On 19/10/2012 09:15, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:02:56 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Gabriel wrote:

I had to feed the boys by candlelight, and luckily we only need the
gas hob.

Good practice for the future if the predicted power shortages occur,
most youngsters would enjoy the novelty. A whole 3 hours ...

Of course these days many people don't know how to make their own
entertainment without some electronic gismo. I bet there is many a
household without any board games, books, packs of cards etc.

That's how long each of the rolling blackouts were in the 1970's
(miner's strike). As a child at the time, I found them quite
fascinating.

Aye, taught me that a power cut is no great problem provided you have
thought about it and have some back up. Lights go out here and there is
no great panic just an resigned "lets get the lanterns out". The kids
don't panic because we have never paniced, just get on with what needs to
be done. The biggest issue is getting to torches that are kept in known
locations in the absolute pitch black (or slight glow from LEDs on UPS
backed up kit).

Very simple solution is get a cheap LED based torch and bridge the
switch with a 1M resistor. The battery still lasts out it's nominal
shelf life, but the torch can then be found in pitch darkness. You may
have to wait a few minutes to be able to see obstacles though.

We have powercuts fairly often during big winter storms. I have a great
picture of the last tree to fall across our powerlines which amazingly
thanks to the new aluminium 3 phase cable with a steel hawser inside did
not actually fail. It did bend all the poles like bananas though.

We have a pair of emergency lights on permanent standby kitchen and
dining room and one portable (ex Woolworths closing down sale). All of
them will easily last a couple of hours. The woodburning stove can run
and provide light heat and boiling water if needed.

We do have candles and know where and how to use them. Much safer than
oil lamps which I also have as antiques. I really would not want to risk
lighting them - that would be asking for *big* trouble.

My first reaction when the mains drops out is to look across to see if
the village hall emergency lights are on. If they are then I know it is
a real powercut on all 3 phases and not a local trip on my fuse box.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown