I lived without mains electricity in West Cork for a few years in the early eighties. We eventually got a diesel generator, a huge Lister engine that thumped away in the shed for a few hours every night giving us a certain amount of light and running the washing machine. We had it rigged so that turning out the last light at night would automatically switch the generator off and we would lie in the dark listening to it winding itself down to silence. We also had paraffin lamps and candles and I don't remember missing the mains electricity though I'm sure I did. Our house was high on the hill and during the many power cuts the rest of the parish could see our light shining on. We were a feature of the night landscape where every light meant a person or family alone in their stretch of darkness. We got the mains electricity at the end of 1987 and relaxed into an easier life.
In May 2015 I found myself without electricity again. But this time I was living on the main street in Dun Laoghaire where everyone has electricity, everything is electric and I was taking electricity very much for granted. The cut off was like a slap in the face and I sat in my newly silent house sipping a hot drink made from the last boil of the electric kettle and felt stunned.
When action returned I tracked down my landlord who immediately emailed the relevant piece of information to Electric Ireland but when I phoned them they informed me that they could not open my landlord's email for two days. They took my phone number and said they would phone me back.
As it turned out by the end of the two days of enforced waiting I had put the electricity free system in place that was going to last me four months. Which was lucky because they never did phone me back.
The thing that happened to me with the electricity cut off was that I discovered my town. No washing machine? Never mind there is a friendly and efficient laundry two doors down. No broadband? Never mind there is a cafe two doors in the other direction equally friendly and glad to see me, thank you Two Beans. Though I later discovered that the wifi from the pub across the road reaches conveniently to my desk which is inside my front window - thank you Gilbert and Wright! But mostly the lack of electricity budged me away from my all electric desk where I had been firmly lodged and walked me around my town.
It became my habit to do the researching part of my case work in the library every day. This gave me somewhere quiet and pleasant to work and charged my computer which meant I had another three hours of computer time at home. I charged my phone in the car. I ran a paper free office and emailed receipts because of course I had no printer. I found a printer – I mean a man, not a small electric humming thing that gobbles expensive ink – three minutes walk away who did an excellent job of printing my leaflets.
Life settled into a new rhythm. I have a gas cooker so I wasn't stuck for cooking though I burnt out two saucepans before I bought myself a kettle with a whistle. Apart from that whistle a house without electricity is very quiet; no radio, no podcasts, no you tube, no Netflix, no washing machine, no fridge. All those plugged in things hum and groan. I did miss the fridge but I soon got into the habit of buying only what we needed each day. 2 big supermarkets downtown - 2 minutes walk away.
I started to love the silence and the candle light. I washed by candle light in the basin with water ladled from a pot heated on the gas, the softness and slowness of it a pleasure. I would get up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and the 'flup' of the lit match and the glow of the candle would hardly disturb my sleepiness compared to the unrelenting crack of a light switch and the startling bright of the electric light. Reading in bed by torch light was another unexpected pleasure because you don't have to lie with your book angled to the light, rather your torch can follow your every turn. But night time light was another thing that the town thoughtfully provided – we had only to open our window blinds for the room to be filled with street light.
