How do you prep for power cuts?

[EveLevine]

When I first started prepping I figured I didn’t need to worry about power. We had a gas hob with electric oven for cooking, gas heating with electric fan heaters for back up. I thought it unlikely gas and electric would be off at same time so I thought we were ok.

Since then, boiler has been condemned and the replacement needs to be plugged into electric to work, and we’ve had to remove the gas hob as SN DC is fascinated with switches and knobs and kept accidentally turning on the gas. Which means we are now totally reliant on electricity.

Last week our electric went off for a couple of hours - we coped fine but I suddenly realised how vulnerable we’d have been if it was winter.

So I’m looking to prep for power cuts, but there’s so much choice! I’ve been looking at camping stoves, ghillie kettles, or solid full burners. But there’s so many options I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Just wondering what others use? And what’s easiest/simplest to use?

Solar radio is handy (also excellent for gardening) I have a fire pit too. My gas stove works with the electricity off.

Generally, it is better to avoid using candles in blackouts, especially if you have kids or pets, unless you are really certain they are in safe holders where they won't accidentally get knocked over. It is better to use battery-powered or solar lanterns. Make sure you store LED lanterns with the batteries out as if you don't use them for a while, the batteries can leak and destroy the lanterns. For my camping lanterns, I keep the batteries by them in a ziplock bag.

Fruchoc...fucking genius about Longlife milk...

I'm currently sat in the dark due to a power cut caused by a massive thunderstorm. (I'm not in the UK.)

We discovered that we only had batteries for 2 of our 3 LED lanterns. Check your batteries!

I'm currently wishing we had solar powered outdoor lights and power banks for our phones.

Fortunately we have a gas hob so no worries about tea in the morning if the power is not back on.

When we organised our wood heater, I was adamant that it would have to be designed to have space for pots on the top.

Ours is “open plan” but if you go down this route, make sure that both fire and pots fit into your space.

A large milk bottle container filled with water makes a good lamp if you tie a headtorch to it, with the light shining through the water.