Will The Lights Really Go Out This Winter?

Just been listening to the news this morning and there is talk of the Possibility that the lights might go out this winter,as our reserves are now down to something like 5%.

Now not saying it is going to definetley going to happen,but if it does what happens to the food we have stored in our freezers because it isn't going to keep once thawed out?We already have some of those large church candles that we have on display on the hearth and we bought off of someone in our village a small generator a couple of years ago that is now sitting idle in the garage.Would we be able to power or fridge and freezers off of that?

They have been talking about it on our radio station and someone phoned in and said that they thought that all these wind farms we have plastered all over the countryside would help the national grid,or would that power be diverted to keep industry going?

I'm not going to panic just yet until possibly the week before it is announced it might or might not happen,but it would be nice to be a bit prepared as I might need to stock up on torch batteries and also do a Scrungee and clear the shelves on non perishable goods

Also what would be the best way to heat the greenhouse if the worst came to the worst?I didn't heat the greenhouse at all last year due to the mild winter but knowing our luck we shall have a corker of a winter this year



Any thoughts from other members please

 

The lights have been going to go out every winter for as long as I can remember. Its only the reason that varies slightly. It doesn't matter if "our reserves" run out, because we import much of our energy anyway.

Besides, it was on the news the other day that for the first time ever, energy from wind turbines exceeded that from nuclear, but its still not enough

Our government is in a pointless new cold war with Russia, one of our biggest suppliers of natural gas. We're in a stand off with the EU, one member of which owns much of our power supply infrastructure. And our government wants us all to accept 'fracking', a process even top scientists have expressed serious concerns about. Add to all of this that the energy companies themselves want to continue to rip us off as much as possible for as long as possible, and to that end will bleat on about having to charge us loads so that they can pay someone several £million per year to do nowt pay for essential things that somehow they can't explain to us but we need them, honest. Put these things together, and have people sufficiently worried and they wont complain or ask questions.

Of course it is possible that for once they are telling the truth, and the power will go off. In which case we need to be collectively asking for a rebate on our bills, because we've constantly been told that the justification for our bills is that much of it is reinvested into infrastructure to ensure 'energy security', so if the power goes off, the energy companies will have failed to deliver what they charged us for.

 

Dare I ask what is a "brownout"? I think I'd be worried about a brownout. How much I'd worry about depends on where I was and who was around to witness it.

 

Now if you want a real conspiracy theory. The forecast is for the coldest winter for over 100 years. The power is going to go off. There is a problem with an ageing population clogging up the NHS. Put these together. The cold weather and lack of heat will kill off thousands of the poverty struck pensioners. This will save the NHS oodles of money and also free up lots of houses for the new wave of immigrants from Europe to live in.
And yes I am being sarcastic ,so no accusations of racism, ageism or any other 'isms'.

 

Don't forget biomass as an energy source, I recently applied for a job here: http://www.eco2uk.com/en/our_projects/project_detail.asp?project_id=11

 

My lights went out last night due to a couple of weeks without Sun Try as I might, I just can't see the keyboard with my wind up L.E.D. lamp.

Tea lights are a useful thing to have, you can heat a room with them, but it's not instant. I put 15 of them in a grill pan under a concrete block, takes a while but it'll get too hot to touch.

 

Scare mongering imo

 

Well I'm OK for heating as I have a gas fire, also a gas cooker, my biggest concern would be for my aquariums!!

 

I recon we ought to take them at face value this time, looking at all the factors.

It won't affect me as i'm off grid, but this is my winter Lights/entertainment kit.

As mentioned, enough tea lights to heat the place, I buy bags of 100 from Wilkos for £4 (I beleive they're £2 in Ikea)

Wind up area light and headlamp.

Inverter (about £30) to charge laptop from car battery.

Spare battery for laptop (about £12 from Amazon) Keep one charged as a spare.

Hurricane lamp and lamp oil.

Mobile wifi box (your fixed internet won't work in a power cut)

12 volt telly with built in freeview (about £60 from maplins)

DVD's

Youtube downloader

http://download.cnet.com/YTD-Video-Downloader/3000-2071_4-10647340.html

Free to download and you can save favorite shows onto your computer to watch when there's no internet.

Batteries for the radio.

Not much worse than sitting with a candle and having nothing else to do.

 

Inverter and an extension lead so you could power it off the car battery for the duration. You'd need to run the car for quarter of an hour for every hour you use the inverter to keep the battery topped up

 

I am SO not going there!!!!!!

 

I use CFL bulbs in 20watts and they give a really good light.