Topic: Preparedness (Read 21069 times)

dean1970 · « **Reply #30 on:** November 24, 2011 »

Ok then, I have yet to read anyone saying they change the tyres in their cars to 'winter' tyres. I think its law in Canada, then again they get proper snow.

Seems to be a much more useful thing to do. Last year, muppets driving all over the road, most of whom didnt need to be on the road and the vast majority of cars not able to cope with the roads. Never mind the standard of driving!!!

In terms of buildings, keep your pipes insulated, open the loft hatch, keep background heat on if your away on holiday! Anyone keep spare fuel? petrol, oil?

Fred · « **Reply #31 on:** November 24, 2011 »

Its not a good idea to store petrol for a long time. It deteriorates with age. There no problem filling a can if you anticipate short term problems though. Personally, I always keep a good reserve of central heating oil over the colder months.

Fred

Oisín · « **Reply #32 on:** November 24, 2011 »

I just think its a matter of not taking things for granted. E.g. The services of other people and products. And realising that you have to do some things for yourself.

Personnally its better to prepare for everything, then are you ever caught out?

twentyclicks · « **Reply #33 on:** November 24, 2011 »

Quote from: Fred on November 24, 2011

Its not a good idea to store petrol for a long time. It deteriorates with age. There no problem filling a can if you anticipate short term problems though. Personally, I always keep a good reserve of central heating oil over the colder months.

Fred

You can get fuel stabilizer - commonly sold for the likes of the 'lawnmower can' that gets left in the garage all winter. Not sure how long it is effective though. When I drove, and kept a 5L in the boot, I would just stick it in the tank and then refill it every now and then to keep the reserve fresh.

Dean's comment on winter tires is a good one. Much of the big-freeze transport problems are blockages caused by stuck vehicles or minor accidents that would be avoided with some suitable tires. Educating how to drive on snow is another matter entirely, but driver education is always bottom of the list for any road issues in this country

LandyLiam · « **Reply #34 on:** November 28, 2011 »

just spotted this on gumtree, only £2.50 per drum

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/20-litre-plastic-drums-kero-heating-oil-diesel-fuel/90442588

Quote

Quantity of 20 Litre High Quality Recycled Plastic Containers with lids

*Suit Homeowners for self filling heating oil / fuel etc.
(Many petrol stations now have a kerosine pump for your convenience - buy home heating oil in smaller, more affordable quantities as you need.

*Also suit merchants / cash and carry operators for filling to re-sell emergency fuel drums.

Price is £2.50 per drum collected.
Discounts available for bulk purchases (100 nr. on a pallet)
Delivery available at cost.

Based in Castlewellan, County Down

dean1970 · « **Reply #35 on:** November 30, 2011 »

I still dont get this, but I am trying.

The batteries went on the pepper grinder and id no spare batteries.

Serves me right for not being a prepper

cerbera147 · « **Reply #36 on:** November 30, 2011 »

Quote from: dean1970 on November 30, 2011

I still dont get this, but I am trying.

The batteries went on the pepper grinder and id no spare batteries.

Serves me right for not being a prepper

Yes, very trying

dean1970 · « **Reply #37 on:** December 01, 2011 »

yes i know I'm trying

LandyLiam · « **Reply #38 on:** December 02, 2011 »

Stormy sun could knock out power grids - report

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/stormy-sun-could-knock-power-grids-report-171703405.html

Quote

LONDON (Reuters) - An upcoming cycle of stormy solar activity risks causing damage to electrical transformers and threatening vulnerable energy infrastructure around the globe, a report by an insurance group says.

The sun follows a predictable 11 year activity cycle, with the next period of stormy activity expected to begin in 2012-13.

The report by German insurance group Allianz said a high impact solar storm, not easily predicted due to its recorded rarity, could cause blackouts and economic losses of over $1 trillion and that the worst case scenario would be even worse.

"What we're coming into at the moment is the bad (space)weather period," Jim Wild of Britain's Lancaster University, an expert in solar plasma physics, told Reuters.

A large explosion on the surface of the sun could release billions of tonnes of superheated magnetically charged gas at a speed of a million miles per hour, and when that gas hits the earth's magnetic field, it can trigger a big solar storm.

The severity of a potential disruption has made experts at insurance and national security institutions take notice.

"When you start to imagine not having electricity in a sizeable fraction of a country or a continent for weeks or even months ... it's serious business," Wild said.

SMALL LEAD TIME

The difficulty lies in predicting how often serious solar type events occur.

The small lead time given by satellites is also a problem for preventing solar storm damage, as currently no satellite is close enough to the sun to give more than an hour's warning, Wild said.

Updating the satellites to give the earth more preparation time would cost around $1 billion, he added.

Space weather is a relatively new area of study, with sophisticated observations going back only 50 years and lacking an international coordinated tracking system such as that found with normal meteorological weather.

"We have very little on a solar time scale," Wild said.

The most damaging storm in recent memory was a 1989 outage in Quebec, Canada, which affected six million people.

The first scientific recording of a large solar storm was made in 1859 by English astronomer Richard Carrington, who observed a white light explosion on the surface of the sun.

Wild said: "what they didn't know back then was why about two or three days later you could see the northern lights over Cuba and all of the telegraph system was disrupted by geomagnetic activity."

According to the Allianz report, an event on the same scale today would cause extensive damage to electrical infrastructure.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NASA webpage with solar storm information: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010821/index.html

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

(Editing by Henning Gloystein and James Jukwey)

you've been warned

specimanYak · « **Reply #39 on:** December 03, 2011 »

This is an excellent thread, lots of tips and common sense information that will come in extremely handy on 'one of those days', thanks.

Al Fresco · « **Reply #40 on:** December 03, 2011 »

I agree this is an excellent thread, I think we all could do with being better prepared for emergency situations.
In my case I have carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in my house and a fire escape plan in place for my family. We also have enough tinned food to last a fornight, have a gas camping stove and candles and torches and batteries incase of power cuts, also as old fashioned as it may seem I still have coal fire that heats our central heating, and believe me we were glad of it last year when everyone elses oil pipes were freezing we had constant heat. I carry a jerry can of diesel in the jeep, a small shovel, spare bulbs toolkit, hi-viz vest, torches, jump leads etc, as well as sleeping bag, waterproofs and water.
I have the family tent and sleeping kit placed at the hatch of the attic incase needed in a hurry.
Strangely until i read this thread I wouldn't have classed myself as a prepper or even thought about what i did in any other terms than common sense.
Perhaps I just presumed everybody took these precautions.

NI Survival School · « **Reply #41 on:** December 04, 2011 »

I agree an interesting thread all right. I see someone mentioned going with out food for months, has anyone actually tried going with out food for a while? As for 500ml of water doing u for a day, this isnt practical as after a period your body functions will start to become affected. Knowledge is the key as the saying goes give a tool and he will eventually break it, give him the knowledge of how to make it and he will never be without it. To really assess your preparedness test out some scenarios (not involving dropping nuclear bombs or zombies) Go for a couple of days without using electricity only then will you see the fine details that you miss with the theory side of things.

Just my pennys worth for what its worth.

dean1970 · « **Reply #42 on:** December 05, 2011 »

be careful where you fix the carbon monoxide detector. All depends on the surrounding space.

carbon monoxide gas can rise or fall depending on the temperature, so the detector can in fact be a tlow level. There is a BS Standard on this.

dean1970 · « **Reply #43 on:** December 05, 2011 »

Quote from: LandyLiam on December 02, 2011

Stormy sun could knock out power grids - report

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/stormy-sun-could-knock-power-grids-report-171703405.html

Quote
LONDON (Reuters) - An upcoming cycle of stormy solar activity risks causing damage to electrical transformers and threatening vulnerable energy infrastructure around the globe, a report by an insurance group says.

The sun follows a predictable 11 year activity cycle, with the next period of stormy activity expected to begin in 2012-13.

The report by German insurance group Allianz said a high impact solar storm, not easily predicted due to its recorded rarity, could cause blackouts and economic losses of over $1 trillion and that the worst case scenario would be even worse.

"What we're coming into at the moment is the bad (space)weather period," Jim Wild of Britain's Lancaster University, an expert in solar plasma physics, told Reuters.

A large explosion on the surface of the sun could release billions of tonnes of superheated magnetically charged gas at a speed of a million miles per hour, and when that gas hits the earth's magnetic field, it can trigger a big solar storm.

The severity of a potential disruption has made experts at insurance and national security institutions take notice.

"When you start to imagine not having electricity in a sizeable fraction of a country or a continent for weeks or even months ... it's serious business," Wild said.

SMALL LEAD TIME

The difficulty lies in predicting how often serious solar type events occur.

The small lead time given by satellites is also a problem for preventing solar storm damage, as currently no satellite is close enough to the sun to give more than an hour's warning, Wild said.

Updating the satellites to give the earth more preparation time would cost around $1 billion, he added.

Space weather is a relatively new area of study, with sophisticated observations going back only 50 years and lacking an international coordinated tracking system such as that found with normal meteorological weather.

"We have very little on a solar time scale," Wild said.

The most damaging storm in recent memory was a 1989 outage in Quebec, Canada, which affected six million people.

The first scientific recording of a large solar storm was made in 1859 by English astronomer Richard Carrington, who observed a white light explosion on the surface of the sun.

Wild said: "what they didn't know back then was why about two or three days later you could see the northern lights over Cuba and all of the telegraph system was disrupted by geomagnetic activity."

According to the Allianz report, an event on the same scale today would cause extensive damage to electrical infrastructure.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NASA webpage with solar storm information: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010821/index.html

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

(Editing by Henning Gloystein and James Jukwey)

you've been warned

I am no expert on this now, but I remember the States is more vunerable to this than the UK grid. Can't remember the reason, but 2012 is supposed to be an 'active' year.

RedLeader · « **Reply #44 on:** December 05, 2011 »

2012 is supposed to be the peak of solar activity but it's a bell curve so it's high now and will remain high but dropping through 2013 and beyond. Also there's 2 cycles which is not mentioned by the Yahoo article. One cycle is over 80 odd years and it contains a shorter cycle of 12ish years. Each 12 year cycle peaks higher over the 80 years, and this is the peak of both cycles. These cycles have always happened but we've never been so dependent on electricity and electronics at this peak before.

I'm not aware of the US being any more likely to be affected than Europe - the big issue (as I understand it, I'm no scientist!) is of burning out pieces of equipment at power stations so all "developed" countries are at risk.

This is an interesting article that explains it all:
http://www.universetoday.com/14645/2012-no-killer-solar-flare/

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Author Topic: Preparedness (Read 21069 times)

dean1970

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Fred

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Oisín

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twentyclicks

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LandyLiam

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dean1970

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cerbera147

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dean1970

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LandyLiam

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specimanYak

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Al Fresco

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NI Survival School

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dean1970

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dean1970

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RedLeader

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