Power cut kit?

[Paul_B]

What kit makes a good power cut kit? I'm thinking the following is a good start but what do you think?

Head and hand torches - various types with various battery types because you know you'll get a flat battery without one type needed but loads of another type.

Candles and lighting means

Battery lights - we've got two rechargeable lights that stick on magnetic discs in the hallway. Turned out great yesterday when we had a 2 hour power cut.

Battery packs - we have 2 x 25, 000 capacity and a few others which I'm intending on keeping charged up. I do think we need a power bank that had more juice and 3 pin sockets.

Usual warm clothing and duvets should it be cold.

Camping stove and fuel.

What's needed that I've missed? UK based and have a campervan with diesel heater if it gets cold without power. It's rare to get power cuts but we've had two in less than 2 years living here. We can cope with what we have but we're thinking we can do better. I'm not talking diesel generator level of kit just is this list enough?

PS a few years back in our old house the whole area had a major power outage that lasted a week or more. We're talking no mobile phones, electricity or working boiler. It meant camping stove cooking and wired up phone which works for communication. There was a 3m stretch of canal towpath that was sufficiently high up to allow your mobile to connect to a mast further away for calls and texts only.

 

[Kav]

A portable generator, solar panel and a car battery jumper box with precharged battery as power source. Oh, and serious locks and security for all. People had their generators stolen during the recent
Climate disasters over here,

 

[demographic]

Carlisle flooded quite badly in 2015, the main substation was down at an area called Willowholme* and that flooded so mucb of the town was without power.
I have camping stoves, numbering on the obsessive amount and although we have central heating that wasn't working I've also fitted a woodburning stove. Heating was OK and we managed to cook just fine,
I filled the bath with cold water, just in case but never needed the extra clean water as our water kept flowing.

There wasn't widespread looting, if anything town was more friendly.
A very small amount of local addicts got nicked for breaking into houses but on the grand scheme of things it wasn't an issue, they would have likely been doing that anyway.







*Any area with Holme in the name is likely to flood, its in the title and where do willow trees grow?

 

[TeeDee]

this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lantern%EF%BC%8CSofirn-Rechargeable-Resistant-Flashlight-Hurricanes/dp/B08XJXLNBJ?th=1

 

[slowworm]

Personally we have enough torches, candles, oil lamps, stoves and an invaluable wood burner to last without power for months.

If I was.starting from scratch I'd start off as follows:

LED AA head torch and a LED AA torch as backup and a pack of long lasting quality AA batteries. No worries about charging the thing and fairly reliable.

Gas stove and gas cartridges, I like the stability and ease of use of those small brief case stoves.

Good quality, stable, candle lanterns and spare candles. I don't like many decorative candle sticks as they are often too heavy, the old fashioned lanterns I posted a thread on recently are so bottom heavy that it is almost impossible to knock them over. There's also no risk of them catching fire if forgotten about.

If you have power tools then I'd get a LED light that works with the batteries.

Possibly a power pack to charge mobile phones but the last lengthy power cut we had the mobile masts were out.

 

[Bazzworx]

Simon, a bloke in the woods on YouTube done a video on this.

 

[SaraR]

Make sure you have at least one torch that lives somewhat easy to reach in the dark, for that initial scramble for light.

Headtorches are great for doing things, but we also got some rechargeable camping lanterns for ambient light. Also much easier to cook if you're not limited to a headtorch only.

Think about where and how you'll use your backup stove/cooking system. Fuel, surface, ventilation, light, safety if you've got kids/pets etc.

Have some fast-cooking food at home. You might not want to spend 45 min making a rice and lentil stew on a gas stove in the dark and cold..

The only thing we don't have is a good alternative heating source so we're reliant on all the warm gear, blankets, ets; the dogs and warm food and drink to keep us warm. Not ideal but doable if you're a reasonably healthy adult.

 

[Jared]

If have power tool batteries get a USB adapter.

I've seen Ukrainians cooking inside their kitchen oven. Put source of heat on the bottom, (candles, alcohol stove) and use the shelving to hold a pot above.

 

[William_Montgomery]

The Duronic Apex Wind-Up Radio is a useful bit of kit, it can double up as a power bank too.

 

[birchwood]

Apart from the things you mention, headtorches and stoves,
I recently bought some solar rechargeable lights.
Also have a few cans of paraffin and meths for Tilley lamps, stoves and an Alladin heater and a can of petrol for my generator.

 

[TeeDee]

Make sure you have at least one torch that lives somewhat easy to reach in the dark, for that initial scramble for light.

Useful idea to attach a GITD tag or better a Tritium vial to a head torch - then if one can at least find the head torch ( easily ) one should be able to then find everything else.

Glow-Fobs & GID Patches

Glow in the Dark TEC Accessories Embrite Glow-Fobs, Glow-Rods and Glow-Dots, GID Morale Patches, CountyComm Maratac UGM Glow-Skulls, Tabs and Markers, RovyVon Ti Firefly

edcgear.co.uk

The Duronic Apex Wind-Up Radio is a useful bit of kit, it can double up as a power bank too.

@William_Montgomery - Do you own and use one? I just checked it out and it seems price wise to be very budget level - which if it functions well isn't a problem, but in my experience quality costs and cheap stuff breaks easily.

So do you own one?

 

[billycoen]

Have some MRE's,easy peasy to cook,as mentioned,you may not want to mess about cooking anything too elaborate.

 

[William_Montgomery]

Useful idea to attach a GITD tag or better a Tritium vial to a head torch - then if one can at least find the head torch ( easily ) one should be able to then find everything else.

Glow-Fobs & GID Patches

Glow in the Dark TEC Accessories Embrite Glow-Fobs, Glow-Rods and Glow-Dots, GID Morale Patches, CountyComm Maratac UGM Glow-Skulls, Tabs and Markers, RovyVon Ti Firefly

edcgear.co.uk

@William_Montgomery - Do you own and use one? I just checked it out and it seems price wise to be very budget level - which if it functions well isn't a problem, but in my experience quality costs and cheap stuff breaks easily.

So do you own one?

Yes, I do own one and I use it on a fairly regular basis. It set me back around £30 a few years ago. I'm not sure whether that is considered low budget or not, but it seems a reasonable price to me.
It's a basic wind-up radio with a small solar panel on top, a torch and a dynamo.

 

[Paul_B]

We have a few headtorches hanging up by the front door where the dog walking stuff is kept (poo bags, lead, collar and headtorches kind of get the most use together in winter in our house). I keep my phone in one place central in the house and can turn the torch function on very easily until I find better light sources.

Imho the first action on a winter night's power cut is to get light. First one to get a light source finds one for the others in the house. After that it's a look out front to see if other lights are off. If not it's to check the RCDs , in fact we do that even if it's an area wide outage.

After that it's contact the appropriate company that deals with power cuts, or at least try to check their website out.

It's very rare to get a significant outage. In 21 years at our last house I only had maybe 4 or 5 outages that lasted about 2 hours, plus one that lasted a week when a major substation in lancaster by the river got flooded and was out of action. We got a portable, truck based generator in our town after a week without power. Fortunately we had two gas fires that worked with matches. Just wished we'd kept them checked every year. We hadn't had them checked for awhile because we didn't plan to need or use them again.

Now I've no heating source in a cut as our boiler needs electricity to work. No gas supply here. No plans for a woodburner neither. No idea of what my best solution for heat is now.

I've no plans on a diesel generator as it's overkill where I live in the UK. Power cuts rarely last long and if they do family live nearby but with different electricity supply so unlikely to be affected by our power cut causes.

 

[Robson Valley]

We get lots of power failures, summer and winter, possibly once a month and there's no knowing how long it will last.

Light: Whatever, the kits need to be scattered all over the house, every bathroom and the kitchen. The bathrooms are the easiest to find in the pitch black and there's nothing to move or knock over. A Bic lighter and a candle makes life easy. I have some battery-powered "touch lights." Just find the thing and touch the metal cap. This laptop puts out a lot of light to find other things.
Bought this house in 2000, just bought myself a couple of kero lanterns, the sort with wicks and glass chimneys. Something to play with, they will live in the kitchen.
I got an old Dietz 80 lantern that I intend to clean up.

Heat: For a decade, I used a pellet stove for winter heating. I could drive that for 8 hours with my little solar power set-up. The stove is now gone, I don't know for how long I could power the oil-fired central heating. It's a stop/start thermostat and I can load 1.5kW for inrush starting. Actually, I have no appetite to mess with it just for fun.

Cooking: Nothing quite like hot food in the pitch dark. Couple of gas cartridge stoves, 2 burner and 1 burner. The Coleman #533 single petrol is kind of stinky indoors but it's a stove top volcano.

Hindsight: Keep your initial lighting kits simple and scattered all over the house. Matches and candles, just to get things started. They make everything else really easy to find.

 

[demographic]

We have a few headtorches hanging up by the front door where the dog walking stuff is kept (poo bags, lead, collar and headtorches kind of get the most use together in winter in our house). I keep my phone in one place central in the house and can turn the torch function on very easily until I find better light sources.


No plans for a woodburner neither. No idea of what my best solution for heat is now.

Aye, doglead, black Diamond headtorch, dog jacket (Bull Lurcher, doesnt have the deep coat my sheepdogs had) on the back of the back door.
Oh and the woodburning stove is cos I'm a carpenter and it seems a shame to put offcuts in the skip.
Nice to have a choice of heating fuel sometimes.

 

[SaraR]

I normally have my phone on me or within arm’s reach, so easy enough to get lighting straight away, but if not, we’ve got the dog walking head torch in its usual place and other torches dotted around the place. I’ve also got candles and lighters in set places, but I prefer to see what I’m doing before lighting anything flammable. We get frequent power cuts, but usually not that long, thankfully, and usually in the day. Used to be a lot more frequent, but they seem to have sorted it out. Nowadays it’s the water mains that seem to develop leaks every week or so!

The good thing about both (here anyway) is that unless the weather is awful, you’ll likely be able to drive to an uneffected area (friends, work, friendly café etc) to recharge powerbanks and refill water jugs. The shops in a nearby town might be fine, even if your village has no power and so on.

 

[Woody girl]

I have battery operated Xmas tree type lights dotted around. One is on the mantlepiece, one goes along the hallway, and one is by my bed. I have glass jars with them in too, and torches in each room next to where I am. One by my chair, one by the bed, etc. Candles are set in various places with a box of matches beside them ready to go anytime, where ever I am.
I often practice moving about the house at night in the dark, which as its a bungalow, I don't have to worry about stairs.
I am able to put my hands on anything I want in the dark through practice, and know exactly how many paces it takes to get from one room to another.
It gets very dark here at night, as the street lights go off after about 11.30pm. I get a lot of practice finding my way in the pitch black.!

 

[Broch]

Well - 2023 started with a BANG! - quite literally; a bright flash of lightening and massive rumble of thunder, and the power went out at 8:30.

So, quick switch to the blackout prepping plans - coffee on the Jetboil, breakfast on the Tilley

Power back on now at 10:20 but a good exercise to test we are ready!

 

[Paul_B]

Jetboil! Is there a good, cheap alternative to be used purely as a power cut kettle? All our burners take a bit longer. My ancient primus micron (older design with the wure gauze centre of the burner) is our fastest burner.