A Beginner’s Guide to Power Cuts

A power cut can be anything from a minor inconvenience lasting half an hour to something that completely changes how your household functions for a day or more. It isn't just a case of the lights going out either. Depending on your home and the cause of the outage, you could lose heating, internet access, cooking facilities, phone charging and some forms of communication. Even gas boilers and some gas cookers rely on electricity to operate, while a wider outage can sometimes affect mobile networks and, in some circumstances, water supplies.

The good news is that preparing for a power cut doesn't have to mean buying an expensive generator or covering your roof in solar panels. A better place to start is by thinking about the things you would actually miss and working out some simple alternatives.

Start With Light

Lighting is one of the easiest things to sort out. Keep a few torches somewhere you can actually find them in the dark, along with spare batteries if they need them. A rechargeable lantern can be useful too, particularly because it can light an entire room rather than leaving you trying to use your phone torch all evening.

Official UK guidance recommends battery or wind-up torches and notes that they are safer than candles. It is also worth thinking about where you are most likely to need light. Stairs, bathrooms, the kitchen and the room where everyone normally sits are obvious places.

There's not much point having six torches if they're all buried in a cupboard somewhere you can't remember. Make them easy to find and make sure everyone in the household knows where they are.

Keep Your Phones and Communication Going

Your mobile phone becomes much more useful during a power cut because it may be how you find out what has happened, receive alerts and contact other people. Keeping a charged power bank is therefore one of the simplest bits of preparation you can make.

At the same time, don't assume your phone will solve every problem. During a prolonged or widespread outage, broadband and mobile networks can also be affected. Keeping important telephone numbers written down and having a battery or wind-up radio gives you another way of getting information.

In England, Scotland and Wales, 105 is the free number for reporting a power cut and contacting your electricity network operator. Having it written down somewhere is useful because you might not be able to get online to look it up.

This is one of those areas where a little preparation makes a big difference. I tend to take the same approach with gardening and other practical skills that I share on YouTube: don't wait until something goes wrong to work out how it works. Knowing where things are and having a basic backup plan is usually more useful than buying lots of equipment.

Think About Food Before Gadgets

One of the simplest questions to ask is: if I couldn't use my normal cooker tonight, what would we eat?

You don't necessarily need an elaborate emergency cooking system. Keeping a few foods that can be eaten cold or require very little preparation gives you an immediate backup. Tinned fish, beans, fruit, bread, crackers and other shelf-stable foods can all be useful.

Once you've covered the basics, you can decide whether you actually need an alternative cooking method. If you do, make sure you understand how to use it safely.

Never bring a barbecue, camping stove or other appliance designed for outdoor use inside the house to cook or provide heat. These can produce dangerous levels of carbon monoxide as well as creating a fire risk.

Growing some of your own food can also fit into this wider approach to household resilience. It won't replace the supermarket, but having a supply of vegetables, herbs or potatoes from the garden can be useful. That's one of the reasons I enjoy sharing my gardening experiences on YouTube — there are lots of small practical skills that add up over time.

Protect the Food You Already Have

When the power goes off, try not to keep opening the fridge and freezer just to see whether everything is still cold. Keeping the doors shut helps them retain their temperature for longer, and UK government guidance specifically recommends keeping fridge and freezer doors closed during a power cut.

Having some shelf-stable food in the cupboard is useful for the same reason. You don't immediately need to start emptying the freezer and trying to cook everything before it warms up.

If an outage lasts for a significant period, you'll need to consider food safety and follow current official guidance rather than relying on assumptions about how long particular foods remain safe.

Heating Can Become the Bigger Problem

A power cut in summer and one in January are very different situations. Many modern heating systems stop working when the electricity goes off, including gas boilers and heat pumps.

For a short winter outage, the priority should be keeping people warm rather than trying to heat the entire house. Wearing several layers, using blankets or sleeping bags, closing curtains and concentrating people into one room can all help reduce heat loss.

Don't try to improvise indoor heating with an oven, barbecue, camping stove or fuel-burning equipment that isn't designed for indoor use. Carbon monoxide is particularly dangerous because you cannot see or smell it.

If you have particularly vulnerable people in the household, or a home that becomes very cold quickly, it is worth thinking about this part of your plan before winter rather than waiting for the first major outage.

Find Out What Actually Needs Electricity

One of the most useful things you can do costs absolutely nothing. Walk around your house and make a mental list of what stops working when the electricity goes off.

Does your boiler stop? What about the electric shower, induction hob, garage door, internet router, freezer or security system? Does anyone rely on electrically powered medical equipment?

You may discover that some things you assumed would continue working actually won't. Once you know what the consequences are, you can decide which problems genuinely need a backup and which ones you could simply live with for a few hours.

This is much more useful than starting by buying equipment.

Backup Power Comes Later

Portable power stations, solar panels, generators and larger battery systems can all have a place in household resilience, but they don't necessarily need to be the starting point.

First work out what you actually need to keep running. Charging a phone requires very little electricity, whereas running a kettle, electric heater or cooker uses considerably more. A backup system that is perfectly adequate for phones and lights may not be suitable for heating or cooking.

Working out your priorities first means you are much less likely to spend a lot of money on equipment that doesn't do what you expected.

For most beginners, I would start with lighting, communication, food and warmth, and then look at backup electricity once you have a clearer idea of your household's actual needs.

If Someone Relies on Electricity

If someone in your household depends on electrically powered medical equipment or would be particularly vulnerable during a power failure, this needs more careful planning.

Speak to the equipment provider or relevant healthcare team about what should happen during an outage and what backup arrangements are appropriate. It is also worth looking into the Priority Services Register, which can provide additional support to eligible households during power interruptions.

This is one area where general preparedness advice isn't a substitute for advice specific to the person and equipment involved.

Start With the First 24 Hours

You don't need to prepare for a two-week blackout tomorrow. A much more manageable starting point is to ask whether your household could comfortably get through the first day without electricity.

That might mean having some torches and spare batteries, at least one charged power bank, food that doesn't depend on your normal cooker, some stored drinking water, blankets and warm clothing, important telephone numbers written down, including 105, and a way of receiving information if your internet isn't working. If anyone relies on essential electrical equipment, make sure the appropriate backup arrangements are already understood.

Once that feels straightforward, you can think about whether preparing for 48 hours or several days makes sense for your household and whether additional backup power would genuinely be useful.

The same principle applies to the other practical skills I share through my gardening videos. You don't have to learn everything at once. Start with the basics, work out what matters to your own household and build your knowledge gradually.

Resilience isn't about recreating normal life perfectly when the electricity goes off. It's about making sure the basics still work well enough that a power cut becomes manageable rather than a crisis.