Power and Fuel

A long power outage can knock out communications, water, and transportation. It can close stores, gas stations, ATMs, and banks, spoil food, contaminate water, and stop medical devices.⁠^[1]

Before an outage:

• Make a list of everything you rely on that needs electricity. Plan batteries or other power for each one, such as a portable charger or power bank.⁠^[1]
• Have a flashlight for every person in the home. Find out whether your home phone works in an outage and how long its battery lasts.⁠^[1]
• Medical devices and refrigerated medicines: ask your medical provider for an outage plan.⁠^[1]
• Put battery-backup carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the home.⁠^[1]

During an outage:

• Keep the refrigerator and freezer closed. See the Food guide for how long food stays safe.⁠^[1]
• Unplug appliances and electronics. Power can come back with surges that damage them.⁠^[1]
• If the heat or cold is extreme, go to a community location that has power. Ask local officials which heating and cooling centers are open.⁠^[1]
• Report the outage to your utility. Many utilities have an outage map and text alerts. General guidance.
• Stay far away from downed power lines, and call 911. General guidance.

Match backup power to what you truly need to keep running: lights, phones, medicine, a refrigerator, heat, or cooling. Start small and build up. General guidance.

1. Basics (every home). Flashlights for everyone, extra batteries, and a charged power bank for each phone.⁠^[1]⁠^[14]

2. Portable power station plus solar panels. A rechargeable battery pack that runs phones, lights, fans, and small devices indoors, with no fumes. Solar panels recharge it without fuel. Check its capacity against what you want to run. General guidance.

3. Generator, connected safely. A generator can run a refrigerator, a well pump, or a heating system. Never plug a generator into a wall outlet to power the house wiring. This is called "backfeeding." It can electrocute utility workers and neighbors on the same transformer.⁠^[15] To connect a generator to house wiring, have a qualified electrician install a properly rated transfer switch.⁠^[16] Otherwise, plug appliances straight into the generator with heavy-duty outdoor extension cords.⁠^[1]

4. Rooftop solar with a home battery. Solar panels alone usually do not keep your lights on in an outage. For safety, grid-connected systems are designed to shut off when grid power goes out. To run on their own, they need a properly configured inverter and a battery.⁠^[17] Ask any installer what your system will power when the grid is down.

Generators give off carbon monoxide (CO), a gas you cannot see or smell. It kills without warning.⁠^[19] Most generator deaths reported to CPSC are CO poisoning from generators used indoors or in partly enclosed spaces.⁠^[15]

• Outdoors only: run it more than 20 feet from windows, doors, and vents, and never inside a home or garage.⁠^[19]
• Farther is safer. In NIST's tests, a generator 15 feet from open windows was not far enough to keep CO out of the house.⁠^[20]
• Not in a basement, crawlspace, shed, or partly enclosed space, even with fans running.⁠^[15]
• Point the exhaust away from buildings.⁠^[15]
• Put battery or battery-backup CO detectors in the home whenever a generator is running.⁠^[19]
• Know the symptoms: headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain, confusion. If you feel dizzy or weak, get to fresh air right away and call 911.⁠^[19]⁠^[15]
• Keep it dry. Touching a wet generator can shock you. Run it on a dry surface under an open, canopy-like cover.⁠^[1]⁠^[15]
• Turn it off and let it cool before refueling. Fuel spilled on hot parts can catch fire.⁠^[1]

• Gasoline: store it only in approved gas cans made for fuel, labeled, and child-resistant. Keep them closed, in a cool, well-ventilated place.⁠^[22]⁠^[16]
• Never store fuel in the home or basement, or near anything with a flame or spark, such as a water heater, furnace, or pilot light.⁠^[22]⁠^[15]
• Gasoline goes stale. Add a fuel stabilizer, follow its label, and use and replace stored gasoline on a schedule. General guidance: follow the stabilizer and generator manuals.
• Propane cylinders go outdoors, even empty ones, away from heat and out of the sun, where they cannot fall over. Never store them under the house or in a crawlspace.⁠^[23]
• Close the valve on a propane cylinder that is not in use.⁠^[23]
• Diesel and kerosene: store them only if you have equipment that uses them, in containers made for that fuel. General guidance.
• Keep vehicle tanks at least half full, especially in extreme cold, so you can stay warm if you are stranded. Gas stations may close in a long outage.⁠^[24]⁠^[1]
• If you smell propane, leave and call your propane retailer, 911, or the fire department from a safe place. General guidance.

Most furnaces and boilers, whether oil or gas, need electricity to run. Thermostats, burners, blowers, and pumps all stop when the power goes out, so the heat stops too. General guidance: check your own system.

Air conditioning and evaporative coolers stop too. In extreme heat, an outage becomes a medical emergency.⁠^[26]

• Know which of your heating and cooling equipment needs power, and what backup could run it. General guidance.
• A generator on a properly installed transfer switch can run a heating system. Have a qualified electrician do the work.⁠^[16]
• Never heat a home with a gas stove or oven. It can poison you with carbon monoxide.⁠^[1]
• If the heat or cold is extreme and your power is out, go to a community location with power.⁠^[1]
• Have your heating system serviced by a qualified technician every year.⁠^[19]

See the Temperature guide for the warm-room plan and staying cool without power.