Get a car charger for the phone. Actually may be worth getting a charger for different rechargeable batteries, or a small inverter.
A 3 kW generator may be useful, could hook it up to the central heating with a bit of rewiring. Though I suspect that if we really had a national problem then gas would be restricted.
Strange how a power cut creates a sense of community more then 'The Big Lunch' (http://www.thebiglunch.com/) or local government/church schemes.
Down here lots of people take a stroll up the pier and do their best to avoid each other, but when a good South Westerly comes in everyone goes out and starts chatting about it, strange that.

Shame that my laptop needs 19V, what moron thought up that idea.

A charger like this which does AA or AAA batteries off 230 V AC or 12 V DC car lighter sockets is awfully handy:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-nimh-nicd-and-hybrid-aaa-and-aa-super-easy-8-way-battery-charger-n11bw

Only snag I've come across is that it only charges even numbers of cells which is irritating as a lot of LED devices like head torches use three cells.

“Shame that my laptop needs 19V, what moron thought up that idea.”

You know there are car adaptors for those? About Ă‚ÂŁ50 or so. Annoying though that my laptop and netbook need 18.5 and 19 volts so in theory I ought to change the little switch on the adaptor when swapping over. Actually, both run fine of 19 volts, of course, but surprisingly the 19 volt one doesn't run off 18.5.

Do you have to use bottled water

Posted By: JontiGreat example of how short term profit making is more important than long term sustainability and shows that the private market does not work in the service market.

But Jonti, you want cheaper energy.
Coal price is the backstop, what we have to compare all other prices to. I think that with CCS it will still be competitive, we shall have to wait and see what comes out of the CCS design that DRAX comes up with.

Jonti
I do think that long term is important, but long term can be created with a series of short term decisions once, and only once the really big decisions are made. If we had taken long term decisions in the 1930's we would have almost nothing but coal fired generation now, in the 1950's it would have been Nuclear and Pumped Storage, Late 1960's though to 1980 it would have been oil and gas, 1990's it would have been gas only, 00's would have been the start of renewables and gas, 10's would have been renewables only and now it looks like we are going to have to head back to gas (as we can import it cheap, still have lots in the North Sea and can build new capacity in 3 to 4 years).
So whichever decade you pick it would have been the wrong decision long term for a number of reasons, but what we do now have is millions of hours of experience with each type of technology, we tend to know the strengths and weaknesses of each one, we can, to a certain extent, but with limits, make them work together.
So, in my opinion, by not locking ourselves into one technology (like France as done), we have had flexibility and will continue to have flexiabilty.
What does frustrate me is out lack of vision on future needs. CCS could have been done 20 years ago, as could trials of tidal stream turbines, but as there was no political will (because of bad decisions/interpretation of results in the past with the Hot Rocks and Wave Power systems), it has been easier for our leaders to do nothing other than sign bad treaties (think "Our Energy Future" 2006).
The latest news about power shortages in 2014/5 are old news really, this has been predicted for about 10 years.
I was chatting to a work mate tonight and he seems to think that because he has some PV his house is immune from power cuts, he was a bit surprised when I told him that his PV is shut down in a power cut. He said he could get some batteries, I suggested a 7 kW generator and a thick extension lead as a better option.

Posted By: Jonti, I wonder how the people in the south of England will react when thy realise that in the very near future they will all live within sight of a fracking rig

The majority don't even notice let alone care. In power plant design and build we need a long term strategy, maybe it should be part of the regulators roll to ensure security of supply long term.

Yes John
That is part of the problem of making long term decisions based on misunderstanding the technology.
What I think should happen is that there should be a decision to reduce CO2 by x amount and then let private industries get on and deliver it without interference.
What we have ended up with is deadlock over a price for a technology. But that is because we like our cheap electricity.

I actually think that it is going to take a serious shortage of energy to focus the mind. This will be more than a few retailers turning off freezers for an hour or two or a hospital generator kicking in.

Posted By: SteamyTeaI actually think that it is going to take a serious shortage of energy to focus the mind.

I agree with most of what you say but unfortunately the result of a serious shortage will be PM's saying publicly to get rid of the “green crap”.

Yes, but can you see whoever (public or private) shutting down Drax because it's used up its allowances while the country is having rolling power cuts?

ST,

but the generation capacity is going to fall over the next few years so they have not even managed to replace that which will be lost let alone meet the increased demand.

Jonti

Posted By: SteamyTeaYes, true, but that is mainly because of government meddling, rule changing, our planning system. The generation companies want to generate, but there is no coherent plan in place.

How many applications for power stations have been blocked by government? It is supposed to be a private sector so the coherent plan should come from the energy companies. They know exactly what is required and have done for years but they are unable to see past the next profit report. But you know this

Jonti

I have to agree with you there borpin, but once a few have pulled out of the market then the remaining ones can start to push the price up to a realistic limit.

As for government hampering new investment, just look at their renewables policy, which is linked to planning. It is not just fossil fuels that generate electricity. It has taken a huge amount of tax payers money to get Hinkley through the first stage of construction, the new DRAX up in Yorkshire is also reliant on being government backed. The energy companies probably don't actually want to be backed by a government, but their financial backers certainly will.
I suspect that we will see little real investment in new capacity in the next 3 to 4 years.

Probably the best thing that could happen is that we do run out soon, it will focus peoples minds.

Posted By: borpin

Posted By: JontiIt is supposed to be a private sector so the coherent plan should come from the energy companies.

The reality is that there is no reason for investing in power plants if the price is restricted. The companies can simply run the existing assets (which they were given) in to the ground and when they are exhausted say "oh well never mind we will just shut the company down" leaving us with no generation.

There is no *obligation* on the power companies to generate energy. They only do so because they can sell it. The less there is, the more it will cost.

Borpin,

you hit the nail on the head. That is yet another reason why energy is not suited to the private market and should be nationalised.

Posted By: SteamyTeaI have to agree with you there borpin, but once a few have pulled out of the market then the remaining ones can start to push the price up to a realistic limit.

ST, WOW Talk about no compassion for the less well off.

Jonti

Posted By: JontiTalk about no compassion for the less well off.

Saying what I think will happen has no bearing on my compassion for others.
If you look at the data in that DECC spreadsheet you will see that electricity prices have declined in real terms (on the data published) and the longer term prediction is for lower real prices.

We have greater financial hurdles to overcome in the next decade than the price of domestic energy, at least they are being highlighted in the national press.