PowerSwitch

How have powerswitch members fared in the recent/on-going severe weather and consequent flooding and power cuts ?

Anyone badly affected and glad of preparations made ?
Or found preps to be inadequate ?

There is some evidence that these events are becoming more severe and/or more frequent, suggesting perhaps more need for plans and preps, or even re-locating if in a particularly vulnerable area.

Dry feet here in Viking City. For once this seems to have been a Southern problem.

Powercuts wouldn't bother me. Flooding would but then I didn't decide to live near a river. Gosh look at the flooding at number 23 River View - who'd have expected that.

Well the ABI, whose business it is to know about these things, seem to think it's enough of a problem to have set up a special fund. Though to be fair that's also an issue about people being daft enough to build houses etc on liable-to-floods type places.

And it ain't over yet: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013 ... ood-damage

I note the picture is in Gloustershire. I heard of a doctor who went there once and got rather wet.He never went again. That story should have told people there are some pretty wet places around.

My experience is from a different country (though we are linked by wires).

adam2 wrote:How have powerswitch members fared in the recent/on-going severe weather and consequent flooding and power cuts ?

During the '90s and early '00s we had frequent power cuts, mostly to do with failing equipment as TPTB tried to make the then-publicly-owned electricity company more attractive to buyers (i.e., essential investments were put on hold even as prices were artificially raised).

However, hands were forced and upgrades pursued; since then the grid has been extremely stable. This has changed for some reason. Even without extreme weather, power cuts have become more frequent during the past two years.

I'll have to talk to my buddies in the industry to see what they think.

adam2 wrote:Anyone badly affected and glad of preparations made ?

Definitely glad. We can put our hands on several sources of light easily.

There is very little around the property that can be damaged by gales (stuff is built to withstand extreme weather or is tied down). Trees are in good condition, none within reach of the house if they do come down.

We have about 6-9 months of bottled gas for cooking and a wood stove, only the central heating pump needs to be taken care of - no problem if the fire is kept low but adequate. We have plenty of water stored.

adam2 wrote:Or found preps to be inadequate ?

Apart from the pump mentioned above, no. We can cope for as much as a week without leaving the premises. Not long in a real emergency I know but better prepared than many.

adam2 wrote:There is some evidence that these events are becoming more severe and/or more frequent, suggesting perhaps more need for plans and preps, or even re-locating if in a particularly vulnerable area.

Leave it with me.

To me, the most telling scene in Channel 4's Blackout was the most simple - the camera panning up a block of flats in Sheffield. The inputs and outputs from a single block like that make you think! That's a 'vulnerable area' if ever there was one.

I didn't suffer from power cuts although the roofing felt got ripped off one of my sheds.

Did make me think I should have got a house with a chimney! It's 3k to install a wood burner using a flue running up the wall, but that doesn't include redecorating costs, just the burner, flue and installation.

I don't have a spare 3k.

extractorfan wrote:I didn't suffer from power cuts although the roofing felt got ripped off one of my sheds.

Did make me think I should have got a house with a chimney! It's 3k to install a wood burner using a flue running up the wall, but that doesn't include redecorating costs, just the burner, flue and installation.

I don't have a spare 3k.

That seems a bit steep given that 1k will get you a decent woodburner.

Yes but getting the flue right does tend to cost rather a lot (as does any building work). Plus certification of various types if yo ever want to sell your house (or indeed to remain insured, against anything not just fire).

woodburner wrote:Nigel Lawson does not agree.

Nigel Lawson is a PPE graduate and a journalist. He does not have a scientific background and seems to have little idea of the scientific method. While he might have been a very good chancellor, I wouldn't take any notice of any of his pronouncements on science.

Economists are, it seems to me and scientists like Charles A Hall, the author of Energy and the Wealth of Nations, uniquely unable to grasp the essence of the scientific approach of peer reviewed hypotheses. No economic paper is ever peer reviewed and economist's opinions on the way economies work are just that, opinions. They bear no relationship to the principles of science, the laws of thermodynamics for instance, and the principles of economics are based in the 16th century. One of the principle equations of modern economics is that output is the product of capital and labour; energy is not mentioned at all.

So if you want to rely on an opinion on science, Nigel Lawson would be the last person I would quote. Most of the principle detractors of CC/GW are, I think you will find, either PPE graduates or Historians, neither of whose fields of study involve peer reviewing of opinions.

And while I'm here, Stainless Steel twin walled flue cost upwards of £300/m and as the average house is 4.5 metres to eaves and 7m to the ridge, and the flue should extend at least 600 above the ridge, you will see why installing a new flue is horrendously expensive.

Well put, Ken!

kenneal - lagger wrote:
And while I'm here, Stainless Steel twin walled flue cost upwards of £300/m and as the average house is 4.5 metres to eaves and 7m to the ridge, and the flue should extend at least 600 above the ridge, you will see why installing a new flue is horrendously expensive.

and if you want it in black it's another £125/m.

extractorfan wrote:

kenneal - lagger wrote:
And while I'm here, Stainless Steel twin walled flue cost upwards of £300/m and as the average house is 4.5 metres to eaves and 7m to the ridge, and the flue should extend at least 600 above the ridge, you will see why installing a new flue is horrendously expensive.

and if you want it in black it's another £125/m.

We just paid £85 per metre + VAT for the S/S twin-wall, and £54 per metre + VAT for the black single-wall. The room (in Mother's apartment) is single storey, vaulted ceiling. We used black single-wall as high up as we could, with twin-wall going up through the roof and forming the "chimney". Stove was positioned so the single-wall flue was the required distance from combustible materials.

Tarrel wrote:

extractorfan wrote:

kenneal - lagger wrote:
And while I'm here, Stainless Steel twin walled flue cost upwards of £300/m and as the average house is 4.5 metres to eaves and 7m to the ridge, and the flue should extend at least 600 above the ridge, you will see why installing a new flue is horrendously expensive.

and if you want it in black it's another £125/m.

We just paid £85 per metre + VAT for the S/S twin-wall, and £54 per metre + VAT for the black single-wall. The room (in Mother's apartment) is single storey, vaulted ceiling. We used black single-wall as high up as we could, with twin-wall going up through the roof and forming the "chimney". Stove was positioned so the single-wall flue was the required distance from combustible materials.

Did you do the work yourself? Who did it? Would they travel to within the m25?