Preparing a home for winter power cuts

By SGWNI. Checked on 2 November 2026.

To prepare a home for a winter power cut, plan for losing your heating as well as your lights. Citizens Advice says most gas boilers need electricity to start, and heat pumps and electric storage heaters won’t work either. So the things to sort out before winter are warm layers and blankets, a torch, a charged power bank, a battery or wind-up radio, and food that doesn’t need cooking. You may already own much of that.

What stops working

• Heating. Most gas boilers, heat pumps and electric storage heaters. SGN, a gas network company, says a boiler that stops should start again when the electricity comes back.
• Cooking. Electric and induction cookers won’t work. Citizens Advice says gas ovens usually won’t either, because of a safety feature. A gas hob may still work, but you may need to light it with long matches or a gas lighter.
• Phones. Broadband stops, and so does a digital landline unless it has a back-up battery. Mobile networks can be affected too.
• Medical and care equipment. Anything that plugs in, including telecare alarms.

Before winter

For warmth. Find your blankets, sleeping bags and warm clothing. Citizens Advice suggests finding and cleaning them, including any for babies and young children. Be Ready’s advice for keeping warm is to close doors to rooms you aren’t using, close curtains, and wear layers. Several thin layers work better than one thick one.

For light. Keep a battery or wind-up torch and spare batteries together, somewhere you could reach in the dark. Be Ready says torches are safer than candles, and Citizens Advice says to avoid using candles as lights. If you do use one, Be Ready’s fire advice is to keep it in a proper holder, away from anything that could catch fire.

For news. A battery or wind-up FM radio, with the frequencies of your local stations written down.

For phones. Keep a charged power bank. Write down important numbers on paper. Ask your provider whether your landline works in a power cut. If you’re a vulnerable customer, you can get a free back-up battery unit, which should keep the line working for at least an hour. Our power station runtime calculator shows what a bigger battery would run, if you’re thinking about one.

For safety. Fit a carbon monoxide alarm that meets British or European standards (BS Kitemark or EN 50291), and have gas appliances checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Be Ready says the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty appliances goes up in winter.

For food and water. Keep 3 days of food that needs no fridge and no cooking, a tin opener, and 3 litres of drinking water per person per day. The Be Ready checklist covers the rest. Include any baby formula, pet food and medication your household relies on, and keep a little cash in case card payments are down.

For information. Find out who your electricity network operator is, and look up your load block letter at powercut105.com or on some bills. It’s only needed in the unlikely event of rota cuts during a national energy shortage, which Be Ready says would usually last around three hours at a time.

If someone in your home needs extra help

Sign up to the Priority Services Register. It’s free across England, Scotland and Wales, and Northern Ireland has separate Care Registers. It’s open to people of pensionable age, people with a health condition or disability, those who rely on medical equipment, and households with children aged five or under, among others.

Being registered can mean advance notice of planned cuts, a priority phone line, and help if you rely on medical equipment. You only need to register with your electricity network operator, which shares your details with your gas and water companies.

If anyone uses medical equipment, Be Ready says to make a plan now with their care provider or clinical team.

When a storm is forecast

• Check the Met Office, and take National Severe Weather Warnings seriously.
• Charge phones, power banks and any back-up batteries for medical equipment.
• Tie down or bring in anything that could blow around.
• Check on anyone nearby who may need help.

When the power goes off

1. Report it. Call 105 in England, Scotland or Wales, or 03457 643643 in Northern Ireland, or use your network operator’s website.
2. Stay away from fallen power lines. High-voltage electricity can jump gaps.
3. Switch off and unplug. Turn off irons, ovens, electric fires and fryers, and unplug TVs and computers to protect them from surges.
4. Keep the heat in. Move into one room if you can, with doors and curtains shut, and add layers. Older people, babies, young children and people with long-term health conditions are most at risk from the cold.
5. Check on neighbours. Share what you’ve got.

In a life-threatening emergency, call 999 or 112 from a mobile if your landline isn’t working. Emergency calls can roam onto other networks. If you smell gas, or suspect carbon monoxide, call the gas emergency number: 0800 111 999, or 0800 002 001 in Northern Ireland. If you think someone has carbon monoxide poisoning, the NHS says to stop using the appliance if you can, go outside and get medical advice.

Heating and cooking safely

Never use a barbecue or camping stove indoors. The FSA says most are designed for outdoor use only. Don’t try to heat a room with a gas cooker: US public health guidance says never to heat a home with a gas range or oven, because of carbon monoxide. Keep any portable heater well clear of curtains and furniture.

Food in the cold

Keep the fridge and freezer shut. A fridge should stay cold for up to 4 hours, and a freezer for up to 48 hours if it’s full or 24 if it’s half full. Those are the FSA’s estimates, and the power cut food checker uses them to go through your food item by item.

Winter does give you one extra option. The FSA says that if it’s below 8°C outside, you can store food outdoors, in a sealed box, somewhere clean and dry, out of direct sunlight and away from animals.

After the power comes back

Reset any heating timers, and check your food before you eat it. After a long cut, you may be owed compensation. Ofgem’s rules set out how long your network operator has to get you reconnected, and the time allowed is longer in severe weather. Most payments are automatic. Your network operator pays, not your energy supplier, though the money may come through your supplier. Cuts caused by a national power shortage aren’t covered.