In my recent post about creating an emergency bag I mentioned that we have a powercut box in our hallway. Since winter is coming and storms can easily take out the local electricity supply I thought I’d show you everything we’ve got ready for such an emergency.
In the box
Torches and batteries
The most obvious thing that you can keep for a powercut is a torch. In our case we have several battery-powered ones and two wind-up ones.
We also have several packs of batteries that definitely fit the torches (nothing worse than realising you’ve got the wrong size!) so if we run them down quickly we have spares.
Camping lantern
Purchased from Argos a few years ago, this was a lifesaver when our kitchen light stopped working. It folds down so it doesn’t take up much space and when switched on gives out a clear bright light. I’d quite like to buy a second one as it’s been very helpful.
Candles and matches
A bit of a hangover from our pre-child days. Nowadays I think I’d prefer to get another camping lantern as I simply can’t see us using candles until the toddler is past his bull-in-a-china-shop phase.
That said, candles do have a place in the emergency box. If you can keep a close eye on them then using them saves battery power and you can keep them stored for years without worrying that they’ll be ineffective in an emergency. Keep some matches in the same box otherwise you’ll forget where they are when you need them.
Wind-up radio
A more recent purchase has been a wind-up radio, which also takes batteries and has a small solar panel on top. Should we be out of power for longer than a few hours we can have some music and up-to-date news without too much effort.
Outside the box
There’s also a few useful things we have around the house that can be retrieved quite easily in an emergency:
Rechargeable battery pack
We have a solar-powered one that sticks to the window. We keep it on the window most of the time as there’s no point charging it up during an emergency. Should the power go out long enough for phones to be affected then we can charge up our devices.
Rechargeable sensor lights
We purchased these after having a newborn and realising that it was hard to sneak up and down the stairs for 2am feeds in the dark. Ours are stuck to the side of the stairs for every third step. They’re motion sensitive and light sensitive, so only come on when they sense movement when it’s dark enough. Easily rechargable and because we have multiple ones we can take one out to charge without losing much light.
Thermos and hot water bottles
Any time we get storms or high winds predicted I put the kettle on. The Thermos gets filled up, followed by the hot water bottles, which are then put in the beds. That way should we lose power we have enough water for a cup of tea or two and the beds will be warm even if the rest of the house is cold.
Future plans
I’ve already said I’d like another camping lantern but there’s a few other preps I would like to purchase in the future to improve our resilience:
- Camping stove – My parents have one for beach picnics. They’re definitely very helpful so purchasing one with a few of the small bottles of gas (along with a suitable camping saucepan) would give us a hot meal without too much effort. I already keep a supply of tins in the food cupboard anyway.
- More sensor lights – These have been so helpful for the stairs that I’d quite like a second set that could be dotted around other places, such as the bathroom, the boot of the car, and the food cupboard.
- Book lights – Once our toddler is a bit bigger and is able to read I’d like to purchase a couple of the tiny lights that can be clipped onto books. I won’t want to run down phone batteries by playing games on them and we have plenty of books in the house to keep us occupied.
Where is it kept?
My main rule for anything to do with prepping is – can it be accessed easily by the shortest adult in the house (aka me)? My husband is six feet tall so can reach most things quite easily. But if it’s just me and a toddler in the house I don’t want to be playing around trying to find a stepladder in the dark.
This means that the powercut box lives in our hallway on a shelf above the coats and the shoebench. Easy to find in the darkness and easy to reach without needing someone else with long arms.
