A power cut can stop heating, cooking and home internet together. The UK government’s Prepare site lists gas ovens, boilers and heat pumps among the things that need electricity. Mobile signal may fail if the local mast is affected, and mains water could also be disrupted. Several household needs can depend on the same supply.
The principle: reduce the dependencies that would leave your household unable to meet essential needs, while keeping dependable routes to help.
A torch can provide light without mains electricity. A power bank can recharge a phone, but it can’t restore a mobile mast. Stored water lasts for a finite period. When it runs out, you still need a provider or someone able to collect more.
Choose preparations that fit ordinary life: food you eat and replace, numbers you can find on paper, and neighbours you’ve agreed to help. For each need, ask what would still work if its normal service disappeared.
Make the food reserve part of normal shopping
Build around food your household already eats, accounting for allergies and other dietary needs. Keep suitable ready-to-eat food alongside ingredients for normal meals. Prepare recommends food that doesn’t need cooking and a tin opener.
Rice and dried beans need water and heat at the point when both may be short. Read the preparation instructions and check what your cooking appliance needs to work. Count those requirements before treating the food in the cupboard as an available meal.
Check the cupboard before shopping. Cheshire East Council’s food-waste guidance recommends planning meals, checking existing stock and bringing older items to the front. Apply that routine to the reserve: eat from it during normal meals, replace what you use and keep track of the amount left.
Add an extra suitable item when the budget allows. Choose one no-cook meal from the cupboard and check that the person who needs it can open and eat it. Eating from the reserve in ordinary weeks shows you what’s missing while the shops are open.
Test the backups before you need them
Find the torch and switch it on. Connect the power bank to your phone with the cable you’d use. Tune the radio to a station and write the frequency down. Prepare recommends a battery or wind-up radio for updates during a power cut.
Don’t switch off the mains or any medical equipment to rehearse a cut. Test the torch, radio and power bank individually, following their instructions. Then ask another household member to find and use them. Check they can do it without your help.
Keep contact details and essential instructions on paper. Prepare suggests keeping notes with the torch or radio, somewhere easy to find in the dark. A charged phone won’t help you retrieve a number that’s only in an email you can’t open.
Choose your next purchase
Start with anything whose failure would quickly put someone at risk. Then use the checks you’ve made to decide what’s still needed. The order depends on the people in your home.
If someone relies on powered medical equipment, start by making an outage plan with their care provider or clinical team. Find out what action is required, who to contact and what the equipment needs. Buying a power bank for a phone doesn’t answer those questions.
A missing tin opener has a specific job if it makes stored food accessible. A second torch can wait if the people who need light can already get it. Note what each new item needs to work: batteries, a cable or somewhere the user can reach.
Ready Scotland, the Scottish Government’s preparedness site, recommends building a kit over time. Its list includes three days of bottled water and food that doesn’t need cooking. Use that as a starting point, then work out what happens when your own supplies run out.
Power can stay off longer. After Storm Arwen in November 2021, over 74,000 customers were without electricity for more than 48 hours. The final homes were reconnected after 13 days. The report measures electricity restoration.
Count the water you can actually provide
Worked example: water for three adults. Prepare says there’s no standard quantity for every household or emergency. It cites the World Health Organisation’s survival minimum of 2.5–3 litres of drinking water per person per day. At 3 litres each, three adults for three days need 27 litres.
The same guidance gives 10 litres per person per day to include basic cooking and hygiene. For the same three adults and three days, that’s 90 litres in total. Extra water may be needed for baby formula, medical devices and pets.
To see how long a store lasts, divide the litres by the number of people, then by the daily rate. Nine litres divided by three adults, then by 3 litres each, is one day of drinking water. Record the amount you can store and the uses it covers. Check whether the people who need the bottles can reach and handle them.
Work out how you’d get more before the reserve ran out. Prepare advises checking your water provider’s arrangements for alternative supplies. Find out how to get updates, where collection might take place and who could collect water if you couldn’t.
Your water company has its own Priority Services Register, separate from the energy registers. Ask about eligibility. Prepare says that registered customers will have alternative supplies arranged for them. If you believe you’re registered and haven’t received support during an outage, contact your water company.
Agree the help you may need
Prepare suggests swapping contact details with neighbours and asking whether they’d need extra support. Discuss practical help you could offer or need: collecting water, carrying supplies or checking on someone. Agree what each person is willing and able to do. A neighbour’s car or tools aren’t part of your plan until you’ve discussed their use.
For check-ins, decide who will contact whom, how the check will happen if calls fail and what to do if there’s no reply. Prepare’s advice for disabled people and carers recommends a trusted-person check for users of telecare or other alerting services. It advises carers to contact emergency services during an emergency if visiting is dangerous or they can’t reach the person who relies on them.
In England, Scotland and Wales, contact your energy supplier and network operator about their Priority Services Registers. Eligibility includes state pension age, pregnancy, young children, disability and long-term medical conditions. Contact gas and electricity suppliers separately if they’re different. If you switch supplier, ask to join the new register.
The energy registers offer extra support during emergencies and advance notice of planned cuts wherever possible. Prepare says the equivalent registers in Northern Ireland are called Customer Care Registers. Registration doesn’t promise uninterrupted power or a fixed restoration time.
Keep reporting numbers on paper: call 105 in England, Scotland and Wales, or 03457 643643 in Northern Ireland, to report a power cut. Call 999 if someone is in immediate danger. If your own mobile network has no signal, still try 999 or 112. Prepare says emergency calls can use another available network. They still need network coverage.
Fix one thing, then keep it working
Choose one need and check the backups covered here: the torch, radio, power bank, stored food and water, or paper contacts. Record anything missing: a working item, access to it, someone’s agreement or a way to get more supplies. Fix that before you add anything else.
Replace consumed food, check water labels and recharge power banks and rechargeable batteries according to their instructions. Put the next check in your calendar and decide who will do it. Leave a specific next action beside each need you still can’t meet.