One of the things that has surprised me in Finland over the last almost 20 years, is how stable the electricity supply is. In all the time I have been here, I think I can count on one hand the number of times where I have lived, has lost power, and this is across multiple regions. It makes sense of course, because losing power when it is -25C is deadly, especially since many homes no longer have fireplaces and pretty much no apartment buildings. Even with decent insulation and triple-glazed windows, the temperature can drop very fast without heating.
But this stability in power supply isn't available everywhere and it is interesting to note that in regions of Australia, they have been struggling to maintain supply and have been asking people to limit their electricity usage, by turning off appliances and PCs whilst not in use. It is quite a dilemma.
I guess that with the rising price for electricity, people don't mind turning off appliances that much, unless it makes them uncomfortable. I saw a story where someone was covering their walls and windows with cardboard boxes to save on heating costs. Very practical.
I was talking with a friend about a few things today and something came up about depression based on conditions and the point of "giving up" and choosing to check oneself out. After years of fear-induced stress caused by lockdowns, isolations, loss of income, freedoms, all supplemented by media hype to drive social stress, it is now straight into a massive economic disruption, amplified by the response to that hype and panic. It is stress on top of stress without respite, where the most financially vulnerable are now less capable of dealing with economic volatility, and are now forced to make even tougher life decisions.
Something has to break.
Hard times generally increase resiliency in populations, but I think that there is a survivor bias involved, so while resiliency increases, there is a lot of failure along the way. I also think that there will be somewhat of a lag effect due to the isolation and disconnection, where the true cost and conditions won't be known, as we have become largely insulated, despite having access to the information. Sure, Google might "know all" but it is only known by individuals if they search for it.
Currently, I sense a growing darkness in the air, and it isn't caused by the prospect of electricity failures. It feels more like there is impending dread where people have realized that they are not only not ready for what is to come financially, they also feel that they don't have the energy to make it through, even if they were.
There is a tiredness in people's voices and demeanor that I speak to, a kind of greyness and resignation, where despite things opening up and having their "freedoms" back, they seem listless and a bit rudderless. It feels like the anticipation before the best New Year party ever, only to it not come close to meeting expectations and, there is nothing on the horizon to co, other than a job that doesn't pay enough to cover the basics, let alone for a little fun.
But, it is also in these times that "heroes" are made, meaning that it is in the downturns that the work is done that reaps the rewards in the upturns. We have seen this over and again in crypto, where it is the projects that diligently keep building that pull out the other side, scarred, but ready to run. And it is the same for many people, who rather than shrink into their shell, keep grinding away, driving themselves forward through the mud and rain, looking to the horizon for a break in the clouds.
This evening, a peal of thunder sounded overhead and my daughter was scared by it, even though she knows what it is and what causes it. There is that shock of electricity, the heat, the hole in the air created and then - the air rushing in to fill the void and return balance.
During these difficult periods, voids are created and even if pushed out to the furthest edge of personal limits, for those who survive, there will be opportunities to come.
But on that edge, there will also be times of darkness.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.” – Dumbledore
I know it could be hard for you that far north, but consider am energy back up for your family. The entire landscape of European energy consumption will be changing in the next year or so. I have taken myself off the Texas Electricity grid for the last 3 months, and as time passes I am accumulating more and more credits for the darker days.
In the middle of the Texas Summer, by electricity bill is zero for the last 3 months. I am generating more solar electicity than I consume, and I sell the surplus back to the grid, and earn credits. I am currently generating about 1.0 Mwh/month
I consume only about 0.7 Mwh/month.
I'd love to go solar for the summer, but it is out of reach at this point. The energy backups available would be a diesel generator where I am I think.
What we are planning though is adding some insulation to the basement ceiling (currently cold) to keep the house warmer in the winter - that way, the fireplace actually becomes useful. We have access to a lot of "close to free" wood :)
Out of curiosity, what kind of monthly energy consumption is normal there?
depends of the home you live obviously. For me, 2700 sq ft 2-stories home, 1995 built, so showing its age, I consume about 700kwh-1000kwh/month. Higher in summer, lower in winter; sort or inverse from you in terms of seasonality
Cooling is a killer in Aus too - because despite the climate, they do not insulate well.
Trying to lead by example and teach my daughter to enjoy the roll of the thunder. For there's great beauty in destructive forces, too. Scary beauty. Something in the back of my mind tells me we discussed that aspect some time ago, perhaps...years ago.
Time for some more Iron Maiden, then.
I think we have discussed it. When my daughter mentioned it today, it reminded me of something I wrote years ago :)
Talking about dark times, we are the champions in South Africa as we are told to expect between 37-101 dark days and nights now in the winter season.
Since January, 2022 we've had 32 days already.
The count of dark days is not much better over the past years and we have developed a "grinding away" habit in all that we do and I simply do the same on Hive.
Opportunities in times of hardships there will always be and history shows that millionaires were made in the past during the very hard times.
That is a lot. Do you have a schedule for it, or is it random?
This is what most people never see - they only see the reward at the end of a rainbow - not the rain that allowed it to be there.
Oh man! Yes we have schedules that never work like they should. Imagine this, you shut down and go out as a cut off is expected at 10am. Then you get back after 3 hours to discover that there was no shut down. At other times they simply shut down "at short notice" and everything halts midway, as you have not received the emergency notice.
So right and we were taught that you get back what you put in. So many people expect instant riches with no efforts. No rain, no rainbows!
I believe is a way of minimizing the limli of supply in other for it to be sustainable due to the hike in price
Not in this case. They are struggling to generate enough, as they are missing some resources.
That great, in my country the reverse is the case, they even privatise the company to solve the issue of power outage,but still yet we are still suffering the same thing
Depending where you live, privatization can just lead to more corruption.
the system is more corrupted than before.
Heating is essential on colder days. We have an advantage as we can bring and buy gas pipes according to our needs, we don't have to pay the bill, as is the case for water and electricity. I find it a great solution.
Is it expensive to heat with gas?
The time has come for rational thinking about making great use of renewable energies to combat electricity shortages in affected areas. I find it as a single solution in order to fill the energy needs.
One of the challenges in Australia is, transporting electricity - it has to go a long way and I don't think they can create enough renewable locally.
For those who seek it, there is always the capacity within us humans to strive through the toughest circumstances. I read a book about prisoners in concentration camps during World War 2 and how they managed to find hope in an otherwise hopeless situation.
I can understand being tired, but we must never resign ourselves to a doomed fate
Something that stuck by me, was hearing the stark difference between the two types of people who did make it out of the concentration camps - whether they saw themselves as victims or survivors. On average, the victims struggled, the survivors flourished.
Mindset is everything it seems
There used to be electric cuts many times in my country in 90s. It has not been so after 2000s, but who knows there might be compulsory electric cuts in the near future due to energy crisis.
After reading this i am remembering the time when i was a child although the situation was almost opposite . That time very hardly we got the chance to use fan or AC. Load shedding was in peak level. It was very irritating situation when load shedding occur in the time of sleep . In our area the effect of heat of sinlight remained till late night. Thankfully in current time we generally don't face load shedding because supply of electricity has increased.