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What to do in a UK power cut

Who to call, what to switch off, and how to keep a household comfortable until the lights come back.

4 min read

Call 105 first

105 is the free national number that connects you to your local electricity network operator. Report the outage and ask for an estimated restoration time before you do anything else.

Check whether it's just you

Look at your trip switches and at your neighbours' lights. A single-property outage is usually a consumer unit issue rather than a network fault.

Protect food and warmth

Keep fridge and freezer doors closed — a full freezer holds temperature for around 24 hours. Close curtains and gather the household into one room to retain heat.

Ration your phone

Switch to low power mode immediately and use your power bank for one phone rather than all of them. Use a radio for updates instead of streaming news.

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