newbuild without power in the middle of an Aberdeenshire winter.
Wood burner and big store of firewood gives heat, cooking ability and plenty of hot water if you stick a big kettle on top. Add in a gas BBQ and you can cook almost anything with a bit of imagination.
Headtorches for task lighting and a big box of long lasting pillar candles for background lighting.
I don't have a generator at the moment to keep the fridge going but I keep a few 5L bottles of water in the freezer which will keep a good Yeti style cool box cold for over a week.
A diesel pickup and PHEV Rav4 both with 500+ mile ranges give some flexibility although our nearest filling station have a standby generator so getting fuel generally isn't a big deal.
I found myself reading a lot of books and listening to the radio a lot but otherwise I was pretty comfortable. Would have been pretty desperate in an all electric newbuild without power in the middle of an Aberdeenshire winter.
Edited by Snow and Rocks on Sunday 5th October 20:23
We escaped quite lightly though there was a 100mph+ gust not far south of us. Luckily SSE replaced the pole in our field over the summer as it pretty much fell to pieces as they pulled it out of the ground.
They are planning to put one of the new inter-connectors to the outer Hebrides through the area, their original plan was to put it overhead, but so many people said to them "why not put it underground?". The new plan is to put it underground. I understand in the short term underground is more expensive, but you would think the fact it is much less vulnerable to storm damage would make it a better bet in the long run. The cost for repairs must be running into millions.
They are planning to put one of the new inter-connectors to the outer Hebrides through the area, their original plan was to put it overhead, but so many people said to them "why not put it underground?". The new plan is to put it underground. I understand in the short term underground is more expensive, but you would think the fact it is much less vulnerable to storm damage would make it a better bet in the long run. The cost for repairs must be running into millions.
Alpacaman said:
We escaped quite lightly though there was a 100mph+ gust not far south of us. Luckily SSE replaced the pole in our field over the summer as it pretty much fell to pieces as they pulled it out of the ground.
They are planning to put one of the new inter-connectors to the outer Hebrides through the area, their original plan was to put it overhead, but so many people said to them "why not put it underground?". The new plan is to put it underground. I understand in the short term underground is more expensive, but you would think the fact it is much less vulnerable to storm damage would make it a better bet in the long run. The cost for repairs must be running into millions.
The 'long run'! That'll never work, short-termism is the only thing politicians understand.They are planning to put one of the new inter-connectors to the outer Hebrides through the area, their original plan was to put it overhead, but so many people said to them "why not put it underground?". The new plan is to put it underground. I understand in the short term underground is more expensive, but you would think the fact it is much less vulnerable to storm damage would make it a better bet in the long run. The cost for repairs must be running into millions.
Similarly had power loss in the village I work in from Friday 5pm until lunchtime today. Thankfully power stayed on mostly in my own house 12 miles away. The biggest headache/concern is loss of phones and mobile now that everything is VOIP. How do you get an ambulance should you need one when the landline doesn't work and the mobile network is down? The battery backup at the exchange only lasted about an hour!
There are work-arounds for most other things - at home I can run 1-2 appliances at a time from battery and inverter so I can keep warm, food can be cooked and the freezer can be kept frozen. Having spent most of my life in the Highlands I have no shortage of torches. And there's always some sort of fuel to burn.
There are work-arounds for most other things - at home I can run 1-2 appliances at a time from battery and inverter so I can keep warm, food can be cooked and the freezer can be kept frozen. Having spent most of my life in the Highlands I have no shortage of torches. And there's always some sort of fuel to burn.
Hoofy said:
That's annoying. I guess they might say you need to go solar or wind so that you don't rely on the network 100%. Or go petrol or diesel, and park a shed outside so the car is not trapped in the garage - or have a manual option for the garage door! I suppose the other aspect is that it is unlikely to happen - how many times a year does it happen to you?
This is the worst in 8 year but we get regular shorter outages. We had one for 6 days on the Isle of Skye some 20 years ago.We've been running cars left outside to help with phones but when there's no signal it's irrelevant. Losing wi fi is a big problem both for communication and items within the home.
When you are all electric the home just slowly loses heat, fortunately it wasn't too cold outside. If it had been minus 5?
Many homes still have wood burners which will heat one room but they're trying to do away with them aren't they?
Generator, nearly bought one a few years ago, I could hear a few going around the area while out with the dogs. No doubt they'll try to ban those as they use diesel or petrol.
It's a strengthening of the entire network that is needed, they blame trees falling on o/h lines yet they've been back and forth around here cutting trees back.
Underground is the (expensive) answer.
Sheepshanks said:
Skyedriver said:
Cars are all petrol/diesel but the garage door is electric operated!
Mine's electric but I can open it manually too. If I didn't have access through another door, then there's a key release that can go in the door.Skyedriver said:
In theory ours is able to be opened manually by pulling a red cord which releases the door rather quickly. It's not possible to do that with a car under bthe runners/guide and once up it's too heavy to get back down again.
You can get a keyed barrel for the door which pulls out and releases the door.Sounds like it's not set up properly - ours is on spring tensioners and you can open and close it with a finger's touch. In fact since we had building work done, the opener has been disconnected and I open and close it manually as it's less faff than waiting for the opener (we don't keep a car in there any more
).You could do what we have done and install a solar and battery system.
You wouldn't even know if there was a power cut unless the app pings on your phone. Most battery and solar systems can't do this, so do your homework.
It has been superb so far. It wasn't cheap, but it shouldn't take too long to pay back (five to six years)
Depending on the time of year, we could run without the grid for months over the summer, but probably only a day or two in the winter.
You wouldn't even know if there was a power cut unless the app pings on your phone. Most battery and solar systems can't do this, so do your homework.
It has been superb so far. It wasn't cheap, but it shouldn't take too long to pay back (five to six years)
Depending on the time of year, we could run without the grid for months over the summer, but probably only a day or two in the winter.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff