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, while mobile signal and mains water may also be affected. Several household needs can depend on the same supply.
The aim is to reduce the dependencies that would leave your household unable to meet essential needs, while keeping dependable routes to help. A torch provides light without mains electricity, whereas a power bank can recharge a phone without restoring the mobile mast it needs. Stored water gives you time, but you’ll still need a provider or someone able to collect more when it runs out.
Choose preparations that fit ordinary life: food you eat and replace, numbers you can find on paper, and practical help you’ve agreed with neighbours. 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, taking account of 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, so you can eat without relying on a working cooker.
Rice and dried beans need water and heat, both of which may be in short supply during an outage. Read the preparation instructions and check what your cooking appliance needs before counting the food in the cupboard as an available meal.
Cheshire East Council’s food-waste guidance recommends planning meals, checking existing stock before shopping and bringing older items to the front. Apply that routine to the reserve by eating from it during normal meals, replacing what you use and keeping track of what’s left.
When the budget allows, add an extra suitable item. Try making one no-cook meal from the cupboard and check that the person who needs it can open and eat it. Using the reserve in ordinary weeks lets you discover what’s missing while the shops are open.
Test the backups before you need them
Find the torch and check that it switches on, then connect the power bank to your phone with the cable you’d use during an outage. Tune the radio to a station and write down its frequency. Prepare recommends a battery or wind-up radio for updates when the power is off.
Test those items individually, following their instructions, without switching off the mains or interrupting any medical equipment. Once you know they work, ask another household member to find and use them without your help. That checks whether the equipment is accessible as well as functional.
Keep contact details and essential instructions on paper. Prepare suggests storing notes with the torch or radio, somewhere easy to find in the dark. A charged phone won’t help you retrieve a number from an email you can’t open.
Choose your next purchase
Start with anything whose failure would quickly put someone at risk, then use your checks to decide what’s still needed. The order depends on the people in your home and what they rely on.
If someone uses powered medical equipment, make an outage plan with their care provider or clinical team. Establish what action is required, who to contact and what the equipment needs. Buying a power bank for a phone doesn’t resolve those requirements.
A missing tin opener deserves attention if it makes your stored food accessible. A second torch can wait if the people who need light can already get it. For each proposed purchase, check what else it needs to work, such as batteries, a particular cable or a storage place 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 consider how you’d obtain more if the disruption continued.
After Storm Arwen in November 2021, over 74,000 customers were without electricity for more than 48 hours, and the final homes were reconnected after 13 days. Those figures describe electricity restoration, rather than the duration of water disruption.
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. Using 3 litres each, three adults would need 27 litres for three days of drinking water.
The same guidance gives 10 litres per person per day to include basic cooking and hygiene. For three adults over three days, that comes to 90 litres in total, including drinking water. Baby formula, medical devices and pets may create additional needs.
To calculate how long your store would last, divide the litres by the number of people, then by the daily allowance. Nine litres divided by three adults, then by 3 litres each, provides one day of drinking water. Record the amount you can store and which uses it covers, checking that the people who need the bottles can reach and handle them.
Before that reserve runs out, you’ll need a way to replenish it. 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, so ask about eligibility. Prepare says registered customers will have alternative supplies arranged for them. If you believe you’re registered but 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 specific help you could offer or need, such as collecting water, carrying supplies or checking on someone. Establish what each person is willing and able to do before counting their car, tools or time as part of your plan.
For check-ins, agree who will contact whom, how they’ll do it if calls fail and what should happen if there’s no reply. Prepare’s advice for disabled people and carers recommends a trusted-person check for people using telecare or other alerting services. During an emergency, it advises carers to contact emergency services 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. If different companies supply your gas and electricity, contact each one. If you switch supplier, ask to join the new register.
These 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 guarantee uninterrupted power or a fixed restoration time.
Keep the reporting numbers on paper: 105 in England, Scotland and Wales, or 03457 643643 in Northern Ireland. Call 999 if someone is in immediate danger. If your mobile network has no signal, still try 999 or 112, as emergency calls can use another available network. They still need network coverage.
Fix one thing, then keep it working
Choose one household need and check the preparations covered here: the torch, radio, power bank, food, water or paper contacts. Record what’s missing, whether that’s a working item, access to it, someone’s agreement or a way to obtain more supplies. Address that specific problem before adding another purchase.
Replace food as you use it, check water labels and recharge power banks and rechargeable batteries according to their instructions. Put the next check in your calendar, agree who will do it and leave a specific next action beside each need you still can’t meet.