Cooking with Corona - coping with power cuts

Still too long without warning, or any information being given I think and worthy of a complaint.

 

I have bought some bottled water sufficient for a couple of days. Our mains water supply has been failing without warning as much as 2 or three times a year for about 5 years. Under normal conditions it has taken anything from a few hours to all day and overnight to be restored.

If this happenswhen the workforce is under strain and people are being told to stay indoors from this coronavirus it’s good for us to be prepared.

Our supply problem is due to our specific location though - people on our road at the bottom of the hill don’t have this issue because the leaks always happen further up from them. Being up hill near the end of the road means low water pressure plays a part too. In our case buying water is sensible planning.

They are slowly replacing mains pipes in town that don’t leak, of course, but being just out of town we seem to be somewhere at the bottom of their list.

I think the odds of an issue for most people are very low indeed that they’ll have a water supply problem.

Given how necessary water is to life, and also that people would defy a lockdown if left without any water for too long I think maintaining (eta - the mains!) supply would be a very high priority. eta for the authorities.

eta I don’t think water needs to be a major concern at all for most people.

 

I now have 12L of bottled water, by the end of the day I'll have another 8L and tomorrow another 8L (included 4 bottles with each of this week's shopping deliveries) - giving a total of 28L.

At 4L a day drinking consumption that's a weeks worth, plus whatever is in the fridge at the time - I can't see the supply ever being off longer than that (without them sending round lorries with bottled water on) as people allegedly have a tendency to drop dead after 4-5 days without water.

 

sorry IM, istm is short for 'it seems to me'.

you make some wise & sensible points in your post. thank you

@Wonko I bought this today, plus 4x butane canisters to go in them. £25 altogether



I spoke to my carer & she said that if I careful - only boil what water I actually going to drink, only heat items from room temp rather than refridgerated, 1 meal a day & a couple cups tea, she would expect the cans to last around 3-4wks in total - she is a very keen camper so I trust her judgement.
She recommended me this one because it's flat & stable, so my clumsiness shouldn't be a problem.

We discussed it & although its not necessary as a response to the current situation, it's something i should have anyway. I have no way to have any heat at all without electric & if I get cold it induces a bad worsening of symptoms pain especially, so if there were ever a power outage in winter lasting more than an hour or 2 at least id be able to get a hot water bottle. hot drinks etc. And it put the 4am 'what ifs' to bed too

 

Thank you @JemPD .

I looked at them ,and the 'clones' and discounted all of them after reading lots of reviews (that particular model had a period last year when the center was 'melting', mentioned in several reviews). That's a fault I can't risk even though there are no reviews in the last 5 months that mention it.

I read reviews on the many clones of it and they all had significant safety issues - not every one, not more than a handful, but enough.

So I ordered a different, simpler type, where the burner and the gas were kept separate i.e. not in the same housing, and the burner wasn't on top of the canister, asking for trouble that would be, cylinder with burner on top, with pan on top of that.....

However, I then found one that seems to have a good reputation, they either work, or not, they don't melt, leak gas if the canister isn't in right, or do anything more worrying that cook things, or not.

So I do have one ordered that looks similar, arriving tomorrow.



I also ordered 12 canisters of gas. The gas won't be here until Monday.

The cooker was £27 (amazon gave me a £5 discount code) and the gas was £18, so about £45 in total.

It's not my prefered option, in fact it's my least prefered option, but it occured to me that the type of burner I had originally ordered probably throws a lot of heat downwards, which wouldn't be ideal. They do specifically say outdoor use for the type I originally ordered, and despite the fact that wind makes them less efficient, it seems they may rely on it for cooling.

And this type of device says it's fine for indoor use.

I'm hoping that it will not need to be used, and that if it is it's just to make the odd drink and one or two meals until the power is back on.

Which is the most likely scenario.

I've also bought several tinned meals that are fine to eat cold, not that nice but food that needs nothing more than a tin opener and a fork.

 

I do agree, to some extent, about alcohol stoves. They seem simple, relatively cheap, and 5L of meths seems a lot and is fairly cheap @£25, although of course I have no idea as to the amount of heat or burn time that would get me in a cheap meths stove.

I remember my grandparents using meths heaters etc - probably about 20 years before they became extinct in the UK (meths heaters not my grandparents, they became extinct long before that).

For me I suspect that one may be impractical and/or risky - quite a small thing to pour meths into (although I am sure funnels still exist), and the mechanism for altering the flame looks decidedly dodgy for someone with my eyesight and coordination, especially in poor lighting.

I also seem to remember that both my grandfather and my father used to store meths outside the house, only bringing in what was needed, when needed - in a 1 bedroom flat with no outbuildings that could be 'tricky'.

I am still tempted to get a cheap stove and a small bottle of meths, just to see how practical it would be, I really don't like gas canisters on environmental (not reusable), capacity (only hold a few hours of gas each) and just sheer inconvenience grounds(they have to be ordered in advance when, if we go into lockdown, it's possible that couriers may not be operating, at least not normally).

Which is one reason why I was looking at a much larger gas cylinder and a moderately useful 2 ring burner - simply to make me less dependant on infrastructure for a while. But that was impractical (size/weight/cost/storage) despite being a 'better' solution IMO.

 

This is why I get increasingly concerned at the suggestion we should move onto solely electricity for our power and heating needs ...

 

Wow Wonko I didn't see those reviews until now, I've got so much going on I didn't do my research properly, thanks so much for pointing it out. I may get the one you chose instead, send this one back I don't want anything that explodes either!
But the one you getting on the review page it shows as 10% 1star reviews but when you click on them it says there are no reviews with anything less than 4 stars?

 

It seems to be happening only since they added the international review sections - they're in them.

Apart from, allegedly, the build quality being a little higher on the one I've ordered the main difference is it is supposed to stop the gas flow if it detects the flame has gone out. In order to get that on a campingaz stove you would need 2 models up from the one you've ordered - which is out of stock until the beginning of next month, and £46.

As far as I can see that one thing, stopping the gas if the flame goes out, is the reason it says it's okay for use inside on the one I ordered, as most, even of this design say outside use only. Obviously people use them inside, but they aren't supposed to

That feature not working properly is the main reason for the odd low star ratings of the one I've ordered in some reviews - on some it's faulty and turns off the gas when there is a flame, meaning people have to override it, which apparently is inconvenient and a bit of a nuisance.

e.g. this is a German 1 star review

Clearly annoying, for that guy, but it's broken/failed in a way which isn't dangerous and doesn't cause any safety issues.

There seems to be no reports of any faults which would cause a safety risk, just the odd one saying it doesn't work, or the transit/storage case arrived smashed.

This is unusual in that every other model I've looked at has at least some reviews saying it leaks, melts, explodes, randomly catches fire etc. and that's' the reason I initially dismissed this design of stove. Yes I know that 99.99% of even the worst ones are probably fine and safe, but it's not something I really wanted to risk, that I might get the iffy/dangerous one, as my reactions to such things can be problematic - in that I sometimes have none.

The one I have ordered isn't perfect - it seems the manufacturer may make quite a good product but reviews suggest they don't package it correctly, so quite a few get damaged in transit - which would be annoying if it arrives damaged, even the case. I assume that this poor packaging is most likely the cause of units that either arrive or go faulty.

When mine turns up, and the gas arrives, I'll obvious test it, and post my impressions of it if you would like - not that I know much about them, but I should be able to detect if it's poor quality etc. and check it does actually turn off the gas if I blow out the flame, see how well it handles standard cookware etc. etc.

But as I said above, there are no reports of any issues with the one you ordered for the last 5-6 months, they may have had a bad batch, or used a supplier for that part who used the wrong alloy, or something, and have rectified the problem. Obvious I don't, and can't know, no one other than campingaz knows and they ain't saying.

 

The bright spark turned up and I wasn't impressed;

When I put it on the worktop it wobbled, so I straightened that, and the canister enclosure door still didn't quite shut.

There was no damage to the fragile looking carrying case it was in.

It's odd, coz even once I've straightened it, a bit, sometimes it still wobbles, but only in certain places on my flat kitchen worktop, so I had no idea what was going on - but I didn't like it, so I ordered a different one, the campingaz one linked to above.

Today some gas turned up so I tested the stove I have.

With a canister in it doesn't seem to wobble, anywhere, and the canister door is properly aligned.

I tested the gas shut off when the flame goes out, it took about 3 seconds to turn it off, well inside the advertised "within 15 seconds".

With a canister in it feels solid and behaves as I would expect.

It has one possibly major drawback - despite having a large pan support the manual says it is hazardous to use pans bigger than 18cm, no idea why as the cheap campingaz one shows a much bigger pan on it, and the campingaz one I have turning up on Monday say it's okay to put on a pan up to 26cm.

18cm is a little small for domestic pans, apart from a milk pan, and one really old pan that I haven't used in years all of my pans are 20cm or bigger (probably a result of most stuff I cook being batch cooked for several years now). Even my stovetop kettle is 21cm.

When the other one turns up, probably on Monday, I will test them side by side (I want to know the temperature of the counter underneath both of them when they have been on full burn for a little while).

All I did today was find out how long it took to boil 500ml of water in a little camping kettle (only holds 800ml) - 3 minutes or slightly under. So 25-30 mugs of tea in a canister then (or 4 pans of rice)

 

The campingaz stove arrived - far too shiny (but time will take care of that). 13 seconds to shut off gas when flame is blown out (bright spark was 3 seconds) - now have headache to add to my neck ache (heads too heavy these days) as well as all the other bits bitchin at me

Further testing will have to wait

 

I'm very goofy & slow today @Wonko.... can you confirm that so far, the only isuue with the bright spark is that it may not support a large pan? The wobbling issue was rectified once a canister was inside it? So you think, so far at least, that it's safe?

 

It seems to be safer, and 'feels' better than the more expensive campingaz.

I have found no other issues and it will probably be my first choice for warming tinned stuff up and making a drink. The campingaz will only be used as a backup or if I need to use a larger pan (but if the powers off then that probably won;t happen as batch cooking would be pointless without at least a fridge).

So out of the 2 the bright spark is the one I would recommend.

 

Most people already are, gas central heating won’t work without electricity so unless you have a wood/coal stove (which very few people do) you are effectively 100% reliant on electricity. Adding in more houses with solar PV, battery storage and air source heat pumps would make the system more resilient, especially combined with the extra insulation measures that are part of the recommendations. You could still have a wood stove as a back up if you wanted as well. Gas needs to go as soon as is possible.

 

Thanks for that advice I ordered one today - lol they need to pay you commission

 

Hope it goes well, and that you don't need to use it much - apart from for 'fun' lol

 

@Wonko, I can't currently find the place where you mentioned having to top up your key for the electric meter, or whatever it is nowadays, but there was a mention in my newspaper today that if you're on a prepayment meter you can nominate another person to do the top-ups for you.

 

Anyone can do these top ups, but you have to physically take the key to the shop. That's no improvement if you don't have a friend or carer who can go out to do it for you.

I still have key meter as before I got ESA and PIP I was living on only £70 a week. Having a key meter helped me manage my money. I still find it useful in this regard and it also helps me monitor my electricity usage, so I'm not going to go over to a standard one.

There is an assumption (both in this present crisis, but also generally) that individuals can just access help from other people by asking for it. I personally can't do that due to my autistic difficulties. Additionally, there is no way I am going to tell any neighbours about my disabilities or health conditions (in particular autism and M.E.) after previous bad experiences and verbal bullying from neighbours related to having these 'invisible' conditions. My life is presently fine in this regard as none of my current neighbours know my specific problems.

I would definitely rather die than have to damage my future life by disclosing my problems to local people with whom I don't have any real relationship with or connection to. There would be no quality of life after the coronavirus for me if I were to do so, I wouldn't be able to cope mentally with the uncertainty of what might happen in the future.

 

I've bought one of these too. It looks good.