Storm Arwen vs Net Zero…..nature vs arrogance??

melted welly

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
DD9.
Our power has been out since 5pm Friday, estimated that will be back by 6pm tonight, but not holding our breath, there’s a lot of damage.

Our house is old, draughty, inefficient
insulation, single glazed windows, heated by a mixture of oil and wood. Everything about it is a black mark regarding Net Zero.

However, in the absence of electricity, the only thing we are without is the tv. Solar garden lights charge up through the day, old gravity fed kerosene Esse heating the water, kitchen and does half a job at cooking. 2 log burners with a bit of imagination can operate as hot plates, grills and ovens. We’re fine.

Sister lives in a new build, top whack insulation, efficient boiler, storage heaters, but there’s no electricity so NOTHING works, no cooking, heating, washing.

If the storm hit during a period of sub zero temps, a lot of people would be in a bit of trouble as their entire infrastructure failed.

Is the negativity towards oil and now log burners as well, combined with the push towards heat pumps and renewable energy powered house entirely wise when an 8hr storm can turn it all off?
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
I suspect that a day long outage will make those who rely totally on electricity to look at backup options, as we in the countryside have often done.

Both houses I have built, have been wired with a change over switch, so they will run off a gennie. This was as a result of finding we were always last to have power back on in a big storm or similiar... House One was heated with LPG Combi, no woodburner etc, so relied on some power to work the combi. I got it so that even a tractor battery and inverter would work at a pinch, but always had a 2KW gennie handy.

Ourt Mother's always had candles and camping gas cooker to hand for emergencies...
 
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7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
A nineteen sixty didly three type winter would sort the men from the boys....

It's been a while since we've had a good old fashioned snow shoveling.

IMG_0309.JPG
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Our power has been out since 5pm Friday, estimated that will be back by 6pm tonight, but not holding our breath, there’s a lot of damage.

Our house is old, draughty, inefficient
insulation, single glazed windows, heated by a mixture of oil and wood. Everything about it is a black mark regarding Net Zero.

However, in the absence of electricity, the only thing we are without is the tv. Solar garden lights charge up through the day, old gravity fed kerosene Esse heating the water, kitchen and does half a job at cooking. 2 log burners with a bit of imagination can operate as hot plates, grills and ovens. We’re fine.

Sister lives in a new build, top whack insulation, efficient boiler, storage heaters, but there’s no electricity so NOTHING works, no cooking, heating, washing.

If the storm hit during a period of sub zero temps, a lot of people would be in a bit of trouble as their entire infrastructure failed.

Is the negativity towards oil and now log burners as well, combined with the push towards heat pumps and renewable energy powered house entirely wise when an 8hr storm can turn it all off?

You‘re forgetting that all these diktats are being delivered from an urban prospective
To our Dear Leader, country folk are no better than dog muck on his shoes.

PS buy a generator. Thank me later
 

pine_guy

Member
Location
North Cumbria
All new houses should be built with solar, wind power and plenty of battery storage (when it becomes more affordable).
These new builds which are slung up in ten minutes as cheap as possible are absolutely shocking, these big developers taking the pee.
Agreed, but the really sh!t thing about solar is you can’t use it when the mains is off, our 30kw array converter automatically switches off if it can’t see the mains power 🙈
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Agreed, but the really sh!t thing about solar is you can’t use it when the mains is off, our 30kw array converter automatically switches off if it can’t see the mains power 🙈
Yeh I think mines the same although I have a battery which keeps us going for a while.
what is the reasoning behind solar systems going off if mains goes off?
 
We had a 9 hour power failure here in the middle of October, nothing to do with the weather but an equipment failure. I first had a generator in the seventies, for the milking machine in those days, and have not been without one since. As long as I have plenty of kero for the central heating and the generator petrol tank and my spare cans are full, we'll be quite comfortable. Even if the central heating boiler broke down, we could plug in a couple of electric heaters. fortunately, the generator is big enough to run the whole house, including the Everhot range cooker.
 
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Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
Perhaps it's where our rulers want us?

In Russia the government supplies all heating to houses through centralised boilers in town and cities. If they revolt they turn the tap off and let them get cold.

Have we not got ourselves in the same situation here? Same with reliance on Internet through Chinese companies Huawei. Gas from Russia, steel from India. They've got us by the balls.

Got a 4kw petrol generator powering house here. Have to be selective what you use but great help.
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
Agreed, but the really sh!t thing about solar is you can’t use it when the mains is off, our 30kw array converter automatically switches off if it can’t see the mains power 🙈
must be a way round that...else how would off grid installations work.
Is it about power dumping if you're not using it all?
 
With a woodburner in the living room we can stay warm and I have a whole load of camping gear in the garage so we could cook something no problem.

No electrical devices for a day would be no issue for me. I'd read a book and play boardgames with the kids or go out with them in the snow.

District heating systems pumping hot steam to houses makes a lot of sense. Every town and village should have an AD plant or waste to energy unit for heating and electricity if you ask me.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Ironically everything seems to drive us towards less self reliance. At one time we could make a wheel in the village from a tree in the wood. My great grandfather was the wheelwright. Now, as said, everything is reliant on shipping in items made by remote specialist mass manufacture, including the brains to keep it working. Even the taps in my bathroom now require specialist parts where the old ones could be repaired by a bog standard washer and seat regrinder.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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