What to Do When the Power Fails

The first hour, the first night and keeping food and people safe

5 minIntermediateUpdated 2026-10-23 What to Do When the Power Fails

You will learn

Work through the first-hour checklist calmly
Keep food safe and know when to throw it away
Use light, heat and cooking safely without electricity

⚠️ Never use generators, barbecues, camping stoves or fuel heaters indoors or in a garage. Carbon monoxide kills without warning.

⚠️ If anyone in your home depends on powered medical equipment and the outage may last, contact their provider or local emergency services rather than waiting.

⚠️ Fit a carbon monoxide alarm if you have any fuel-burning appliance.

The first hour

Check whether the whole street is dark or only your home; if only yours, look at the consumer unit for a tripped switch. Report the outage to your electricity distributor, whose emergency line is printed on your bill, and check their website or radio for an estimated restoration time. Switch off and unplug appliances that were running, especially heaters, cookers and computers, so a surge on restoration does not damage them, but leave one light switched on so you know when power returns. Get your head torches out and put your phone on low-power mode. Then check on any neighbour who lives alone or depends on medical equipment.

💡 Save your distributor's emergency number in your phone now. In Portugal for E-REDES it is 800 506 506.

Keeping food safe

Keep the fridge and freezer doors shut. A closed fridge keeps food safe for about 4 hours; a full freezer stays frozen for about 48 hours, a half-full one for 24. After that, use a thermometer: any perishable food, meat, fish, dairy, cooked leftovers, that has been above 4 degrees Celsius for more than 2 hours should be thrown away, even if it looks and smells fine. Food that still contains ice crystals can be refrozen. If you have warning, freeze water bottles to fill freezer gaps and turn the fridge to its coldest setting. When in doubt, throw it out; food poisoning during an outage is a bad combination.

Light and phones

LED torches and head torches are safer than candles, which start hundreds of house fires every year. If you must use candles, put them in a sturdy holder on a plate, away from curtains, and never leave them lit in an empty room or overnight. Keep phones for essential calls and information; turn off Bluetooth, dim the screen and use text messages, which get through jammed networks better than calls. A car can charge a phone through its socket, run with the engine going in the open air, never in a garage. A wind-up radio gives you official updates without draining anything.

💡 A head torch pointed at the ceiling or into a white bowl lights a whole room softly.

Heat and cooking without risk

Never bring a barbecue, camping stove, generator or patio heater indoors or into a garage, even with a window open. They produce carbon monoxide, which is colourless, odourless and kills people in their sleep every winter. Cook outside on a balcony or in the garden, or eat cold food from your kit. To stay warm, gather everyone into one small room, close doors and curtains, wear layers and hats indoors, and use blankets and sleeping bags. Body heat in a small room with the door shut makes a surprising difference. If you have a fireplace or wood stove, use it, but keep the flue open and the room ventilated.

Water, heat and medical needs

Electric pumps and treatment plants may stop with the power, so fill containers and the bath while pressure lasts, and follow the water storage lesson. In hot weather an outage is a heat emergency: close blinds during the day, open windows at night, wet clothing, and check on elderly neighbours every few hours. Anyone relying on powered medical equipment, oxygen concentrators, home dialysis or refrigerated medicines should call their provider's emergency line immediately and, if needed, go to a hospital or a friend with power. Insulin keeps at room temperature for a limited time; check the packaging and ask a pharmacist.

💡 Register household members who depend on medical equipment with your electricity distributor. Many keep a priority list.

Check yourself

How long does a closed fridge keep food safe during an outage?

An unopened fridge holds a safe temperature for around 4 hours; after that, perishable food above 4 degrees for over 2 hours should go.

Why unplug appliances during a power cut?

Power often returns with a surge; unplugging protects electronics and prevents heaters or cookers from switching on unattended.

Where is it safe to run a camping stove or generator during an outage?

Any fuel-burning device indoors or in a garage produces carbon monoxide, which is invisible and can kill in hours.

Which frozen food can be refrozen after an outage?

If ice crystals remain the food has stayed cold enough to refreeze; fully thawed perishable food should be discarded.

Try it for real: Run a two-hour practice outage

One evening, switch off the lights and unplug non-essential appliances for two hours
Make dinner from your emergency kit food without using the cooker
Find and use your torches, radio and power bank, and note what is missing
Save your electricity distributor's emergency number and write a fridge and freezer note with the 4-hour and 48-hour rules