Storm Arwen and Storm Barra

Parts of the country have still not recovered from Storm Arwen a couple of weeks ago and we now have another storm barrelling towards us called Storm Barra. With wind warnings across most of the UK and snow and wet weather across a large swathe of the country we are wondering if the infrastructure will cope with a second storm in as many weeks when parts are still without electric. This image below shows Storm Barra approaching!

Have our members been working to restore power in places hit by Storm Arwen?

High winds are predicted for the next few days with snow on high levels due to Storm Barra, have you got any contingency plans in place in case you lose power?

 

[Had8Lives]

If we get a power cut I have the benefit of running the lights and a few kitchen sockets off batteries and an inverter. I've been using solar panels to charge the batteries and have a couple of automatic transfer switches setup.

 

[James]

I am in a rural location
9kw diesel standby generator with auto start and changeover
been quite useful at times over the last 4 years I have had it.

 

[Sparkgap]

I've a couple of gennys: 650W & 4.5 kW so could hook either up to the house depending on what needs to be run, however in the last 20 years we've never had prolonged outages except once when pole mounted connection point blew up and another when HV connection to the transformer blew. In both cases Western Power got temp supplies/connections sorted within a couple hours so was hardly worth starting the genny!

 

[buzzlightyear]

I have bought some candles just in case i need to go out side in the dark

 

[James]

It is not so much of a problem being without power for lights, candles will work just fine.
gas central heating is just a cold white box without electricity, after being without it for 10 days in a cold winter due to a boiler fault a few years ago, I installed the generator so i would not have to deal with that issue ever again!!

 

[pc1966]

I have bought some candles just in case i need to go out side in the dark

Or you have some nuns over for a party...

 

[littlespark]

I have bought some candles just in case i need to go out side in the dark

How many candles? Four, you say?

We're never short of candles in this house... wife likes her yankee smelly candles.
As for powercuts... the newer estate i live in doesnt seem to get affected.. a few dimming lights.... but the rest of the village could be off for hours.
I have a customer who was off for 6 days. Everytime he phoned up, it was "Oh, yes. itll be back on by 10pm tonight."
Never happened. If they said, we dont know when youll be back on... then the family can make other plans. By saying itll be back on tonight... they just stay where they are and wait.

 

[Rockingit]

It is not so much of a problem being without power for lights, candles will work just fine.
gas central heating is just a cold white box without electricity, after being without it for 10 days in a cold winter due to a boiler fault a few years ago, I installed the generator so i would not have to deal with that issue ever again!!

Being on oil we've fundamentally the same problem, no pump etc , but the ace in the deck for us is that we've an oil-fired rayburn in the kitchen which is entirely gravity fed, four 1ml drops of oil into a set of evaporater burner rings a minute on lowest setting. Has no back boiler or anything, it's literally just one massive lump of cast iron that keeps the farmhouse style kitchen nice and toasty and we use it over the winter when it's on (we'd melt in the summer!!!) for the majority of our cooking anyway as it's a permanent 24/7 heatsource and whilst you need some old style cast iron cookware to do it, a six hour pot roast/stew is sublime!

I am, however, also toying with getting a small genny and AMF panel.

 

[buzzlightyear]

Next time you think where the elec comes from ist not a Xmas tree neither.

 

[littlespark]

And today we get storm Malik I believe they call it??

Lights are flickering, there’s wheelie bins racing down the street and I’m nervous that a roof tile lands on my new car.

 

[pirate]

Storm Malik is here, in Glasgow, but not as fierce winds as elsewhere...however the shenanigans at Glasgow airport were fascinating this morning with several flights circling numerous times waiting for a "slot" to land.

 

[nicebutdim]

Is it just me or does the news tend to be more dramatic about stormy weather, than it was in the days before names were given to weather systems?

Then again, even the most mundane news seems to be overly dramatic these days.

 

[pc1966]

At our site we saw a slightly higher wind speed than in 2021 storms.

Have lost primary internet (microwave links) as one of our ISP's towers was blown over

 

[nicebutdim]

Blustery here last night and this morning. Seen a few trees down, but nothing that warrants a fancy name.