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Situation guide · power cut

The power's off. Here's the order to do things in.

Most UK power cuts are back on within a few hours. This page takes you from the first minute to the morning after. It covers what to check, what to leave alone, and what keeps your fridge, your heating and your household safe while you wait.

Reviewed 17 Sep 2026 ·9 min read ·Free to read
The first 15 minutes Print the one-page plan

Do these three first · 2 minutes

1

Find a torch (not a candle)

Your phone torch will do for now. Candles cause most power-cut house fires.

2

Check your trip switches

If your neighbours have lights, the fault is probably inside your home.

3

Leave the fridge shut

Closed, a full freezer holds for about 24 hours. Opened, far less.

Call 105 Free from any UK phone. It reaches your network operator rather than your supplier.
In Northern Ireland, call NIE Networks on 03457 643 643.
A UK terraced street at dusk during a power cut, with dark streetlights and one window lit by a torch
Power cuts affecting a whole street are the network's job to fix. Cuts affecting one house are usually yours.

The first 15 minutes

Work out what kind of power cut this is

Three checks. They decide what you do next.

Is it just your home?

Look out of the front and back. Streetlights on, neighbours lit, your house dark: start at your consumer unit.

Reset one switch at a time

If a switch trips again immediately, unplug everything on that circuit and try once more. If it still trips, leave it off.

Get the restoration estimate

Call 105 or check your network operator's live map. The estimate is what everything below plans around.

The plan

Six steps, in the order of importance

You don't need to do all of this. Steps one to three cover a cut of a few hours. Four to six are for an evening that turns into a night, or a cut in cold weather.

01 0–5 MIN

Light the house properly

One torch per person beats one lamp per house. A head torch leaves both hands free for stairs, meters and kettles. Put a torch where you'd find it in the dark next time: by the bed rather than the shed.

  • Drop your phone to low power mode now, while you still have charge to ration.
  • Turn off anything that was on when the power went: hob rings, iron, oven, immersion heater.
  • Leave one lamp switched on so you know the moment the supply is back.
02 5–15 MIN

Report it, then find out how long

Call 105 and give your postcode. You'll be told whether the cut is known, how many homes are affected, and when the power should be back. Write the estimate down somewhere everyone can see it.

Under 3 hours

Do nothing clever. Keep doors shut, stay off the fridge, wait it out.

Over 6 hours

Work through steps three to five, and plan an evening meal that needs no oven.

03 FIRST HOUR

Protect the cold food

A closed fridge and freezer are a working cool box for the best part of a day. Every time the door opens you spend an hour of that. Decide now what tonight's meal is, take it out in one go, and don't go back.

How long food stays safe in a fridge or freezer that is kept shut, and what to do next
Kept shut Stays safe for Then
Fridge ~4 hours Move milk, meat and leftovers into the freezer or a cool box.
Full freezer ~24 hours Cook what has thawed but is still cold. Never refreeze it raw.
Half-full freezer ~12 hours Fill the gaps with newspaper or bottles of water to slow the thaw.

Placeholder figures for the template. Replace with the timings you want to stand behind before publishing.

A fridge and a freezer standing closed, with three increasing amber marks for the four, twelve and twenty-four hour hold times
Fridge and freezer hold times, kept shut.
04 FIRST 2 HOURS

Keep the heat in one room

Most central heating stops with the power even when the gas is still on, because the pump and controls are electric. Pick the smallest room with the fewest outside walls, shut the doors, and keep everyone in it.

  • Layers and a hat indoors do more than any heater you don't own.
  • Close curtains as soon as it's dark, and put a rolled towel against the door.
  • A gas hob that lights with a match will still boil a kettle for hot water bottles.

Never indoors. Camping stoves, barbecues, patio heaters and petrol generators produce carbon monoxide. Keep them out of the kitchen, the hallway, the garage and the porch, even with a window open.

05 AS SOON AS IT'S SAFE

Check on the people nearby

A knock on two doors takes five minutes. The households that struggle in a cut are usually the ones nobody checked: older neighbours, anyone on mains-powered medical equipment, families with a new baby, people who live alone.

Priority Services Register

Free to join, through your supplier. Gets you called first, and a welfare visit in a long cut.

Medical equipment

If someone depends on a mains-powered device, say so when you call 105. Don't wait to be asked.

06 WHEN IT'S BACK

Bring it back gently, then claim

Bring the house back in stages rather than switching everything on at once. Then spend ten minutes on the paperwork while the cut is still fresh, because compensation is time-limited.

  • Reset the boiler, then the freezer, then everything else. Check the clocks and the alarm.
  • Photograph anything you throw out of the fridge, with the date.
  • Long cuts carry a standard payment from the network operator. Check the deadline and put in the claim.
  • Write down the one thing you wished you'd had. Buy it this month rather than next winter.

Checklist

The first hour, on one page

Nine lines, big enough to read by torchlight. Print it once and put it inside a kitchen cupboard door.

Power cut · first hour