Wanna Buy Some Cheap Candles Mate? And AA Batteries 3 for the price of 2.

Does anyone know in detail what went wrong ?

Media reports state a "cable fire" But it seems rather surprising that a single fire or other fault should affect such a large area. No duplication or redundancy ?

And as regards candles and batteries, I have well over a thousand candles, and a hundred alkaline D cells. D cells cost about twice as much as AA cells but contain about 8 times as much energy. Duracell industrial D cells can be found on line for about £1 each if buying a box of 50. Confirm expiry date before purchase. One fleabay vendor has them at about £36 for 50 at present, but with only a few years shelf life.

Energiser "ultimate lithium AA cells" are IMHO worth stockpiling despite being rather expensive. They have a shelf life of 20 years from production and typically 19 years from purchase. About £1 each on line if buying a large number.

Candles for emergency lighting should be of the "household" or "dinner candle" type. Expect to pay in the region of £30 to £40 per hundred. White gives the best light, any light colour is almost as good.

I don't keep candles.  The fumes from a paraffin wax candle can be quite nasty in an enclosed space.  With modern LED torches, there's little point anyway if what you are looking for is emergency lighting, rather than a candlelit dinner.

Go for beeswax candles - less smoke and less soot. I thought the battery of choice these days were the rechargeable metal hydride ones rather than the old alkaline ones.

For a long power cut disposable alkaline batteries are in my view the best bet.

Rechargeable batteries are of very limited use without mains power for charging. Solar chargers are of little use in most UK conditions.

Alkaline D cell has a capacity of about 18 ampere hours. Rechargeable consumer grade D cells are about one tenth of that capacity. Industrial rechargeable D cells at 4 amp hours are a bit better but still much less than a disposable cell.

A  cheap consumer grade solar powered charger will NEVER charge an industrial D size cell in winter. A good quality solar charger should charge it in a week or two. 

Candles are fine with normal ventilation and provide significant warmth. 

broadgage said:

Rechargeable batteries are of very limited use without mains power for charging.

That's a very good point.

Slightly changing the topic, just before going up to daughter-in-law's new build for the final phase this month, I decided to get a new head torch. The north-facing back of the house tends to be rather gloomy and I was getting fed up of the short life span of AAA batteries so I bought a rechargeable one made by Silva.

On full brightness, it doesn't last a full shift, but neither are 600 lumens required. On that setting, the lamp gets too hot to touch! So for day in, day out working, either I'd get another battery or one with a higher capacity, but also a greater weight to wear around the head.

If push comes to shove, I could recharge via one of the USB sockets in the car, but they also sell battery packs designed for disposable batteries, so the best of all worlds. Highly recommended!

I don't suppose that Price's factory shop in Battersea is still going - it's been a while since I called in.