Ask HN: How do I/you prep for the energy crisis in EU?
As someone living in one of the countries in the North I can't say I am too alarmed by the looming energy crisis (maybe I have lived over too many crisis already and at some point this alarmism loses its meaning).
Having said that, I am interested on what measures others are taking to prepare for it? It's not like we can just store energy right? Stocking up on foods if the prices increase too much?
Things I've done were just to replace few older bulbs with LEDs and turn of some of the unnecessary appliances (like a second freezer). Installed solar power last year and an air source heat pump.
My pellet burner is still going to be the main source of heat/hot water though.
Got pellets at the start of the year (with only 80% premium over last year, now the prices are 3x of what they used to be ), have wood to offset use of pellets and even some coal [just in case].
Replaced every bulb with LEDs from IKEA. Set all rooms in the house to 18-19 c.
Going to heat my home office/bedroom to 20-21 c only during the day/while being there. 20c is incredibly warm. As a broke college kid living on the east coast we kept the furnace at 55F (13C) all winter. Wear a jacket. Double socks. Drink warm beverages. Get up and do some push-ups. If you’re reasonably young and healthy, you’ll survive. Note for anybody reading: don’t actually do this if possible, it’s bad for cardiovascular health [1]. 1. https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-... Finally some evidence about indoor cold. I'm nearly getting slaughtered by my entire extended family since literally everyone in Lithuania believes every respiratory (and some kidney and bladder) diseases are caused by: * Not wearing socks and slippers indoor * Having draft indoors, even when it's +30C outside * Going outside after shower with wet hair * Air conditioner Problem with 13C in many European houses is that will get mold at 13C. The insulation prevents any ventilation. > Get up and do some push-ups I’m just gonna ask now because I’ve seen it so often. Is this an idiom or is there some kind of expectation people can do push ups? Personally I can do a bunch of pull ups but I don’t think I’ve ever done a single proper push up. Judging from obesity stats I’d expect like half the populace to not be able to do either. You must have pullups and pushups backwards. I'd bet most people can do 0 pullups but can do pushups. most folks can do a leaning pushup, where you lean against a counter, table or wall and push yourself up. with practice you can progress to lower objects and eventually a full push up. I have a hard time typing when I'm cold. Putting on jackets doesn't seem to help, unfortunately. I can't imagine trying to work in a 55° room all winter. (Heated) fingerless gloves? I previously worked with a developer who told me of an employer he had while working in Russia who would turn off the heating. He told them to type faster for warmth. Not sure the gloves would help much. >If you’re reasonably young and healthy, you’ll survive. I'm not.
The lower limit of my comfort zone is 19c, anything colder and I can't work. In my case the problem is that I literally can’t work (meaning, program) if the temperature is less than 22C. Warm clothing, hot drinks, nothing helps. Tried many times. Hope that electric heating will still be legal. Heat the space immediately around you. Don't bother with central heating. Get a small electric blanket that you can have on your lap. If you are feeling more adventurous I got through a cold winter where the heating broke when I was a student with a mix of warm clothing, blankets, and doing exercises to keep warm. When you start getting cold, do some press-ups/squats etc. If you are feeling really adventurous I would recommend going outside wearing less clothes than you want to, just trousers and a shirt/jumper. When you get really cold head back in and it will seem positively warm! Another way of doing this is cold showers. I'd say heat the person, not the space. Following on from the Electric Blanket mention, I'd recommend a heated vest. I have one made by Arris [1], and it has a 7.4V battery. Following a tip in an Amazon review, I
contacted their customer services and got a voucher for a second battery at half price. Last winter, I used it a lot when WFH to avoid the temptation of using the boost on the central heating. With two batteries, one can be charging while the other is in use. According to my meter plug it was economical to charge. I found it worked best with a thin base layer underneath the heated vest, and a good fleece over it. There are several heating areas on the front and back, and I found that the battery lasted best by starting at the highest heat setting and then stepping down through the levels as I warmed up. Very useful when sitting still long periods at your computer. And of course the advantage over a blanket or electric fan is that you can walk around with it on. [1] https://www.arrislife.com/products/arris-heated-vest-size-ad... > I'd say heat the person, not the space. I agree, but OP seemed a bit reluctant to try that so I suggested the next best thing. Thanks for the heated vest suggestion. >Hope that electric heating will still be legal. Air source heat pump (split AC unit) is the way to go.
Those things have efficiencies of 200-600%. I am renting my apartment in Switzerland, where split AC installations are prohibitively expensive ($3000 or more for a single unit) and usually forbidden by landlords. At this point finding a unit and someone to install it might not happen until 2024 in some places. Yes you can. No, many can't. Yes, you can live and survive at colder temperatures, but concentration requires no distractions, and the constant slight pain caused by being cold is enough distraction to completely derail any train of thought. Concentration does not require no distractions. It’s the mechanism to avoid distraction. I take it you don’t have ADHD? The reason people with ADHD often work while wearing noise-cancelling headphones even with no audio playing is because this mechanism doesn’t properly work, it can’t tune out anything. As result, we need to minimize external stimuli to be able to concentrate. And being uncomfortable due to the cold is one such stimulus. Decreased comfort = decreased productivity. On an individual level people can cope but on a societal level it’s a real issue. I want a society full of productive people so I want investment in clean energy supplies and high performance buildings. That's interesting. I realize you can argue about people in general (e.g. 21 is still fine with me!), but how can you negate someone else's feelings? It's like replying "no, you are not" to someone saying "I'm sad." Lol yeah, it's like how I say I can't live with these health problems. Yeah, I can, it turns out. Our bodies can take a loooot more stress than we think. My office is in a cool (64F) basement. Something I've found works to warm me up is to do a bunch of squats and pushups when I'm cold. If you're able to, perhaps try doing 10 squats then 5 pushups on repeat 3-5 times until you're warm/hot. I find the warmth lasts about an hour and has the side effect of also warming my office a degree or so. You can get heated office chair covers, think like a car's heated seats but for office chairs. They pull about 30W and made a big difference when I lived through Illinois winters. Make sure you office is the smallest room and get a space heater to keep it at your desired temprature If your office is the smallest room, then you get fast to high CO2 concentration in the office. My office is in fact the smallest room, just enough for a table, a chair and my homelab (a bunch of rPIs, some network equipment, a few servers). All the electronics keep the room relatively warm, so most of the heating is actually turned off in that room :) Some extra things I do. My combined water boiler is set to turn on/off on schedule. When running off electricity it only heats water during the night. Some other appliances are also set to work on schedule.
Washing machine, dish washer etc... usually run overnight. All computers are set to sleep after 10 min of inactivity.
The only things that are on 24/7 are APs, a few cameras and a NAS. I also have a garden. I grow/pickle my own tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, apples, prunes, mushrooms, nuts, berries.
But not potatoes, since those are cheap to buy. I think in total, it would be enough to last for 3-4 months. You still had non-LED bulbs? We moved almost exclusively to them over 8 years ago in India. While Gas heating may be rationed, I doubt electricity as a whole will be so: - Move to more energy efficient dwellings - Get good insulating windows - Get an AC/heat pump - Substitute old appliances with more modern and efficient ones - Get an induction stove, much more efficient than a gas stove - Thermal clothing does wonder. - You can easily sleep in a cold room if your bed is properly insulated, if you are still cold consider heating your bed with an electric heater. - If you take frequent showers/baths, consider doing some of them with cold water (which has a lot of health/cognitive benefits btw), for baths you can easily install a filtering/reflow device like the one used for small pool, insulate the bathtub, for showers simply use less hot water / less water in general. - Almost all EU states should have programs in place to ease these sort of upgrades > if you are still cold consider heating your bed with an electric heater. Even just a hot water bottle would go a long way. My state has published plans for electricity usage limits just today. It would be really weird if we were the only ones. It highly depends on the energy mix of your country, but some countries may actually be in for a difficult winter. You can store energy of course and even hoard it which increases the problem. Here in Poland first there were 2 week lines for coal and now there is none. Pellet has gone up in price 3x. Electric price has gone up 2-3x. Gas supply is in question. The government has said to burn anything for heat you can get your hands on which means low quality coal, peat and trash. Even if I have energy, my lungs would pay the price. Some people are running the numbers and realizing that they can temporarily move to a warm country for the price of their heating and electric bills. Are people actually going to freeze? My understanding so far is that industry will freeze (as needed) so that all the reserves can be used for people. I get a feeling that this crisis is becoming more media-gorging-on-crisis-clicks than it is an objective analysis. Industry doesn't freeze as needed. It freezes indefinitely. Once something is out of business it's out of business and will either be outsourced or bought up by bigger fish. When industry dies the social safety net dies, it will happen when the Euro looses its value, in which case money printing will no longer be possible without hyperinflation. And a devalued Euro is only useful if there is still an industry left to export things. Once that happens people will actually freeze. A lot of people still don't grasp that de-industrialization is already happening. In Europe, major metal smelters, chemical manufactures, etc are already off line or shutting down soon. And the way factories work, you can just shut them down and fire them back up at a later date - they need to run continuously. Additionally, these are not only large employers, but greatly contribute to the tax revenue which support the generous welfare states. It's not looking pretty. https://www.ft.com/content/46d3c3fb-e79a-464c-afe1-7079d3e4f... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-17/energy-cr... Some people are absolutely going to die, but then we are talking very large numbers and most policy produces casualties of some sort. You are most likely talking older and poorer people. Some will maybe get sick due to insufficient money to heat, some will die from monoxide poisoning from using unfamiliar and improper stoves. Realistically, some people might freeze. Especially older people. Every year, there elderly folk die from not being able to afford to heat their homes. This year, it'll be worse for them. It's very likely the number of old people dying due to not being able to afford heating will skyrocket. Slovakian ministers are talking about people having to go into the woods secretly to cut down wood to set on fire. There are countries where they are fully expecting people who work for a living not being able to afford to heat their homes. People are going to die over this. > Are people actually going to freeze? Yes. An average of 9,700 deaths each year are believed to be caused by living in a cold house, according to research by National Energy Action (NEA) (UK). Why do you think that with less heating, or the same heating cost 4x the amount, the situation would be better? At this point maybe nobody knows this for sure.
IF industry is going to have an energy-problem, then everybody else WILL have a financial problem (and many become poor - we heave just now 9% inflation and industry is running fine, what will happen if it isn’t running anymore).
And IF gas for private heating will be scarce, then everybody WILL have a problem with electricity (since many will heat with electric and kill our grid). It’s not for sure but MAYBE we have a problem.
So maybe it’s a good idea to have a plan B to warm some canned food up. Or how we say in Germany: Besser man hat als man hätte. France has a plan and that plan has multiple steps and phases and the last one involves some electricity blackouts for citizens but it's the very last step. So far. France has the capability to selectively cut off some neighborhood from the grid and they plan to do 2 hours rotations if need arises. I don't know if they are going so far as moving people out of their house to gather them in a larger building that is easier to heat. Quite frankly, I don't expect to hear about the real plans before mid-october. Never understood rationing. If electricity is cut off for 2 hours won't residents use double the electricity in the following 2 hours after supply is restored? For example I won't run the wash during the cut off time but I will most definitely do after it's reconnected. If it were a once-off incident like that, perhaps, but if everyone knew they'd only get, say, 8 hours electricity a day over several weeks, I don't doubt they'd use less than having it available 24 hours a day. I think the reason is also to optimize load on the grid to prevent losses. If we have a mild winter, rolling blackouts won't be necessary. I know the government reached some industrials which were usually left off energy offset plans (basically processing factories), so this might be serious, but honestly, people heating with electricity should be fine. > Are people actually going to freeze? If I had to guess, I'd say much more than usual, but not a calamitous amount like millions or anything. Every winter, elderly who can't take good care of themselves succumb to cold or illness. For one winter, I'd say that most average people will be able to survive, albeit uncomfortably doing things like burning through their remaining savings or getting deeper into debt, huddling in bed together or wearing thick layers indoors, and finding trees to chop down for wood if desperate. This prediction is just for 1 winter. If this situation lasts until the next winter, people/governments will be even more screwed financially by then and the outcome will likely be calamitous then. > My understanding so far is that industry will freeze (as needed) so that all the reserves can be used for people. Real economies aren't video games that have a pause button. We learned during Covid that shutdowns that are labeled as temporary are not so. Supply chains get ruined: machines and spare parts and needed chemicals get harder and harder to find. Businesses can't afford to pay rent and wages for months with no income and have to shut down. Truly skilled employees with real domain knowledge use the shutdown to retire early or change careers and their knowledge of processes is lost. Etc. And this isn't a normal time where the governments of the world can really go further and extend themselves to really help and minimize the impact: they blew themselves out financially overreacting to Covid and are insisting on blowing out whatever remaining financial resources they might have to endlessly signal their virtue against Putin. Not sure that sounds much better? No production, no money, no jobs. Everything in the media is a load of "WE'LL ALL DIE TOMORROW" bullshit these days. Just to get people's attention. Shit will be fine. > Shit will be fine. For highly payed ivory tower folks, yes. For everyone else, it's going to be difficult. Energy is everything in modern society. I'm near the bottom of the wage list and even if energy costs triple, I'll do fine. Not sure what others are doing. Depends on what you mean by "fine", too. Are you in Europe? Some predictions are that the average family will have to spend upwards of 30% on energy there. Right, and that would be an extra ~100 Euros/month on utilities for me. Say it's about as much for fuel if you have to drive every day. Luckily I can get to work using my feet. Not great, not terrible. It may be a wise time to discuss consolidating households with family/neighbors so you need to heat fewer structures, you can spread the cost, and you can pool resources. If it’s not necessary, great, but if it’s bad enough you have a plan. If you do this, make sure to drain the taps so that they don't freeze and burst. Beyond your personal life space preparations -- build out your literal social network. Who do you know who is old and frail and might need looking in on?
Who do you know who has very young children?
Who do you know who is good at cooking? Who might need food? Who can coordinate getting it to them?
Who do you know who has a big enough house to host a warm potluck meal over the winter every week or so? Do you have enough people to rotate houses? Look for what in the US is sometimes called a mutual aid group. If you don't have one: pick two friends, make one. In the process of installing roof solar (which I would've done this or next year even if the energy prices didn't spike). Also, expect to allocate larger budget for gas & electricity bill. I do expect the govt. to cushion the blow for consumers tho, so I'd be surprised if my bill ended up 600% up, but it won't break the bank. Writing from Netherlands that has one of the highest Gas/power/fuel prices in the EU. 1. I live in a large three story townhouse. Admittedly too big for my family of 3. I’m going to leave the top floor unheated (I have under floor heating, so I can turn it off on a per room/floor basis). 2. Turn off my PC when not in use, and most other appliances. 3. Switch to a shower for my little one that enjoys the bathtub and hot water :-( and shorter showers for us adults. 4. Generally keep the temps lower than what we used to. 5. This summer I already replaced the radiators with under floor heating. I could not get hold of a air to water heat pump yet because eod the supply chain. At some point that will help close off Gas at home. Switched from Gas stove top to induction. 6. Solar panels will be installed in December/January(earliest I could get someone to install on the roof)! Not sure what else I can do.. Also in the Netherlands in a similar-sized house. I like your idea of turning off an entire floor (in my case the top floor where we sleep), as heat goes up anyway. Just not sure if this is possible to set up with a heat/water unit (warmtepomp). My country (Netherlands) has 80% of it's gas supplies ready to go if I can trust the news. I have just moved into a poorly insulated house but I'm not too worried. We can always move into our caravan which we can heat on 600W if really necessary but you know, perhaps some thermo underwear? I already always had the temp at 19 deg C so 17-18 should be ok with a blanket on the couch? In bed I don't mind 10 deg C. So far, until December gas has gone up for me about 2x (now 1.67 eur/m3 or so? Whereas electricity is at 0.48/kWh, so up about 2.4 fold compared to 2 years ago), meaning about 300 eur/month for gas, ~150 for electricity which is not a real problem for us... yet... I guess for January 2023 the price may go up much higher... There is some hope for gas prices, as other countries are steeping in to replace russias' (hopefully permanently) The Netherlands is sitting on a big gas field [0], but we were in the process of winding down production because of houses getting damaged in the area. A time will come when production will be ramped up again I think, perhaps when it has become economic to just compensate all damages. I'm not that worried. My flat is heated by a gas heater, that is supplied by a tank somewhere outside. That thing only has to be filled up occasionally (idk how often, maybe once a year or so?), so i'm usually just paying for the price the landlady paid for it. Also, my flat is properly insulated and loses very little heat. Power might be a bit of a problem. I don't think it's going to go out, of course, because my little corner of Germany is connected to a bunch of hydro and solar power plants and there is the nuclear power plant "Isar" only a 100 km from here, which probably will be running if things go bad. But it's the price i'm worried about. There is some legislation coming up, that may help with that, though. I stayed in an unheated apartment this weekend in the mountains and it was truly cold. We ended up building a little tent over the bed with blankets. This make me realize that the curtained canopy bed may be making a comeback. Yeah, this is miserable by modern standards, but it's not really that big a deal. Wear a ton of layers. Get a space heater or equivalent, close the door, and heat one room to something tolerable (10C/50F, say). You can do that in typical winter weather with just a few hundred watts, so even a gaming PC will probably work. Electric heating blanket works pretty well. Oh how I wish the Airbnb had one! We will be taking our space heater with us on trips from now on. If you plan to use electric heater, switch to AC - regular heater or whatever have efficiency of mere 100%, while AC is a heat pump and can transfer heat at 200-500+% efficiency This is quite good advice. The trick that that the portable AC units most people have in EU require an open window for the vent tube and create a positive or negative pressure which can push all your savings right out the window. If you have a split wall unit with a heat exchanger outside then you are in good shape. Could you elaborate a little on this? I have a free-standing air-conditioner that I got because temperatures hit records this year, are you saying I should put the cold side of it outside and pipe the tube into my home? Split A/C units (like ceiling mounted ones) are uncommon in most of Northern Europe residential buildings.. Unfortunately those free standing units create a pressure differential and you will see all your hot air pushed outside. The split units use a fluid line to the outside to exchange temperature, so you would need one of those. They are awesome and in Germany you can get up to 45% installation cost help I don’t (in Italy). Since I’m a bit forward looking and exactly one years ago (August 2021) I switched my electrical and gas contracts to fixed prices (for 4 years, another 3). So I’m paying the same as one year ago. Obviously I’m always thinking about saving for others, but I don’t necessarily need it! Funny thing is that one year ago always was saying me “a fixed price will cost you more, font do it”. Now I’m laughing, there were all the signals of the rising of energy prices. I bought an electric blanket so I can warm myself in a cheaper way at least part of the time. This is a good idea. Also you can do things like use a radiative electric heat dish and point it at a high backed chair to create a little heat bubble in a room and not heat the whole room. Not a lot really. I've arranged so machines I left running 24/7 previously are off a lot of the time and that I can power them on remotely if needed. One of those boxes used to host backups, those have moved to a single SSD (lower power) in the low-power box that acts as my router and the external copies are still on RAIDed drives. One of the things powered off is the media array (its RAIDed volume is where those backups lived, they still do but are only updated when it is on obviously). I've toyed with the idea of moving more out external hosts, but with their prices going up too and announcements that for the next while UK residential fuel prices will be capped I need to find a little time to run some calculations to see if that would save anything and if that anything is enough to be worth the hassle. I might have the heating on less (mainly by setting the thermostat defaults lower, partly by hitting the boost button less) over winter. Maybe I'll finally replace the old oven. Partly because a new one might be more efficient, though mainly because I've been thinking of doing that for ages as it is ancient and possibly on its last legs. Might get the gas fire that hasn't been turned on for years serviced, so I can heat just the living room at times instead of the whole flat via central heating, though without taking time to work out the maths I don't know if that is likely to make much difference to a small place like mine. Though I do really have to do much, having the luxury of being comfortable enough that the extra cost is only an irritation, not a life changing problem that it might be for people who are struggling financially already, and my place is pretty well insulated. I looked into things like that before, but you really need to look at your overall consumption first. For me, it would be like removing a crumb (PC) while the loaf of bread (heating) is still there. The PC is a rounding error compared to the heating, so I would be better off focusing on insulation and preventing heat loss. I am 100% electric, though. Same as you really. Turned off an extra fridge we could live without. May turn off some other devices over night, but as they're all energy saving they probably won't make much difference. I did get a massively reduced bill last month though. The only thing I can really ascribe that to is only filling the kettle with minimal water, and getting my son to turn his gaming pc off when he's not using it! > May turn off some other devices over night, but as they're all energy saving they probably won't make much difference. I've seen some iffy advice for adding smart plugs to everything (in at least one case in an article sponsored by a smart device manufacturer, go figure, though that fact was not exactly clear in the headline or main text). It is one of those things where the maths often doesn't work out: will that media player or microwave on standby really consume significantly more power than the smart-plug with built-in wireless (and the alexa/google/other hub to control it if needed)? And would it not be just as easy to flick the switch yourself given you won't need to use it remotely? I am adding smart plugs to some things, but for convenience (that “being to lazy to physically go to the switch and press it” factor) more than power saving. > and getting my son to turn his gaming pc off Can set a "Hibernate if idle after X minutes" instead. Good idea... I have been seeing this meme about the kettle recently. I ran the numbers and you are talking a few cents per boil even at current energy prices. You’d have to be drinking truly epic amounts of tea to see it affect your electric bill. > You’d have to be drinking truly epic amounts of tea to see it affect your electric bill. That was based on comments from the outgoing UK PM. I don't drink the stuff myself, but “epic amounts of tea” is not an unusual concept amongst many of my friends over here. I do drink epic amounts of tea! But I'm sure it really isn't responsible for the vast majority of my energy usage. Its the only real change I made though over the last month, so not sure why my usage has dropped... Make plans to take a 2-3 month vacation to the southern hemisphere. I have a fireplace at home. Perhaps I might want to go seek some wood for it. Everything will be fine though, unless there are widespread blackouts, which I doubt (Switzerland’s electric energy balance is sane enough). Most of the heat from a fireplace goes right up the chimney. I don't know what your options are in Switzerland, but a wood stove or a fireplace insert might be worth looking at. If you have a supply of wood, of course. You actually can store energy. But it depends on if you have a house or an apartment, but you can get a Goal Zero or Jackery "off grid power station" which is basically a large power bank. That can keep your most essential tools like phones, or small camping coolers cold for days if you have medicin that needs to be kept at a stable temperature (certain proteinbased medicines or like just noraml insuline are temperature dependant). for heating energy, you can just get like i did several camping stove gas cartriges or just go off and buy a Propane tank, which will last very very long. Central Banks are hiking rates in a panic and that will likely crash economic activity and energy prices will fall again. The current conditions are unlikely to be future conditions in a perfectly straight line. None of the advice in this thread around conservation and solar/etc is bad, though, since reducing your energy bill also helps if you lose your job, but i'd be concerned if you decided to go into large amounts of debt right now. You'll probably get a better deal on that solar conversion in a year or two (provided that you've still got a job and the funds to do it). I started by nailing up my windows and adding two layers of bubble wrap to the wall. Every family members has 7 liters water per day (drinking included). Eating will be done mostly cold. /s Scandic Northerner here.
I've made sure I have rice several kilos, a couple of bags of dried legumes like lentils, and beans for proteins, and a few boxes with crushed tomatos. For lights everything is LED, and I have bought 20+ camping gas stove cartridges for my itawani stove. A 100+ of candles for power outages (3-5 boxes of 30 normal Duni long candles) and about 400+ paraffin tea candles. Live in an old thick stone blrick building with insulation, but still buy thermal underwear if you font have it and get used to wearing layers of clothing. How is your insulation? If you want to live with something slightly dangerous, one candle is about 80 watts of heat, and enough of them will heat a room. Moist air heats better than dry air, so be mindful of the humidity and maybe add a humidifier. Not one of the ultrasonic ones, they are garbage -- especially if you have hard water. You want an evaporative one with a wick and fan(s). With that being said, it's easier to heat yourself than it is to heat the living space, so bundle up! > Moist air heats better than dry air This is sort of true, but only because the density of humid air is lower, and thus the heat capacity (though IIRC the specific heat of gaseous water is actually quite a bit higher than N2/O2, which takes back a lot of that benefit). There is no meaningful change in heat conductivity given that the medium is a (highly convective) gas, obviously. The overwhelming majority of the energy used to heat your "living space" doesn't go into the air anyway, it's used to heat the walls and floors and furniture which make up the bulk of your home's mass. Being able to heat the air around your candle rapidly doesn't change anything, because that air will just cool down when it hits the ceiling. Dry 18°C air _feels_ significantly colder than humid 18°C air. Doesn't humid air also retain the heat longer than dry air? As for the air cooling down when it hits the ceiling, this is true.. for a period of time. In an ideal situation you have a significant amount of insulation on the other side of the ceiling which inhibits thermal loss. In my case, I have a heat pump and electric resistance backup. A few years ago I added a whole-house humidifier, which made my home feel significantly warmer at the same set-point and reduced the amount of electricity that I used each month under similar weather conditions. I no longer live in the EU, but one of the habits that I've taken with me is canning. Pickles, tomatoes, green beans, etc. It just requires salt, vinegar, the veggies, and some jars (and space, obviously). Solid addition to any meal. More on this, I grew potatoes recently in my garden and stocked them in my garage. A tote of potatoes can last a couple people for months. It requires potatoes, some sand and a cool, dark place to keep it all. Layering. I live in Canada, where it gets quite cold. I live in an old, drafty house. Like, the wind literally whistles through it. The temperature is kept at 18°C during the day. We wear our wool socks, fleece-lined pants, and several layers of shirts. It absolutely sucks — but it isn’t the end of the world. Edit: TIL that 18°C is positively balmy compared to how some run their houses! If you can get access to a consumer grade FLIR camera (I have an old Cat s60 phone, but there are standalone devices you can connect to phones available), you can find areas in your house or apartment that are leaking heat and then apply additional insulation material to those areas with some heat reflecting material on them. Last winter we switched from gas to wood for heating - average temperature in flat was around 20°C. And we stay with wood this year and next. It's fun, kids love it. And it's relaxing to stare at fireplace with crackling. And that's it. We are used to be economical with energy. Awesome website I discovered on HN a while back. Here's the link to the heating tag to checkout various articles that could help you. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/tag/heating-and-cooling.ht... I already use as little as possible, so I don't prepare. I do want a solar installation for myself though. Realistically? Just steel myself to pay more for heating the house and everything else. I'll probably be playing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frostpunk. > It's not like we can just store energy right? Yes, you can purchase lithium-ion-phosphate batteries, charger/inverters, and high-gauge conductors readily on Amazon and Aliexpress. > Stocking up on foods if the prices increase too much? I mean, you should already have a chest freezer stocked with meats, 500 gallons of water, and 400lbs of dry rice/wheat/beans, as a bare minimum, right? Or are you one of those people who considered preppers "crazy", and deserve exactly what's coming for not procuring basic insurance whilst denigrating the people who did for their "insanity"? Following some basic energy saving tips, but most cutting down on other expenses so that I can afford any energy bill that might come my way. Nothing really. My apartment is quite warm for reasons unclear to me. Maybe residual heat from neighbours > residual heat from neighbours I miss the old lady who used to live under me. My winter heating bill increased when she left for hospice care and a skint young'n' moved in! Which means that if they turn off their heating, you'll be affected too. For those of you that are location independent, where are you moving for the winter? Looking at Tenerife south... Thinking of getting heat pump washer/dryer and heat pump hot water cylinder. I live in the French Riviera… I don’t remember the last time I wore a jacket… Disclaimer: not in the EU, but have lived through some natural disasters that involved power loss for extended periods of time. So this is some kind of general advice. If you own your home and you haven't already, do an energy audit [0]. Pay especially close attention to window and door seals. These wear out over time. You can lose a surprising amount of heat through these, and they are very inexpensive to fix. If you have ducted HVAC, check the ducts for leaks as well. Adding additional insulation if possible will also help. Figure out what your biggest energy sinks are. In most homes the HVAC is the biggest power draw. After that you're looking at major appliances like stoves, washers and dryers, refrigerators, water heater and the like. If you can replace these with more energy efficient versions, it may be worth considering. For ones you can't, figure out ways to use them less. Close off areas you aren't using. If you have rooms in your home/apartment that are largely unoccupied or only occasionally occupied (like a home office), close them off and consolidate into fewer rooms. If it gets especially cold, close the vents if you have ducted HVAC, seal the doors with tape and put a blanket at the bottom of the door. This will help further seal the heat into the occupied areas. But be careful that you don't cause pipes to freeze by doing this. Stock up on foods you don't need power to cook. Shelf-stable canned goods are a good bet. It won't be gourmet, but it will keep you alive. If you are in an area that stays suitably cold throughout the winter you could use a cooler outside for food storage instead of a refrigerator. If you have alternative means of heating (like a fireplace) go ahead and prepare to start using that a lot more. Get supplies like firewood or pellets now and, if possible, be sure you have enough to last you through the winter with increased usage. Find the lowest temperature you can tolerate at home, even if that means you may have to wear a light coat inside. Monitor your usage regularly. If your utility provides realtime or near realtime usage information, find that now and get in the habit of checking it often. If not, figure out how to read your meter and check it at least daily. And finally, just try to find ways to not be at home. If you can go work in an office or even a coffee shop, that's a few hours you won't have to keep your home as warm. Try to make your home just for sleeping and adjust the temperature in the home when you are away accordingly. Having a programmable/remote thermostat helps here. [0] https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/do-it-yourself-home-energ... just booked my tickets for Turkey, will stay there for couple of months Buy a small reactor from Rolls Royce. Bought some coal for the winter months. Also going to use wood - but I have enough of my own. There is no any crisis if u don't read the news. It's not too late to invest in mining and energy extraction equities - many are still highly underpriced before the major funds roll into the sector What are some examples of equities to look at? I'm sure that will keep you warm. Barring a sudden, total collapse, money is the best prep once you have the basics covered.