Yeah, I ripped off a lot of common practise in Germany in particular to re-present it in my blog - the point is that there is no way the energy gap will be filled in time, whatever we build, as the time is just too short, even though they probably won't close some of the coal plants they now say they will for emissions reasons, so conservation is the first option:
http://energy-futures.blogspot.com/2008/02/conservationour-best-route-to...
Please note that since writing this I have changed my mid about residential solar thermal, which originally thought ineffective in the UK as it does not provide much hot water at peak in the winter, and hence would not help the grid much.
It is now apparent that the situation is so dire that any contribution at all is needed, but insulation is still much more cost effective.

The thing is though that Germany and Denmark have addressed their problems on a long-term basis, and so have super-insulated large portions of their housing stock, use a lower proportion of gas, have better stockpiling arrangements and long term supply contracts etc - in other words they are far better prepared than the UK, although not so well as France with it's nuclear contribution.

In the UK we are just going to have to patch something up on an emergency basis, or freeze, hence my attempt to show some quick bodges to reduce energy use, even if it means living in one room.

I have personally bought greenhouse-type bubble plastic, which I will use to seal the windows if we get power cuts.