Preparing for troubled times ahead - Advice on what is needed.....

[Toddy]

@Toddy you got me laughing about the hot water bottle front...
Reminded me of a fair few years ago I was at my (now wife) girlfriends house (her parents house) and her folks went off to bed...an hour later we went up and heard a hairdryer going off in their room and their light was on - a little odd for so late but nevermind, we started watching a movie in her room and the hair drying seemed to go on for another 15 mins, by which point GF decided to go knock on their door to see what was going on... apparently her mum was sitting in bed upright trying to dry the bed and her PJ's after one of her many ancient rubber hot water bottles unexpectedly gave up the ghost...

I'm not a very well behaved son in law, so naturally the jokes came out the next day about wetting the bed and adult nappies etc..


Actually, ever tried a cold water bottle? Quite handy for summer heat!

If you fill one with icy slush it softens pretty quickly, but you're right that it's a handy thing.
It sort of ends up wet with condensation though, but if you wrap it in a towel that towel becomes a cold damp thing Ideal on a hot day or muggy night.

 

[Woody girl]

Doing some research on small wind power. Have found some stupid and annoying legislation that I just can't believe.
It seems, if you have a heat source pump to heat your home, you cannot have even a small scale wind generator, unless you get planning permission.
If you don't have a heat pump, there is nothing to stop you, and no planning permission needed for small scale wind generators.
This comes up repeatedly with my searches.
Can anyone explain that?

 

[Scottieoutdoors]

Your comment about "the still of the night" is absolutely correct! Along with foxes howling at some times of the year, owls "hooting", like you I have an itinerant hedgehog that doesn't know the meaning of "the still of the night". And he/she seems to have an illegal rave with a friend here occasionally.

And don't get me started on the Dawn Chorus! Who ever called it that? It's the Dawn Cacophony...

Try living near the coast (unless you do?) I've had seagulls right outside my window 2 feet away from each other having a right old barny at 4am... not to mention the other 2 not long ago which decided to 'get it on' against the roof/culvert sort of area outside the window again at 4am... sounded like gravel being poured down the roof! I must say I did do a bit of c___ blocking and broke up their arrangement pretty sharpish!!

 

[gra_farmer]

Doing some research on small wind power. Have found some stupid and annoying legislation that I just can't believe.
It seems, if you have a heat source pump to heat your home, you cannot have even a small scale wind generator, unless you get planning permission.
If you don't have a heat pump, there is nothing to stop you, and no planning permission needed for small scale wind generators.
This comes up repeatedly with my searches.
Can anyone explain that?

Yes, I have come across the need for planning too, the main area is permitted development rights, and not extending beyond the house foot print. For example you cannot extend the hight of roof light above 15cm from existing roof, etc.

Now it's up to you, but if it cannot be seen, it is not there.....

 

[TeeDee]

Doing some research on small wind power. Have found some stupid and annoying legislation that I just can't believe.
It seems, if you have a heat source pump to heat your home, you cannot have even a small scale wind generator, unless you get planning permission.
If you don't have a heat pump, there is nothing to stop you, and no planning permission needed for small scale wind generators.
This comes up repeatedly with my searches.
Can anyone explain that?

Location is key - its to do with creating potential disturbances to close neighbours.
ASHPs do produce minimal noise - but then one has to define and agree what "minimal" actually is.

The law with ASHPs is even more bizarre when you look at the differing criteria for MCS between England , Wales and Scotland.

Normally for one ASHP you don't require Planning if you want to take it the MCS route , but if your chosen location doesn't comply you with MCS you can still pursue that location but will need to apply for Planning approval.

Two or more ASHP's require Planning.



# I should add - If governmental policy continues to push ASHP's as a desired solution to heating demands then the criteria will HAVE to change regarding placement locations if we are to service all the mixed housing stock of the UK. The Bread and butter 2 ups/2 downs etc .

 

[Woody girl]

I hate it when people use acronyms instead of actualy spelling out what they are referring to!
Sorry Tee Dee, what is MCS, and ASHP? I'm rather fed up with having to Google these things.
Heat pumps make a small amount of noise, but so do oil heating systems when they are running..at least the one my neighbour has, and it also pumps out fumes which I can smell. At least a heat pump doesn't polute or stink!

I agree with your last statement though. Everyone in government talks about the urgency to change things, but does nothing about it, because "the law says you can't do xy or z"
My response is, you can change the law quickly enough when you want to!
Look how quickly they changed the electricity cap rules.
Small energy doesn't make them enough money for their coffers, which is why it gets ignored while they flap their gums about climate change and having to change the way we live.
If we are going to have hotter summers, which we are, and wetter colder winters, then they realy need to stop all the rhetoric, roll their sleeves up, and get on with allowing and helping the less well off to access small scale individual systems and stop worrying about filling their coffers with our money so they can have fancy wallpaper and parties in number 10!

Sorry, I know we don't talk politics here, but sometimes it rears its ugly head, and has to be said plainly when it affects our lives adversely.

 

[TeeDee]

I hate it when people use acronyms instead of actualy spelling out what they are referring to!

I hate it when people use the word "Hate".

I know - the irony.

 

[TeeDee]

I hate it when people use acronyms instead of actualy spelling out what they are referring to!
Sorry Tee Dee, what is MCS, and ASHP? I'm rather fed up with having to Google these things.
Heat pumps make a small amount of noise, but so do oil heating systems when they are running..at least the one my neighbour has, and it also pumps out fumes which I can smell. At least a heat pump doesn't polute or stink!

I agree with your last statement though. Everyone in government talks about the urgency to change things, but does nothing about it, because "the law says you can't do xy or z"
My response is, you can change the law quickly enough when you want to!
Look how quickly they changed the electricity cap rules.
Small energy doesn't make them enough money for their coffers, which is why it gets ignored while they flap their gums about climate change and having to change the way we live.
If we are going to have hotter summers, which we are, and wetter colder winters, then they realy need to stop all the rhetoric, roll their sleeves up, and get on with allowing and helping the less well off to access small scale individual systems and stop worrying about filling their coffers with our money so they can have fancy wallpaper and parties in number 10!

Sorry, I know we don't talk politics here, but sometimes it rears its ugly head, and has to be said plainly when it affects our lives adversely.

MCS - Microgeneration Certification Scheme.

Home

Working with energy installers and manufacturers, MCS defines, maintains and improves quality – certifying low-carbon technology.

mcscertified.com

Home

Working with energy installers and manufacturers, MCS defines, maintains and improves quality – certifying low-carbon technology.

mcscertified.com

ASHP - Air Source Heat Pump
GSHP - Ground Source Heat Pump


"Heat pumps make a small amount of noise, but so do oil heating systems when they are running..at least the one my neighbour has, and it also pumps out fumes which I can smell. At least a heat pump doesn't polute or stink!"

I don't make the rules , I just have to navigate around them..
Everything pollutes in one way or another. The question is , is that level of pollution acceptable.
ASHP do produce a slight noise - less so with the better high end units as opposed to the cheaper ones which can produce a 'hum'


I'm not touching the political side of things because frankly you or I can't really as individuals influence it so I'm not wasting my time discussing the in's and outs of it all. Its all subjective until it becomes objective.

 

[Woody girl]

Thanks Tee Dee, I should know, but I always go blank when people start using acronyms, I think I can blame that on my education where my English teacher had an " extreme dislike" would not accept them, and always taught us to write things out in full, so that " people could understand what on earth I was saying"
I realise in this time of lack of ability to write in anything but shorthand it's the norm, but I'm an old fashoned lady with old fashoned ways.
As for noise pollution, anyone living in a town or city has 24 hour noise pollution anyway.
Cutting car use would take that right down to minimal levels (as the first lockdown proved,) and would then allow for a minimal heat pump hum, which to be honest is far less volume than a car in any case. You do get used to it, and I barely notice anymore to be honest. I do notice cars driving by far more often.
Town and city dwellers have no idea of the amount of noise they tune out and believe they are not hearing.
I had a friend from Stoke who could not sleep at my house as it was too quiet, I could not sleep at theirs due to constant sirens and traffic noise.!

 

[Woody girl]

Here is another scenario which I believe will be comming in the future.
We are so reliant on electricity to power the most mundane things we take for granted and realy no longer notice.
Atm's, petrol pumps, stock ordering, mobile phones, computers drive almost everything, including our cars, aeroplanes, boats, navigation, even our sewerage and water systems would cease to work.
The sun is going into a solar maximum for the next ten years or so. We have already had some coronal mass ejections that have caused problems with satellites and GPS. The worst ones so far, luckily have not been earth facing, but its only a matter of time before this happens.
The Carrington event, was caused by a massive solar flare hitting the earth, and caused massive problems for many months. We were barely into the electric age in those days, in fact, the pony express was still functioning in many areas.
Just imagine what a g5 storm would do to our modern infrastructure nowadays.
Cars trains buses won't work, hospitals too, everything will be fried, and we would be unable to manufacture replacement parts for the months, if not years of work needed to put it all back together. Even those solar jackery and the like systems would be useless.
We have not had the amount of solar activity that we are experiencing right now, for many decades. The earth's magnetic field that protects us from this sort of thing is weakening, the result of a major hit, could mean extremely difficult times for everyone.
The risk is low at the moment, but, we have no way of predicting with any more than a few hours notice what will happen.
There isn't a lot you can do to prepare for this, but, making sure you have alternatives to a high electricity dependency might be both an insurance, and a more planet friendly way to go with preparing for difficult times.
I think I'd only realy miss my radio, shower and electric kettle.
I have alternatives for almost everything else.

 

[slowworm]

Another risk with computer chips is the possible invasion of Taiwan, they make 65% of the world's chips according to the BBC.

 

[Woody girl]

It realy makes you want to throw up your arms and say, there is nothing I can do to mitigate all these new threats to our amazingly comfortable lives, and most people I know just carry on as if nothing is happening to threaten their way of life. Covid..pay, its just flu, food shortages, pah, ill just eat something else, water shortage...I'm still gonna use my hose if I want...... Head in sand types.
I think they will have a very rude awakening.
That cabin in the woods on an island with a farm and veg garden looks more and more inviting.
Self sufficiency is a hard life, and we have forgotten how to do so much, the cottage industry that kept villages alive are gone, and houses are second homes, villages deserted in winter.
It's sad how far we have come down the road of me me me in such a short time!
I'm trying to get an lace hook on a walking boot repaired, and I travelled 30 mile round trip to a shoe repair service to be told, we don't do that, it would be easier to buy a new pair and throw two perfectly good boots in the bin. So sad.
Neighbour needed a couple of new wheels for a rollator walker, easy repair, the local disability shops I tried for her, don't stock them and tried to charge me £40 per wheel to order in let alone fit, when I said I could, find them for half that price online, but I would rather support and buy from a local bricks and mortar shop and fit them myself he got very rude and nasty. He wanted 100%profit!!!! The other option he gave me, was to buy a new one, at about the same price as 4 new wheels, and chuck the otherwise perfectly good old one, which would have entailed taking it to the tip.
Frustrating waste of usable goods and my time.!!!!!
I have repaired the wheels on the rollator for my neighbour by getting her daughter to order the wheels , even I could do it, despite having to extract and reuse the old bearings, and I will repair the boot in some way myself, it just needs one simple flipping rivet!

 

[StevieE]

Try living near the coast (unless you do?) I've had seagulls right outside my window 2 feet away from each other having a right old barny at 4am... not to mention the other 2 not long ago which decided to 'get it on' against the roof/culvert sort of area outside the window again at 4am... sounded like gravel being poured down the roof! I must say I did do a bit of c___ blocking and broke up their arrangement pretty sharpish!!

Just seen this Scottie. I know exactly what you mean. I used to live about 3/4 hour walk form the Bushmoot. Even now I've moved to the other side of town I have to keep the bedroom windows closed because I'm woken up by seagulls at about 4:30 every morning.

 

[Woody girl]

I repaired my boot this afternoon, bit of a fiddle, and the rivet was realy a bit short, but its gone through and will hopefully hold for a while at least.
Now, can I find the other boot? Can I heck!!! Grrr!

 

[billycoen]

Grrr!

Is that an acronym?..only joking

 

[Scottieoutdoors]

I honestly am shocked at how unaware people are in the UK at how cushy our lives really are...

I'm aware of the irony in this post....

There are so many things that set people off moaning, the local rag is full of "fuming" people and the photos of a family looking "sad" because of some banal thing...

If society collapsed tomorrow but the phone lines remained open, I wonder how many people would die on hold whilst waiting in a non moving queue to their local council...

As for city living, totally agree about noise... I however pride myself in being able to sleep anywhere and everywhere... when taking a lifeboat to a dockyard to be serviced, the long journey was happily broken up by me getting some ear defenders and sleeping in the aft rescue cabin, the vibrations and noise were quite soothing .... equally, the peace of the outdoors is always welcomed!

 

[Robson Valley]

I was able to move away from the city, the smell and the noise. Lots of food and trades skills are bartered here. My house is at the old, "mature" end of the street. Maybe 8 people in a dozen houses. Many work-aways, two very quiet families moved here a couple of years back.

The container freight trains crawl 200m away, winter highways crews load their sanding trucks. My water system dribbles in the cold to keep flowing. Many is the night when I can listen to my heart beat.

I need an open stone/brick fire place for the future. I don't know how to rig it to provide some honest heating but that education can wait.

 

[TLM]

I need an open stone/brick fire place for the future. I don't know how to rig it to provide some honest heating but that education can wait.

Open fireplaces quite often have negative energy balance, large glass doors are much preferable.

 

[Toddy]

On the water dribbling front.....if the power goes out then your pipes are vulnerable.

We are so used to warm houses now that few take note of any potential issues with frozen pipes. It doesn't take long to trace your plumbing and insulation is cheap and simple. 79p for a metre's length....

Pipe Insulation | Plumbing | Screwfix

Great range of Pipe Insulation at Screwfix.com. Protects your pipes from bursting in freezing temperatures & flooding your home. Available in different sizes.

www.screwfix.com

Check your household insurance policies too, make sure that they will cover burst pipes and the clean up and repair in the case of no power. It's surprising the stuff the insurance policies are quietly removing these days and only adding on 'if you require', i.e. are prepared to pay extra.

M

 

[Woody girl]

On the water dribbling front.....if the power goes out then your pipes are vulnerable.

We are so used to warm houses now that few take note of any potential issues with frozen pipes. It doesn't take long to trace your plumbing and insulation is cheap and simple. 79p for a metre's length....

Pipe Insulation | Plumbing | Screwfix

Great range of Pipe Insulation at Screwfix.com. Protects your pipes from bursting in freezing temperatures & flooding your home. Available in different sizes.

www.screwfix.com

Check your household insurance policies too, make sure that they will cover burst pipes and the clean up and repair in the case of no power. It's surprising the stuff the insurance policies are quietly removing these days and only adding on 'if you require', i.e. are prepared to pay extra.

M

That's important advice for our homes will undoubtedly be a lot colder this winter. I'm hoping we have a mild one, but there is always every chance it could be a realy cold winter.
Those of us in the south always seem under prepared for a realy cold spell and heavy snow.
Ice spikes for your boots are a small investment, but realy usefull for walking around on icy pavements safely.
The ones with a rubber strap that you just slip on and off , not crampons!
I have modified a kids plastic sled to use like a pulk, for getting the shopping home on foot, and I've also got ice spikes for walking sticks that flip up when not in use.
I'm ready for all that getting cut off with snow can throw at me.
Mind you, since I got that all together after one realy bad winter about 10 yrs ago, I've never needed it! Sods law, if I get rid, I'll need it. So it all sits under the spare bed, waiting.......