If the power goes off, report it on 105, keep the fridge and freezer doors shut, use a torch rather than a candle, and never cook or heat with a camping stove, barbecue or generator indoors. For a cut that lasts a few days you need six things at home: light, a radio, a way to charge your phone, water, food you can eat cold, and warmth.
This guide is for an ordinary local power cut: your street, town or area loses power, the network operator is fixing it, and the rest of the country carries on as normal. A widespread or national power cut is a different situation: it lasts longer, more things stop working and the risks are greater, so the advice changes. Read If it's more than a local power cut below as well.
Most power cuts are short. The government's Prepare guidance asks households to be ready for an emergency lasting a few days, and a three-day power cut is a sensible length to plan for. This guide covers what to do when the lights go out, what to do about the fridge, how to stay safe, and what a three-day kit looks like, including what our own customers actually buy.
When the power goes off
- Check whether it's only your home. Look at whether the neighbours' lights are out too. If only your home is affected, check your fuse box or consumer unit before assuming it's a network fault.
- Call 105. It's free from mobiles and landlines in England, Scotland and Wales, and puts you through to your local electricity network operator. In Northern Ireland the number is 03457 643643. Write it on paper now, because you may not be able to look it up later.
- Use a torch, not a candle. The Prepare guidance says torches are safer than candles, and a torch is one less thing to knock over in the dark.
- Keep the fridge and freezer doors closed. Every time you open them, the cold gets out (more on this below).
- If someone at home needs extra support, ask about the free Priority Services Register (thepsr.co.uk). It lets your network operator know you may need help during a cut.
Information and your phone
Your router won't work without power, and mobile networks can be busy, so a battery or wind-up radio is the most dependable way to hear what's happening. Tune it to your BBC Local Radio station on FM and write the frequency on the radio now, while you can still look it up. Keep a portable power bank charged for your phone.
A radio that also charges a phone does both jobs. The Midland ER300 Pro charges by USB-C, hand crank or solar, and has a 10,000 mAh battery that Midland says can charge a smartphone twice over. If you want something simpler, the Midland ER100 is a hand-crank radio. Our emergency radio guide compares the options.
Food and the fridge
The Food Standards Agency's advice for a power cut gives these estimates:
- A fridge should keep food cold for up to 4 hours.
- A full freezer should keep food frozen for up to 48 hours, or 24 hours if it's half full.
- Once the fridge reaches 8°C, eat the food that normally needs refrigeration within 4 hours.
The times depend on your appliance and the room, so treat them as a guide and use a fridge thermometer if you have one. When you do need to eat, the FSA's order is: chilled food first, then defrosted food that doesn't need cooking, then perishable food kept at room temperature, and last the tinned, bottled and dried food. Cupboard food is not affected by a power cut.
After the fridge, you are eating what's in the cupboard, so food you can eat cold matters. That means tins, ration blocks and freeze-dried meals. Freeze-dried meals are best with hot water, but cold water works if you can't heat any: they just take longer. Our guide to freeze-dried pouches and tins explains the difference.
Water
The Prepare guidance quotes the World Health Organisation's minimum of 2.5 to 3 litres of drinking water per person per day, and suggests around 10 litres per person per day if you want enough for basic cooking and hygiene. For three days, a household of four needs 30 to 36 litres at the minimum, and around 120 litres to be comfortable.
Start by storing what you can. A 10 litre collapsible jerry can folds flat when it's empty. Then think about treating water you can get hold of: water purification tablets are the cheapest way, and our guide to water filters covers filters. Tablets and filters treat water that exists. They don't create it, so store drinking water first.
Cooking and heating without carbon monoxide
Barbecues, camping stoves and generators give off carbon monoxide, which you can't see or smell. UK gas networks and fire services are consistent on this: never use a camping stove, a barbecue or a generator indoors, or in a tent, even with the windows open, and never use them to heat a room. A barbecue that has finished cooking can still give off the gas while it smoulders.
The safe plan is simple. Eat cold food indoors, and if you want something hot, cook or boil water outdoors. A Kelly Kettle boils water over a wood fire, so use it outdoors like any other stove. If anyone has a headache, feels sick or dizzy, or becomes drowsy, get everyone into fresh air and get medical help. Do not go back in until it has been checked.
What a three-day kit looks like
You don't need a bunker. The Prepare guidance suggests building a kit gradually, and this is the short version, for a household, with what we stock for each:
| You need | What covers three days | From us |
|---|---|---|
| Light | A torch per person, with spare batteries | Nextorch P8 torch |
| News and phone power | A battery or wind-up radio, and a power bank | Midland ER300 Pro (radio and power bank in one) |
| Water | 2.5 to 3 litres per person per day to drink, more for cooking and washing | Collapsible jerry can, purification tablets |
| Food | Food you can eat cold, and a tin opener | Ration blocks, freeze-dried pouches |
| Warmth | Warm clothes and blankets, and something that holds in heat | Space blanket |
| First aid | A first aid kit, and enough of any medication for several days | First aid kit |
If you'd rather buy it in one go, the Three-Day Basics Kit with Radio is the ER300 Pro, jerry can, tablets, matches, space blanket and a ration block in one box, and the Power Cut Basics Kit is the same without the radio, with a headlamp for light instead. Both cost a little less than the parts bought separately. First aid is the one line you still add.
We looked at our own orders for the last 12 months. Most people who buy a radio come back for water purification tablets first, then a collapsible jerry can and waterproof matches, and about half buy the radio on its own. Most people sort light and news first, then come back for water, which is why water comes second in this guide and not last.
If you've been without power for 12 hours or more
You may be owed compensation. Ofgem says homes get £100 if fewer than 5,000 properties lose power for more than 12 hours, or if more than 5,000 do for more than 24 hours, plus £45 for each extra 12 hours. Severe weather has its own rules. Most payments are automatic, and if you haven't been paid after a few months you should contact your network operator.
If it's more than a local power cut
Everything above assumes a local power cut. The government's Prepare guidance on power cuts says most are short and local, but that wider and longer power cuts can happen, lasting several days, and that a national one, although unlikely, is possible.
A national power cut, meaning a total loss of power across Great Britain, is officially described as very unlikely, and it is planned for. The UK's four Chief Medical Officers have published the health advice they would broadcast in one (Public health advice from UK CMOs during a national power outage, December 2025). They note that phone, internet and television services would be disrupted, so emergency messages would be limited to radio broadcasts.
If a power cut is wide, or goes on past a day or two, the advice changes:
- Don't rely on 105 or a quick fix. Reporting the cut helps when it is local. In a wide power cut the network may be busy or down, so use your radio for updates and keep 999 for real emergencies.
- Expect more than the lights to be affected. Prepare says gas boilers, heat pumps and your home internet won't work without power, your mobile may lose signal, and your mains water supply could be disrupted. Shops, cash machines and fuel pumps also rely on electricity, so supplies and payments could be hit as well.
- Stay at home and look after your household. Don't set out to travel or restock unless you have to. Roads, shops and services may be under strain, and what is safe can change quickly. Follow official instructions on the radio: BBC Local Radio on FM, and BBC Radio 4 on FM for national news.
- Be ready for public order to break down if it goes on. A local power cut rarely causes trouble, because help and supplies are close by. A national one is different. If it lasts more than a day or two, with no phones, no card payments, no fuel, shops running short and the police and emergency services stretched thin, theft and disorder become a real possibility. Keep your doors locked, keep your supplies out of sight and don't tell people what you have, avoid crowds and queues, and stick with your household and the neighbours you trust.
- Look after your neighbours. Check on older or vulnerable people nearby, share blankets or food if you can, and pass on anything useful you hear on the radio.
- Find out your load block letter. In the unlikely event of a national energy shortage, emergency cuts could be scheduled area by area, for about three hours at a time. Enter your postcode at powercut105.com to find your letter.
The kit in this guide is the same, but you may have to rely on it for longer and without shops to top up from. That is the case for water, a charged radio, food you can eat cold and a way to keep warm: they matter most when a power cut is wide.
Ten minutes to do now
- Write 105 and your BBC Local Radio frequency on a piece of paper and put it with the torch.
- Charge the power bank and the radio, and check the torch batteries.
- Fill a jerry can or a few clean bottles with drinking water.
- Find out whether you or someone at home could join the Priority Services Register.
- Look in the cupboard and count how many meals you could eat without cooking.
If your question isn't answered here, ask us. We reply within 24 hours, every time, and we've shipped over 10,000 orders since 2020.
