Can You Imagine Life Without Electricity?

[naomi24]

We live miles from anywhere and had a massive power cut a while ago putting our electric out throughout a dark winter’s evening. No lights, no central heating, no cooking, no landline, no internet, no mobile phone charging, no television, no showers, no anything.

Imagine life before electricity. What would you miss most?

We found a solution for the evening. We went to the pub. :o)

[shoota]

My grinder - cutting steel by hand is so tedious...

[tiggerblue10]

Probably hot water.

[mallyh]

my hairdryer ,(I have curly hair and I hate it so need to straighten it )

[diddlydo]

It wouldn't bother me at all for an evening - candles, open fire, cook on camping gas stove, hot water tank would have enough for a shower. Simple stuff. But life before electricity - now that's a different matter!

[woofgang]

Lighting I think. When I was a child, we cooked on gas (I still have a gas hob) and had no hot water on tap. We thought we were blessed when we moved into a council house with a back boiler on the fire. No Central heating only parafin stoves everywhere except the living room and kitchen . We had no landline and the internet hadn't even been imagined, nor mobile phones. We get loads of powercuts here and I am happy to read but walking around with candles is a dodgy business and they don't give off much light. More than electric light though an indoor toilet is the best thing that "modern" living has brought IMO.

[nailit]

//We found a solution for the evening. We went to the pub.//
What if the pub had no electricity? :-)

[woofgang]

When we lived in Wells, the whole city often lost power in the winter. The pubs used to put lanterns and candles in the windows and they had open fres and gas cooking so loads of us just used to stroll into town therough the snow or the floods to get a hot meal. It was very beautiful.

[shoota]

You should always keep fork handles handy...

[teacake44]

What's the difference between a power cut, and a massive power cut.? surly 5 miles is only just down the road, from the pub.

[anneasquith]

Four candles ?

[shoota]

Whatever turns you on Annie ;-)

[naomi24]

Nailit, we don’t have any pubs nearby. They’re all a drive away.

Woofgang, we get a lot of power cuts too. I have lanterns for candles especially for the purpose. Much safer than ordinary candle holders.

[naomi24]

Teacake, //What's the difference between a power cut, and a massive power cut.? //

Some last for a short time - others last much longer.

[teacake44]

How long did it last?

[retrocop]

We have a petrol generator. That will supply the freezers. Camping gas grill and hobs for cooking and hot water. Camping gas lanterns and hurricane lamps. Spare batteries for the numerous radios and one Charcoal BBQ and a Gas BBQ. If all gas and fuel is used up I have enough left over paving blocks to build a small field oven. Wood no problem.

[Bazile]

I remember the last time we had a power cut .

Not been able to have a shower , i decided that i would have a wash instead .
So i decided to go downstairs and boil the kettle to get some hot water .

It was then that i realised the flaw in my plan

[naomi24]

Haha! I've done things like that, Baz. Hmmm ... let's have a cup of tea. :o/

[The Builder]

Way back in the 70s, before I bought my first house, I lived in a caravan in a disused quarry for five years.
Rainwater ran off the roof into a tank. (You haven't lived until you've tasted coffee made with rainwater.)
Gas bottles, cooker, gas fire for when I let the woodburner go out.

Lack of electricity was probably the most difficult.
I had a little portable TV and a car battery. To keep the battery up, I made a generator from a lawnmower engine and a car dynamo. The worst thing was having to go out in the snow to fire up this “generator” when the TV picture started to collapse into a small square in the middle of the screen.
Car radio, gas mantles, candles... all mod cons.

Girlfriends loved it. Trés cosy
So did my ginger cat ;o)

[Bobbisox1]

We take so many things for granted now,Electricity for light and warmth, gas ( for the boiler unit) water, you don’t miss them till they're off ,I could live without TV but maybe not the internet, I could live without my mobile phone , I see that as a necessity rather than a must have, we still have our land line and most calls are done via that

[Maydup]

We're like you Naomi, off the beaten track and all electric. Thankfully we haven't experienced a power cut for a while, but we have a portable calor gas heater and camping stove stored in the shed for emergencies.

The cold is the thing that would beat me. Its amazing how quickly a home loses its heat when the supply goes off. No amount of layering or duvet hugging makes up for some powered heat.