Because the world often seems to move seamlessly from one crisis into another these days, it is no joke to say that one can easily miss a crisis or two in the midst of everything else. For example, you may or may not have known that there’s something of an energy price crisis still ongoing, and that we were somewhat fortunate to avoid large-scale power cuts in the winter just past.
It would be optimistic to assume that the energy crisis will sort itself out seamlessly, and so it is always worth being aware of what you would do if there were to be a blackout, or indeed a string of them. Most of us were not prepared for the pandemic, and it led to a great deal of panic and emergency shopping two years ago, so making the right preparations for something that we’ve had some warning of is never going to be a bad idea. The following are some tips for the eventuality of a power cut, whenever it might come.
Keep devices charged and turned off
You can’t keep your phone at 100% power and still use it, so there needs to be some acceptance that you’ll need to make the most with what you have. If you bought a new phone recently and haven’t recycled the old one, then it’s a good idea to charge it fully and store it in a drawer. It can act as a WiFi hotspot if your router is taken out by a blackout.
You should also make sure any laptops are charged to a full battery and follow this list of steps to speed up a slow Mac or laptop. If you have a functioning phone and speedy computer, then you can stream movies and YouTube videos without your TV. Finally, if there is any medical equipment in the home that runs on a battery, make sure you have spares and that they are fully charged.
Buy power banks
As an addition to the above point, supermarkets and online retailers stock power banks which can hold at least enough charge to get a phone to 100%. They can also be used to power any device that uses USB for power. This could help you run fans if your power fails amid a heatwave. Make sure you also have enough USB leads of all kinds – micro-USB, USB-C and the rest – to keep the relevant devices running.
Have a few torches on hand
Most people don’t bother to have a flashlight or torch around anymore, because our phones generally come with one as standard. In a power cut, though, you’ll generally want to ration usage of phone batteries especially if you don’t know when the power is coming back on. So it does make sense to have some standard, analogue torches as well in case the power is out after dark.
Have the power company’s number on your phone
If the power goes down, then it is the power company that need to get it going again. To do this, they need information on when and where the outage has happened. Placing a call – and asking for a ballpark timing on when power will be back – is worth the effort.