Consumer Product Selection Changes

[snow hope]

Anything I now purchase is done in the light of a PO future. We should all be thinking this way (I am sure most folks are) so I thought it might be useful to discuss the decisions one has to make prior to a purchase.

Firstly, I buy nothing now without questioning do I really need it. There will be no LCD TVs or fancy electrical gadgets coming across my front door!

Secondly I am leaning towards products that do not require electricity to operate (if there is a choice). Often there isn't.

Thirdly, I am preparing a list of essential items I must have in my possession eg. good spade, fork and various garden tools (all non-electrical), warm clothes, good footwear - wellington boots, trainers, walking boots, wind up torches, radios etc, etc.

Fourthly, when I purchase any product that uses electricity, I investigate the energy used by the product. Many products are now geared to using high levels of energy eg 3kw kettles - this is seen to be a good thing by the manufacturers. Of course we all know that we need to minimise the wattage used by the products we own as electricity may become very expensive or even unavailble or low level at times in the future. We may be forced to rely on our own renewable energy - which may only produce a couple of KW for the whole house.

Recently I had to buy a new kettle and managed to get one that is 2KW - nearly all kettles are 3KW now! I don't mind that it takes an extra 45 seconds to boil a cuppa.

Please add your own thoughts as this is a real simple way that we can all save money and get a WIN-WIN for all concerned.

[isenhand]

I think I have been doing this for years even the most extravagant expenditure does not have the latest and greatest features (my computer) but I think I have paid a bit more attention to things this last year. Recently we have been looking at buying a new TV but it?s not easy to buy one with having a load of extra features that will never get used. Not is it easy finding one that is ?locally? made.

One thing that I think might be of use when it comes to purchasing things are books that tell you about free food in the wild and things like making soap. If things get really bad its unlikely to be short so having books can provide a bit of knowledge that will be needed for a long crises.

[DamianB]

I've been thinking along these lines for a while too. A few years ago when I tried to get hold of a new push lawn-mower, the guy laughed at me and said 'Why would anyone want one of those with these powered ones at 30 quid'. I told him that it was unnecessary and that the exercise was good for me. The look on his face was a picture and he backed away as if I was contaminated

[fishertrop]

There will be no LCD TVs or fancy electrical gadgets coming across my front door!

Don't forget a carefully chosen LCD telly uses a fraction of the power of a 36" widescreen CRT.

In fact, you can run the smaller LCD's off a battery/invertor - so you can see the pictures of chaos on News24 instead of listening to them on the radio in the dark!

Also, don't forget that 1.5kw for 2mins is the same total consumption as 3kw for 1min - tho having a lower peak might help in some circumstances - the big savings come from boiling only the water you need and having less cuppa's!

You've obviously spent some time planning things snow, what's your plan for debt management (the other half of spending less) ?

[Andy Hunt]

Fischertrop is correct - I think that the best purchases will be a combination of unpowered, traditional technology such as wood stoves and super-efficient high technology, such as LCD TVs or LED torches that you can shake to charge up.

A LCD TV will be absolutely ideal post-peak, and higher-powered appliances such as kettles are not necessarily bad if they are also highly efficient.

What I am looking for, if it exists, is a kind of backup battery pack that will charge from the mains when it is working, and feed into the ring main during a power cut. To disconnect the ring main from the national grid, all you have to do is remove the fuse switches from your fusebox, and you can feed your own power in from a battery pack or home wind turbine etc.

Anyone know of such a backup battery pack?

[fishertrop]

Anyone know of such a backup battery pack?

Commercial UPS's do just that, are usually a discrete unit and can supply a fair bit of power.

Alas, they are VERY expensive and usually need regular maintenace.

You can buy a bunch of cheap semi-suitable batteries, a main's powered charger (be sure to get the right one) and a mains invertor and then make your own.

Making your own would need a little more work but would be FAR cheaper, very educational and not that inferior (it's mostly down to battery capacity - buy more and better quality if you want more power).

My own view is tho that you don't need to power the whole house in a no-mains scenario, only specific appliances and I think you should target running just those rather than the whole house. You might not have as a tidy installation but you definitely don't have problems with "gee I didn't know that unit was always on!"

[Ballard]

Hey,

Just out of intrest, I found this 'ECO' Kettle the other day, sorry snow.

http://www.theinsightecostore.com/index ... oductid=73

[MacG]

Oh yes! I recognize the thinking big time, and act similarly. But I dont go for generic PO stuff, just stuff I'm good at handling. Let's face it, I'm not much of a farmer and dont enjoy growing stuff (except marjuhana some 25 years ago), but I got enough friends and relatives who enjoy growing stuff. I'm, however, stinking good with technical things. I'm the guy who get the irrigation windmill built, build the 12V wind generator from a carwreck (it works, but require more wind than the dedicated wind generators with strong permanent magnets). That's why I collect tools in this particular domain, together with NiMH R6's, LED-lights, and dont waste much money on fancy stuff.

I got short-, mid- and long range plans going.

Short: A couple of days of blackout. Most important: water and clothes. Check. Probability: medium.

Mid: A winter with a sudden 5 mo blackout. Most important: Food and means of heating it, heating the house and heating water. Clothes and warm footwear. Hygiene. Check. Probability: low

Long: Dissolution of society as we know it. Most important: Having survived "short" and "mid". Relations and cooperation. Uncharted waters. Probability: In one form or another: 100%

[RogerCO]

Recently we have been looking at buying a new TV but it?s not easy to buy one with having a load of extra features that will never get used. Not is it easy finding one that is ?locally? made.

Anyone thinking of replacing a TV might like to seriously try doing without for three weeks before buying and see what a difference it makes to your life.

For starters there's the ?10/month you'll save on the TV licence, plus whatever other subscription services you have been conned into buying.

Secondly you might be surprised how much you don't miss it - time you currently spend slobbed in front of the TV can just as well (if not better) be spend slobbed in front of a book or with your ears truly listening to some music or speech (most of us have forgotten or never learnt how to listen to sound - we just use it to blanket out ambient noise)

If you really want to keep up with moving pictures of news/sport then get a broadband connection and watch that way. If you want to watch movies then get a DVD player (about ?180 on ebuyer for an 8.4" screen battery operated) - you can recharge the batteries from your solar panel and be watching movies whilst the rest of the country is wondering what to do in the dark of the powercuts.

Many good shows come out on DVD very soon after the series and you can catch them then. For the rest it is pretty much mindless pap that you can live quite well without - be honest would your life have been at all impoverished if you had not seen a single frame of Big Brother?

For those 'must see' big events go round to a friend's or your local pub and enjoy it as a shared cultural experience.

And finally it is great fun winding up the bureaucrats who run the tv licensing service by ignoring all their threatening letters (they print their name on the back so you know not to open them)

[clv101]

Laptops are also a great idea. Low power consumption with built in UPS. Ideal for a world with unreliable or extremely expensive electricity. On the down side they are more fragile and much harder to repair, two other characteristics to think about when buying for a peak oil future.

[snow hope]

I think there is a good chance that electricity will become unstable and discontinuous at some point in the future, so I am planning a wind turbine or two and some batteries and a PV cell. In the light of this all appliances must be rated as low power as possible - 3kw kettles are simple to big a drain on power supply. I am quite capable of pouring enough water into my kettle just to boil a single cuppa. I got my 2kw model for ?14, a bit cheaper than the ?39 for the eco-expensive model.

I have got too many TVs in my house and don't need anymore - or the expense of any more! I have got low energy bulbs in all lights. I have convinced my wife to reduce use of the tumble dryer and there are many other small things being done to reduce costs.

Good question about debt, which I have rather a lot of. The first thing I am doing is to getting it moved onto fixed rates. Secondly I am not purchasing anything unless it is necessary. I am still trying to recover from my last foreign summer holiday. I have a lot further to go with debt management and am still thinking about it. I am also still giving a lot of thought to my pension arrangements.

So much to do........

[isenhand]

Anyone thinking of replacing a TV might like to seriously try doing without for three weeks before buying and see what a difference it makes to your life.

Last week my wife and I looked at what we do with the TV. We have cable (comes with the flat) and we have one package that we have added to the basic channels and it is for that one package that we have TV. Its BBC prime and has children?s programmes in English which I think is important for the kids as we live in Sweden. Probably when they are grown up we could get rid of the TV.

[snow hope]

Isenhead - a collection of good books on growing food and all sorts of ways of doing things is a great suggestion. I will be using the Books Forum to compile a list.

I have a windup radio/torch (still available in Maplin for ?9.99) and will be purchasing this week another wind-up LED torch available in Makro for ?4.99+VAT. Makro are also doing 3 for 2 low energy light bulbs at ?2.99+VAT. I buy some products in bulk from Makro from time to time and save quite a bit. I scour their special offers magazine that comes out every 2 weeks and mainly purchase goods from it.

I had a plumber in with me yesterday to quote for the installation of a sold fuel burning stove with back boiler for DHW and up to 12 radiators. I am also planning to replace my DHW tank with one twice the size and foam insulated. I think I will start a separate thread on this topic as having looked at the heating market, I am convinced this is the best way forward and worthy of further discussion

[Andy Hunt]

Snow Hope - I have an extra-large cylinder with 2 coils, one for my wood stove (a Morso "Dove Cleanheat 1630") and one for my solar panel. It works fantastically well, and is far better than my gas combi ever was!

I actually lived for about 10 years without a TV, just a broadband connection, and never missed it. When my other half moved in she wanted TV though, so we bought a ?50 digital TV card which we plug into the laptop. She can watch Big Brother, and I can watch the interesting history/news/natural history programmes on there, all very energy efficiently!

But no - you don't need a TV, take my word for it. But if you have children I can see that you might think differently!

[broadoak]

Sorry if this is too obvious, but A good way to save energy on your kettle, is to boil a kettel full of water, make your morning tea, and put the remaining hot water in a vacuum flask for later use. I've been doing this for a while, and I usually only boil the kettle once a day.