Little victories

I've taken to making candles lately. This is because I went shopping with the missus and saw how much she pays for the bloody things!

Handy though if we do get outages, there have been problems of late in the area probably due to the hundreds of houses being built.

The house smells nice too, currently burning an 'oud' scented one.

I really, really don't like the idea of anything with a naked flame - surely in 2020 there's no need.

During the last power cut (5 hours on Thursday) I found myself idly wondering if there had been a spike in housefires during power cuts in the 70s ?

Do you know how dangerous the smoke from a burning candle is ?.

Get yourself 'scrap wax' it's a fraction the price, and you get a collection of all sorts of interesting things.

NT

Nowhere near as dangerous as the flame ...

Are you two for real? If I start fearing a candle i'll be ready to tap out.

Who said anything about fear ? Was it the voices in your head ?

I just noted that naked flames are damgerous. You can mitigate that danger - as Humphry Davy did. But drop a candle on a carpet and see what happens compared to dropping a battery torch.

If a candle was the *only* source of light I had available then I'd manage. But part of the trick of thinking ahead - as I'm doing with PIR emergency lighting - is to not be in such a position.

Donno but I bet there would be now.

fair point. I can just see the TikTok generation paying more attention to their video hits than safety ...

Back in the 50's almost everyone kept candles and matches handy for the power cuts and for repairing the rewirable fuses. Zinc-carbon batteries didn't last like modern ones.

Are they not a bit of a fire hazard though? Brian

I make them in jars rather than the pillar type.

They burn where I can see them, away from anything flamable and get blown out if we're to leave the room for any period of time.

I do know of a poor family that left a candle burning in a window while they went to mass one Christmas. The curtains set alight and the house was gutted by fire. It's one of the many reasons i'm a non-believer!

I've have a couple of non-maintained emergency lighting fittings, one under the stairs near the consumer unit and the other in my upstairs hallway.

Shouldn't laugh :-)

my mother has a stroke in church on Christmas Day, so +1

When we first moved in, I saw one of those in one of the sheds. By the time we could splash out a bit it had gone, and I've not seen one since.

At night all of our light tend to get used - just by viture that it's dark and they are triggered by us going to bed or getting up in the night.

I gave up on rechargeable batteries years ago, and wild horses wouldn't drag me back. I don't think a single on ever lasted long enough to recoup the extra expense. The "smart" charger just blinks. And they weren't cheapos - EverReady.

I'm much happier with the hand cranked jobbies. Even if their internal battery fails, the crank will give you light to move safely by.

I notice with interest on local FB pages there have been a slew of power cuts around the area Thursday-Sunday. Which makes me wonder quite how accurate the "it was a 3rd party" story they tried to see me was. If I were a cynic I'd say it looked like a rolling set of power cuts.

We're luckily in a bungalow. The worst case scenario would be if power failed and SWMBO was on the loo. But that's covered with one of the PIR nightlights.

I think that's the definition of a competent electrician - can do a CU change within the 3 hour battery life of an emergency light.

The first time I didn't manage it and had to finish the temporary tails into the lives by candlelight.

Owain