Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted the country is not facing a gas supply crisis, and said: "I think Britain can deal with these problems."

"There are always difficulties when we have a long spell of bad weather. But we can cope," Mr Brown added.

Factories in the north-west of England and east Midlands are today having their energy supplies cut off for the first time in years as the severe weather and creaking power infrastructure lead to 1970s-style rationing.

If they cut me off there'll be hell to pay.
Our house is freezing if the heating isn't on most of the time and our son wakes up every hour if his room is cold. He sleeps through if it's warm.

The factories affected have signed up to this. They have a tariff with their suppliers which is quite low, on the proviso they get cut off in times of stress. They're not just being closed down by government edict.

Ironically gas fired power stations, which are very large gas users as you'd expect, get cut off before domestic customers. If that happens and causes a blackout or brownouts in the grid then most people's heating will shut off as gas central heating normally requires an electricity supply to work. People with gas fires (or any type of solid duel/oil fired method of heating) will be in a better position than those with just central heating.

So, that's something to look forward to.

Every central heating system that I've seen required an electric pump to move the water around the heating circuit. My parents have an oil burner so should probably get a small diesel generator, enough to power the central heating, fridge and freezer in case (when) the lights go out.