French government expected to issue all citizens with survival manual

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This is why I've been upgrading by downgrading .
I've been waiting months for my new dumb meter, and still no nearer instalation. No word from them despite several phone calls to them and promises to get back to me with an installation date.
I may have less than a month's worth of household electricity supply left.
I will cope as I have been deliberately working towards how I lived in the 70's with no fridge and only a gas stove, and wood burner.
I don't drive a car, so petrol isn't a problem. I hand wash my clothes, often in cold water as the water heater only goes on once a week.
I'd miss my shower, but almost everything else in the home is doable without power. I have a small jackery and solar pannel, so that will power a radio and charge a phone.
I'm growing veg, and salads for food resilience, and I can forage if need be.
I like living with less, as it gives me peace of mind if there is a big power outage. I won't be panicking or changing much about my lifestyle.

On another note, apparently there was a near tripping of our grid on Sunday morning, and again in the evening. Can't remember where I saw it, on my news feed I think. Also this week a substation caught fire somewhere in London. There have been outages all over the country this week, Cornwall, plymouth(may be the same one), and somewhere else that I've forgotten. So it's becoming a regular occurance. I expect a lot more substation fires, like the one at Heathrow causing localised problems, but its not inconceivable that a nationwide outage might happen this summer.
The amount of solar flares of late have been quite a worry for those in the know, and could well cause a modern Carrington event of much bigger magnitude.
I'm not a geophysicist, but the earth has its own electrical system and its being disrupted by the electrical disturbances of the atmosphere by flares.
Can't explain it properly, but its a very real scenario and threat , and that's without cyber attacks as we've had this week on supermarkets, m&s and Co op. A concerted attack on banks, supermarkets and the grid, maybe the rail system too, will cause chaos, and there are certain actors who want this, hence the uptick in cyber attacks recently. They are practising!!!!!
I'd rather be wrong about that, but prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. An adage that's stood me in good sted on more than one occasion.
I don't understand why people think it's fearmongering to talk about these things.
I call myself common sensely prepared to stay reasonably comfortable,but I'm not a "prepper" in the yt Canadian prepper macho idea. He's just entertainment! Makes me laugh, and I realy don't bother with that sort of stuff.
Anna's food and lifestyle is much more sensible and realisticly aligned with me.
 
This is why I've been upgrading by downgrading .
I've been waiting months for my new dumb meter, and still no nearer instalation. No word from them despite several phone calls to them and promises to get back to me with an installation date.
I may have less than a month's worth of household electricity supply left.
I will cope as I have been deliberately working towards how I lived in the 70's with no fridge and only a gas stove, and wood burner.
I don't drive a car, so petrol isn't a problem. I hand wash my clothes, often in cold water as the water heater only goes on once a week.
I'd miss my shower, but almost everything else in the home is doable without power. I have a small jackery and solar pannel, so that will power a radio and charge a phone.
I'm growing veg, and salads for food resilience, and I can forage if need be.
I like living with less, as it gives me peace of mind if there is a big power outage. I won't be panicking or changing much about my lifestyle.

On another note, apparently there was a near tripping of our grid on Sunday morning, and again in the evening. Can't remember where I saw it, on my news feed I think. Also this week a substation caught fire somewhere in London. There have been outages all over the country this week, Cornwall, plymouth(may be the same one), and somewhere else that I've forgotten. So it's becoming a regular occurance. I expect a lot more substation fires, like the one at Heathrow causing localised problems, but its not inconceivable that a nationwide outage might happen this summer.
The amount of solar flares of late have been quite a worry for those in the know, and could well cause a modern Carrington event of much bigger magnitude.
I'm not a geophysicist, but the earth has its own electrical system and its being disrupted by the electrical disturbances of the atmosphere by flares.
Can't explain it properly, but its a very real scenario and threat , and that's without cyber attacks as we've had this week on supermarkets, m&s and Co op. A concerted attack on banks, supermarkets and the grid, maybe the rail system too, will cause chaos, and there are certain actors who want this, hence the uptick in cyber attacks recently. They are practising!!!!!
I'd rather be wrong about that, but prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. An adage that's stood me in good sted on more than one occasion.
I don't understand why people think it's fearmongering to talk about these things.
I call myself common sensely prepared to stay reasonably comfortable,but I'm not a "prepper" in the yt Canadian prepper macho idea. He's just entertainment! Makes me laugh, and I realy don't bother with that sort of stuff.
Anna's food and lifestyle is much more sensible and realisticly aligned with me.
Alaskan Granny is a good channel as well. She has no weapons but can kick bum cheeks with a homemade jar of jam x
 
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With such a low power consumption you might do very well on the no standing charge tariffs, since Standing Charges are about £300/year. There are I think, maybe three or four suppliers with these tariffs. There are a couple of specialist comparision sites you could use to check if it's worthwhile. Might also put a rocket up the current under, nil-performing supplier.
 
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My last bill for a month, with the heating on was about £85.00. I expect the summer bills to be much less. If they don't fit the meter in time, they can't charge me as they will have no proof of any consumption.
 
Not true at all hospitals, mine has provision for every service and ups for life critical
Really? Things have changed since my day. Good to know! I trust that they have more than 24 hours of fuel for them now too?
 
There' 2 challenges to address with backup gennies for infrastructure:

(1) They need regular maintenance and testing to make sure they will power up when needed; and

(2) For critical data applications you also need a UPS which is big enough to maintain power until the gennie starts and is providing power, at which point the UPS hands over and recharges itself. The UPS also needs maintenance as batteries can and do age, and you don't want to find out the hard way.

BUT- all of this costs ££££ and it's really difficult to explain these things to a bean counter who sees only cost lines on a spreadsheet.

GC
 
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Yeah, it’s only enough for a couple of days though, the bunded tank is massive, same size as the generators, will try take a photo sometime
That's great. So long as they actively rotate the fuel every few months & don't leave it for a year (like a stupid data centre I checked) that should work. They do actually test in in live use every 3 months or so?
 
That's great. So long as they actively rotate the fuel every few months & don't leave it for a year (like a stupid data centre I checked) that should work. They do actually test in in live use every 3 months or so?
Every month, tested live, full load, 830-1230 on a Wednesday morning. I think it alternates between the 2 generators though.
No idea about the fuel tbh, although I do recall seeing fuel cubes coming and going periodically on a lorry (MEMS if IIRC) so maybe that’s fuel rotation.
 
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Every month, tested live, full load, 830-1230 on a Wednesday morning. I think it alternates between the 2 generators though.
No idea about the fuel tbh, although I do recall seeing fuel cubes coming and going periodically on a lorry (MEMS if IIRC) so maybe that’s fuel rotation.
That's really good to hear. It's amazing how nany organisations never test their Business Continuity arrangements
 
So, I'm late to the party. I was staying at my place in the West of Ireland when storm Eówyn hit on the 25th of January. It was epic, and scary! Fortunately, strong warnings were repeatedly broadcast nationwide and people actually paid attention to them, including myself. As I regularly get power outages where I am (rural Co. Mayo) for no apparent reason, I knew it was going to be... exceptional... this time. Fortunately I carry all my camping gear in the back of my truck, a Nissan Navara AT32 off Roader. I had a very decent down sleeping bag, a Coleman petrol lantern with 2 cans of Aspen fuel, two gas cooking stoves- a trangia triangle and one of those cheapie gas cooking stoves that use the longer slim butane cannisters, and my trusty Jetboil for just hot water/hot drinks. I had a couple of head torches to boot. I filled the bath to the brim for toilet flushing, and every saucepan full of drinking water. I also had a 5l bottle of supermarket water that I never touched! I got through twelve days without power, and even bbq'd a delicious leg of lamb when I decided the freezer stuff couldn't last any longer. Phones came back online very quickly and I was able to reassure my Missus, back in the UK, that I was thriving! Only two unfortunates died as a result of that storm, one of them because his sleep apnoea equipment failed for lack of power. I was able to keep warm as there's a woodburning stove in the house, and I have two massive powerbanks to power the phone and headtorches. The Navara is kitted out with an AC/DC converter feeding to a 12v leisure battery and an inverter too, so the powerbanks could be topped up. I go camping a lot. Here's a pic I sent my Missus to show her I wasn't going to perish! I know I've left out a load of details, but I think I've given you all enough to be going on with.
fully-expecting-a-power-outage-in-rural-mayo-tonight-v0-3sysu5s2lree1.jpeg
 

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