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Saving the planet

I have a coal fire and a log burner. After two christmases with no power, I am not parting with either. I already use kiln dried logs. Not used smokeless coal yet but happy to give it ago.
 
In my part of North Wales there is no mains gas so outside the kitchen window are two large gas bottles.
A lot of people don't realise there are places with no gas ... there are loads of places with no mains sewage too and most of the electricity comes overhead on wooden poles .... too much granite and other rock to be digging through to lay pipework far to many hills and valleys too for liquids to flow easily.
 
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Not had a powercut for two winters now but we know we'll get some soon enough .... inevitable with electricity on poles so my bottled gas and my wood and coal mean I can remain warm and well fed and actually see my glass of whiskey and paperback.
Lots of windup torches stashed away and a tranny radio.
I've even gone to the trouble of buying an old phone that simply plugs in the phone socket needing no mains connection because the phone lines don't go down in power cuts but modern cordless phones which I have are ueless without the base station being plugged in so the old phone is in the shed for whenever it's needed.
 
Oldvatr said:
And where does the lithium for all those batteries come from > Brazil and China. What do we do with worn out batteries? Scrap them because they cannot be reclaimed. Where will all this scrap go, and how long wtll the batteries last in all these electric vehicles, and houses and municipal grid storage centres? Abour 10 years then we are going to be back to rubbing sticks and using tinder boxes (no gas lighters or petrol lighters or tallow candles -- and no fireplaces in modern houses).
Click to expand...

I see you are an optimist! :)
 
A room heater with solid fuel and wood should be ok, but with an open fire you must have a good draft. Its using them in built up areas is a problem.
Just give all your spare cash to restoring peat bogs! ;)
D.
 
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JTL said:
Not had a powercut for two winters now but we know we'll get some soon enough .... inevitable with electricity on poles so my bottled gas and my wood and coal mean I can remain warm and well fed and actually see my glass of whiskey and paperback.
Lots of windup torches stashed away and a tranny radio.
I've even gone to the trouble of buying an old phone that simply plugs in the phone socket needing no mains connection because the phone lines don't go down in power cuts but modern cordless phones which I have are ueless without the base station being plugged in so the old phone is in the shed for whenever it's needed.
Click to expand...
Self sufficiency is a great asset.
D.
 
Oldvatr said:
And where does the lithium for all those batteries come from > Brazil and China. What do we do with worn out batteries? Scrap them because they cannot be reclaimed. Where will all this scrap go, and how long wtll the batteries last in all these electric vehicles, and houses and municipal grid storage centres? Abour 10 years then we are going to be back to rubbing sticks and using tinder boxes (no gas lighters or petrol lighters or tallow candles -- and no fireplaces in modern houses).
Click to expand...
Battery life has always been poor and I doubt modern batteries are much better than five years. In cold weather their output is poor and their efficiency drops with age.

Not good news for a valuable resource perhaps we all need our personal or community pumped storage systems.
Or be like the community on Fair Isle, have their own wind turbines and generators and self maintain them. Putting efforts into ecosystem services to balance any carbon use.
D.
 
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