Indoor camping

[Green Aura]

The power's just come back on, after going off at 7 am, so we've camping in the living room, making coffee and porridge on the meths stove and getting some heat from a couple of ceramic heaters made out of terracotta plant pots and oil lamps (hastily scavenged from the polytunnel). They don't throw off a huge amount of heat but they're better than nothing.

Fortunately my Mother went off to her luncheon group at 10am, working out how to keep her warm was getting a bit worrying.

Well it's been quite good fun but I'm glad the we've got light, heat and internet again!

One of these days we'll get the 12 volt system in. I've only been planning it for seven years.

[Odsox]

You need two things, a small generator and a wood burning stove.
Small gennies are reasonably priced these days and well worth the investment even if you never have to use it (but given where you live that's unlikely)
Plus of course the wood burner for cooking and heat.

Good luck tomorrow, we should miss most of it, but I don't think you will.

[Green Aura]

We've discussed all of them. We're currently waiting on the electrician coming to fit the thing that stops the power going out to the grid (some sort of isolator I suppose) amongst other things.

We also have a wood burning stove awaiting installation but we keep delaying it as we're reluctant to cut holes in the roof!. Plus, if we had the 12 volt system or generator, the central heating would still work - it only needs to power the pump, a couple of freezers and a few lights for us to be just fine.

Of course when it's the weather to sort it we don't think about it.

It's already pretty windy, we'll see what tomorrow brings - at least my mother's out again tomorrow.

[diggernotdreamer]

It is already very windy and horrible here, the electric is still on at the moment, but I am already camping indoors because I can't bring myself to go out in this, only just got our pig to go out for a comfort visit, he will be running back up to the byre to be let back in soon. I am on the net, buying christmas presents for my grand children, best way for me to shop, as there are no shops to buy things in without travelling (and I hate shopping) and finishing off my alcohol fest of boozy mincemeat and various sloe, blackcurrant and plum liquers being shaken and tasted, for tweaks that may need to be made............ nope they're fine, nothing to add here.

12 volts sounds a great idea, we have to use a bit of electric to fire up the oil central heating, will have to consult the Wizard

[Odsox]

Of course when it's the weather to sort it we don't think about it.

Tell me about it !
I had a fairly big generator given to me about 19 years ago, which fortuitously coincided with a massive storm at Christmas, power out from Christmas Eve till the 27th. It hasn't been used since, and when I uncovered it from the back of the shed last year it actually turned over, i.e. not seized solid with rust. I vowed to overhaul it in the summer, that was the summer of 2013, and it still hasn't even been looked at since.
Maybe I ought to put it at the top of the list.

[doofaloofa]

Power cuts are like time machines

Suddenly you find yourself living in victorian times

[Green Aura]

12 volts sounds a great idea, we have to use a bit of electric to fire up the oil central heating, will have to consult the Wizard

If he susses it out, let me know will you? I've got a book but it's too technical for my brain - I can't even get my OH to open the blooming thing! I understand that it's not too difficult and with just a few deep cycle batteries we could keep everything going for a good few hours.

I reckon the electrical diagrams etc are a bit like a knitting pattern, complete gibberish until you learn how to read them and then you realise it's a garter stitch scarf.

Doofa - that's about right!

Tony - yes, put it high up the list!

I've just watched the weather forecast and it's likely we'll lose power again tomorrow, power cables are likely to snap. So stay safe folks, I'll see you on the other side!

[ina]

The one thing I'd really like for my house is a woodburner; a stove for heating and at least occasional cooking, and preferably hot water, too. But that's at the top of the Council agenda: get rid of the remaining solid fuel burners in council properties... Why? Probably because it would be too easy for us to find free material to burn (beach combing, old pallets etc), so nobody could make a profit from taking pennies from the - er, less wealthy...

Or they think we are all irresponsible drunks who can't be trusted with a naked flame.

[Green Aura]

Well, at the risk of jinxing it, it doesn't seem as bad as yesterday - yet. And we still have power, so I'm off to cook my porridge on the cooker this morning.

On the downside, the mater's lunch club has been cancelled - it might be too dangerous to drive the bus!

[diggernotdreamer]

I often think that if everyone had a wood stove, there wouldn't be a single piece of scrap wood anywhere or even a tree. When they discovered coal in the 16th Century it was as well, because nearly all the wood had been burnt. It would appear that we are now importing fire wood from CHINA because there is not enough hard wood to satisfy demand in the home market.

[ina]

True enough! Well, I don't want everybody to have a wood burner, I'd just like one for myself...

I do have a Kelly kettle for emergencies. At least I can make a cup of tea (with a bit of old newspaper) when all else fails.

[dave45]

DND - wasn't that why they invented coppicing to keep a continuous flow of wood?

[diggernotdreamer]

Coppicing was mainly used for the production of charcoals for iron works, firewood and to provide wood to make chairs, fencing, carts, buildings etc. The woodlands became stretched and could not provide enough for the industry and domestic requirements. I am not even sure how much land a person would need to provide their home with enough firewood to be self sufficient

[Green Aura]

I think you've just hit the nail on the head, dnd. Domestic wood burning would have been paltry, compared to the forests hoovered up in the name of industrialisation. Of course, those same forests were never replanted.

Up here the forests were removed and replaced with sheep, lots of sheep. Can we find anyone to sell us half a sheep? They all get transported down south then probably come back neatly packaged as British lamb.

And that, folks, is a quick lesson in hijacking a thread.

[dave45]

Well this year I have pollarded 5 trees and reckon the wood from that would last a third of a winter.. but then that's for secondary heating... triple it for a sole source of heat.. and counting the tree rings, my pollarding is on an 8-year cycle - so thats 5 x 3 x 3 x 8 trees for a continuous flow - how much space do 360 trees take up?

per household

a 20-tree square planted 2 m apart?