What preparations (if any) have you made to deal with blackouts?

[Vortex2]

Hi,

There is a possibility of blackouts in the UK this winter.

These apparently will be from 4PM, and will last 3 hours.

However the blackouts will last MULTIPLES of 3 hours, so I expect that the overheads of switchovers will lead to 6 hours or longer.

We have 235 watts of solar, 300Ah of 12-volt batteries, mains chargers, a couple of inverters and a 2.6 kw petrol generator.

The solar is only suitable as an end-of-the-world supply to charge gadgets, torches etc and maybe run PCs.

The batteries will be charged from the mains when the blackout ends.

We also have a SORNED car which we could use as a mini generator if required.

I have also been getting in some 12 volt lamps of various sorts.

So we should be able to run lights and computers for several hours from batteries.
I haven't yet decided if I need to boost the battery storage to allow us to keep the fridges & freezers running.

The generator will allow us to run the washing machine, small food cookers etc in the event of very long blackouts.

Not exactly a 100% off-grid system .. BUT .. at least we won't be sitting in the dark or needing to stagger around with candles.

What plans have YOU made?

[adam2]

I very much doubt that rota power cuts will be for longer than 3 hours. One should however be prepared for longer power cuts due to extreme weather, I would suggest being prepared for 48 hours without power in an urban area, and for a month in a rural area.
DO NOT assume that rota power cuts will at any particular time of day, might well spread throughout the 24 hours.

I have made little in the way of ADDITIONAL preparations as I was already reasonably well prepared. New battery for UPS in order to supply critical loads for up to 24 hours. Extra propane for emergency heating. Extra logs and coal.

I would suggest the following as a MINIMUM level of basic preparations.
For each person, a long running LED or fluorescent lantern that uses D cells. Spare batteries for at least 100 hours operation, longer in a rural area.
TWO small pocket torches, with at least a dozen batteries for each.
One large heavy duty D cell torch, 4 cell or larger Maglight or similar.
A few dozen candles.
A battery radio.
14 days of food that needs no preparation, chocolate bars, biscuits, lifeboat rations.
Bottled water for a month.

Larger scale preps could include,
Increased stocks of the above.
A 12 volt emergency lighting system that runs one lamp in each room for 24 hours, or for a weeks limited operation.
A UPS unit with extended run time battery.
Tilley lamps, hurricane lamps, at least 50 l of paraffin. spare parts.
LPG light and at least two 15 kilo/19 kilo gas cylinders.
A portable heater that uses either paraffin or LPG, fuel at least 100 hours operation, 500 hours in a rural area.
Off grid means of cooking, reserve food stocks.
Extra blankets for beds.
Long underwear even if you do not normally wear such.
Reserve stocks of shirts, underwear, and other clothes in case electricity is not available to work a washing machine.

[Vortex2]

On the heating front, we normally use a heat pump for air & water heating.

For emergencies we have a stack of butane & propane cylinders plus a 4kW gas fire and a 2 ring camping gas cooker.

As we have an eco house I hope that body heat plus thermal mass plus some electric/gas usage will keep the place warm(ish).

The heat pump has an immersion heater in addition to the compressor, so I'll turn that on in order to heat up the integral water tank more quickly during periods of power avaiability.

I have just bought an electric blanket which we can drive from an inverter if we have to.

[adam2]

Be careful if using an electric blanket from an inverter. Some types of electric blanket wont work from an inverter, and might kill the inverter.

The simplest electric blanket is a simple length of resistance wire. These work fine on an inverter. Slightly more sophisticated electric blankets contain two lengths of resistance wire, one with a loading of say 50 watts, and one of 80 watts. That gives a choice of three heat settings, 50 watts, 80 watts, or 130 watts. These also work fine on an inverter, as they are still a simple resistive load.

Some designs use a higher loading element and a thyristor circuit, similar to a lamp dimmer, to adjust the loading and thus the heat output. This sort wont work well or reliably on most inverters. And might even be dangerous.

[PS_RalphW]

I had hoped to have moved house by now, and we'll on iwith my plans for a 5 KW solar system, 10kwh battery and emergency power circuit from that. Unfortunately I had underestimated the inefficiency of UK beaurocracy.

Frustratingly I have a 60kwh battery which I keep topped up to at least 20kwh sitting in my driveway with 7kw vehical to grid capacity. However, there is no bidirectional charging port on the market to make use of it.

[BritDownUnder]

My EV was just too ''old'' to be Vehicle to Grid capable but the next one - hopefully a pickup truck EV - will be. I had this one in mind just to soak up the excess power that I sell to the grid a a very low price and not be a rolling battery.

My thoughts on blackout protection are that to completely blackout-proof a whole house with all the loads such as stove and AC is not possible and will probably need to be only a few essential circuits. Most battery systems in Australia are generally sold as being grid-connected to save on the peak tariffs and not blackout protection.

I will probably get a completely off grid system maybe a 10kWh battery and 3kW inverter to power the shed and garage and have a few essential circuits to the house and then get a second system as a grid connected battery to help with the power bills. I am also looking at a ''sneaky'' system involving a ''panel mounted'' type low wattage inverter connected to a battery that I can switch on and off at peak times just to save on the bills.

[PS_RalphW]

A couple of Chademo to load inverters were in development for the Nissan Leaf market, one Chinese made one may still be available for about £4000, but it is/was a crude product in the one review of it, and chademo is now all but a dead technology now Nissan have dumped it. I doubt an affordable one will come on the market.

[kenneal - lagger]

I always advise rural clients to install a woodburning stove with at least a flat plate for cooking on as an alternative heating system to an electric/heat pump or mains gas system. There are plenty of cookers with glass fronted fire boxes which could be used in a living room. If hot water is needed I would usually advise that a separate stove is used to provide hot water and/or space heating. If you have wood fired cooking facilities it makes the provision of food much simpler and there is no need to buy ready meals or emergency rations.

[Vortex2]

I always advise rural clients to install a woodburning stove with at least a flat plate for cooking on as an alternative heating system to an electric/heat pump or mains gas system. There are plenty of cookers with glass fronted fire boxes which could be used in a living room. If hot water is needed I would usually advise that a separate stove is used to provide hot water and/or space heating. If you have wood fired cooking facilities it makes the provision of food much simpler and there is no need to buy ready meals or emergency rations.

Air tight eco houses are difficult to fit with wood burmers.
* The fitting would require some sort of air-tight seal.
* Even a tiny 4kw wood stove wooul fry you quite quickly, due to the heavy home insulation.

In our case:
* Two of our exterior walls are totally blank and very thick - they act as sound barriers against the wood cutter next door.
* The remaining two walls are full of triple glazing so I'm not sure where a wood stove could be fitted.
* We are a Class Q build so the planners ban anythig like flues which exceed the original building envelope.
* The house is made from a custom computer designed LegoKit, so cutting flue holes would require analysis by the structural engineers.

In view of all this we have butane cyclinders plus a free standing 4kw gas fire for emergencies.
We alos have a gas fuelled camping hob.

[kenneal - lagger]

For the benefit of anyone designing an air tight eco house you should build it with a ducted underfloor air supply direct to a small wood burning stove that can be fitted to the air supply so there is no air movement through the room. If you build with plenty of thermal mass the house shouldn't over heat but store any excess heat until the fire goes out at which time it will emit the heat to keep the house warm over a longer period. Obviously a flue should be added to the design as well.

I have always worked on the basis that the future isn't going to be anything like the past or even the present so keep your design flexible with alternatives for anything vaguely technical even water supply. Build in rain water catchment and storage. The treatment can be added later if necessary for making it potable.

[adam2]

I agree that most new homes should include a solid fuel stove in case electricity is not available.
A bottled gas or portable paraffin heater is worth considering as a cheaper alternative or if a solid fuel stove is not practical.

[johnny]

What plans have YOU made?

Two shale gas wells drilled and completed back in the late 70's, turned over to landowner when the company that operated them found them no longer economical, natural gas fired generator tied into the house main box, auto switching. Got the setup from a small commerical building I helped renovate, cost me trucking to haul it away, father did the electrical work to get it up and running.

Mineral rights ownership by landowners is quite a nice thing. Unfortunate that you folks are at the mercy of poor government stewardship of your mineral resources.

[kenneal - lagger]

................... Unfortunate that you folks are at the mercy of poor government stewardship of your mineral resources.

To compensate for that we don't have to worry about our children getting mown down in school!

[johnny]

................... Unfortunate that you folks are at the mercy of poor government stewardship of your mineral resources.

To compensate for that we don't have to worry about our children getting mown down in school!

Good thing that has never happened to any children I know, or to the children of people I know. While it does happen, the good news is that while heavily advertised, the odds of it happening in a large population are pretty low. Does it matter if children are shot or freeze in the dark because your government kills them through incompetence and a refusal to help their citizens? One is quite malevolent on a large scale, the only is just random psycho stuff.

[kenneal - lagger]

It's far better that our kids learn to live with the thermostat turned down a few degrees so that millions of kids worldwide can live without being flooded out or blown to bits or washed away by torrential rain, hurricanes or sea level rise. The random psycho stuff must include the politicians who take the bribes from the fossil fuel companies and vote against climate change mitigation measures, and their apologists and supporters, which mean that the world's CO2 emissions are still rising at an alarming rate. A bit of temporary discomfort which saves emissions in the future is something which we just have to put up with.