Power and Energy
What to do when the power
goes out
What to do in a power cut in the UK: ringing 105, keeping warm and fed, and the backup power worth having if it goes on.
By Slightly Anxious
1st July 2026 20 minute read
IN SHORT
Focus on the appliances you need most, get power stations specifically for them, and have smaller ones to charge phones and laptops.
Product links were live when this article was written. If one has changed, the Products page will have an alternative.
Why a power cut is more likely than you think
At Slightly Anxious we spend far too much time thinking about emergencies and crisis situations. One of our main realisations is just how feasible it is that we have an electricity blackout.
There are many possible direct causes for it and also many possible indirect causes. The main possible direct causes include winter risk; where there is high demand due to the low temperatures and no wind and low solar output thus reducing our renewable electricity generation which makes up a significant chunk of our overall supply, this is where a crisis nearly happened in the winter of 2025. As we also get a big chunk of power from abroad via interconnectors, technical issues with these cables or the power stations behind them can have an impact, the 10 hour blackout in Spain & Portugal in April 2025 is believed to partly be due to this. Then you just have the basic risk of technical issues with the grid itself, power stations, wind and solar farms. They are all susceptible to faults, but the National Grid is aging and at almost full capacity so it is particularly vulnerable, which is why they have started upgrading it. Then of course there is the fact that the electricity market is a pretty free one and the price is a global market price. This means that external events, such as wars decreasing the supply of fuel as is happening due to the recent war between the USA and Iran, or increased demand in other countries can dramatically affect the cost of electricity which, if skyrocketing, can still lead to rationing and blackouts.
Back in the 1970s, striking miners meant no coal for the power stations and we ended up having a three day week. We power our power stations with gas and even wood chips these days but a strike by hauliers or other workers vital to the supply chain of getting fuel into power stations could spark shortages. Indirect causes are when another form of emergency; such as flooding, fire or extreme weather means that the grid or your part of it is shut down to protect it. Even a biohazard crisis like Covid-19, can have an impact if workers are quarantined at home and as for terrorist attacks, you can guess for yourself. As you can see there are multiple ways that things could go dark very rapidly. So, you would be right in thinking you need to prepare for power outages.
We do need to state, however, that that the country’s electricity system is constantly being improved and updated and there is no current official warning of any systemic risk of blackouts. We also need to temper this by stating that it is the unexpected that causes emergencies so the fact that everything seems fine at the moment doesn’t mean that is the way it will stay. Without wishing to seem like scaremongering, it’s not too farfetched to imagine a ship’s anchor dragging along the seabed and by accident or by design it severing one of the interconnector cables that supply c.10% of our electricity supply. Or there is an outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East or relations with the USA dramatically take a downturn and deliveries of liquid natural gas (LNG) are curtailed, which are responsible for c.28% of our electricity. Add to this that 30% of electricity comes from wind power, which doesn’t work if the wind is too weak or too strong and if I was a gambler, which I am a little, I may think it’s worth preparing for the worst when it comes to electricity.
It mostly comes down to batteries
Without wishing to ‘beat about the bush’, how you survive an electricity blackout is mostly dependent on the size of your wallet. The more you spend on back-up power, the more you’ll have when the power goes out. However, one considerable constraint, is that unless you have a way of re-charging that power, even spending tens of thousands of pounds will only keep your power going for a couple of days.
How much power does a home use?
Let’s start at the top, the most effective way of having back-up power is to have a back-up power battery installed in your house in case of power outages. A 2-bedroom apartment uses approx. 5-7.5kWh of electricity per day and 4-bedroom house uses approx. 12kWh. This is based on gas being used for heating and hot water so if it the house was purely powered by electricity this would be considerably more.
What uses the most power
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Tumble Dryer (1 load) – uses 3.0 kWh
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Electric Oven (1 hour) – uses 2.5 kWh
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Electric Shower (10 mins) -uses 1.5 kWh
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Fridge-Freezer (24h) – uses 1.2 kWh
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Washing Machine (1 load) - uses1.0 kWh
Averages. Gas heating and hot water assumed; an all-electric house uses considerably more
Option 1: a battery installed in your home
The cost of a full house battery varies immensely due to the fact that installation and delivery costs will be unique for every property.
Home batteries at a glance
Battery
Storage
Suits
Guide Price
Duracell Energy Dura 5
5.12 kWh
Small Flat
c.£2,000
Sigenergy SigenStor (1 battery)
6 kWh
2-Bedroom Flat
c.£5,000
Tesla Powerwall 3
11 kWh
Flat, or house with care
c.£6,000
Sigenergy SigenStor (2 batteries)
12 kWh
House
c.£8,000
Duracell Energy Dura 12
16 kWh
Large House
c.£4,500
But don’t make a comparison of these three brands just from the prices, as stated previously, installation and delivery can add significant amounts as can additional equipment that may be needed. For example, an automatic transfer switch (ATS) is the piece of equipment that detects a power cut and automatically switches your home from the grid to your battery and switches you back to the grid when power returns.
Another piece of equipment you may need is an inverter which if you have solar panels which outputs their electricity as DC current and converts it into AC current that your house uses. Which brings up the question of whether you go for solar panels?
The problem with all back-up batteries is that they require re-charging or they just can be used once to the extent of their capacity. Even if we take the cost of a battery back-up for a 2 bedroom flat to be c.£5,000 for 6kWh. This is just enough for over a day’s full use of electricity, even at 50% electrical usage, having enough installed battery power to last a whole week would cost you almost £20,000!
We do recommend that people consider home batteries simply for the benefits of being able to purchase your electricity at the cheapest rate, which is usually in the early hours of the morning, charging up your home battery and then running your house off it for the rest of the day so you’re just utilising cheap rate electricity. We have seen, but not verified, stories of where people have saved 30% on their electricity bills and obviously they then have a day’s worth of electricity for if the lights go out, which in a lot of cases is rectified in under 24 hours. It's just for longer emergencies, you would need solar panels to recharge your batteries. We should also add that if you have an electric vehicle, your car can act as a back-up battery and can be used, maybe with some slight modification, to power home appliances. You will need to research this further as this is way beyond us.
Should you add solar panels?
You have two options when it comes to solar panels, which we do recommend. The first is a permanent installation, usually on your roof. Octopus Energy provide both batteries and solar panels. The base level, Smart Solar + Battery, offers 4 solar panels, a Fox ESS 5kWh battery and an inverter and starts at c.£6,500-£8,500. Their top of the range is the Octopus x Tesla – FuturePower, which offers a 13.5 kWh Tesla Powerwall 3 with 4 solar panels (although 10 would be good) from c.£11,000-£13,000. Again delivery and installation will be extra and you need a system designed specifically for your property’s requirements.
Option 2: portable power stations
A key difference between home back-up batteries and power stations is how they deal with your property’s mains supply of electricity. Home back-up batteries are wired into your home electricity network. The batteries get charged either from the electricity grid or via solar panels. The installed back-up batteries supply your house through the existing household electrical system. Power stations are mostly completely separate. They get charged either via the electricity grid in the same way any other electrical appliance gets powered or via solar panels that plug into it. This means for a power station to run an appliance it must be able to have that appliance plugged into it. It is worth checking as some household appliances, especially in kitchens, are wired into the mains with a fuse switch but not a plug and socket.
Its worth noting that some power stations will also work as an UPS – an uninterruptible power supply – as well, where you plug the power station into the mains and the piece of kit that needs a UPS, usually a computer server of some form. Should the main power go out, the power station detects it and switches to its battery charge in microseconds so the server doesn’t power off. Which can justify the expense of a power station alone.
Ecoflow offer a range of portable solar panels that plug into their range of power stations. The solar panels start at c.£75-£95 for the EcoFlow 45W Portable Solar Panel and go up to £500-£600 for the EcoFlow 400W Lightweight Portable Solar Panel. They even bundle their power stations with solar panels, such as the EcoFlow Delta 3 Classic (1024Wh) Portable Power Station which comes with a 200w solar panel for c.£900-£1,300, which would keep high-demand devices such as portable fridges, camping kettles or laptops individually powered indefinitely if the sun shone indefinitely. This really is the issue with solar panels, whether permanently fixed to your roof or portable and just placed in your garden or on a balcony. Solar panels in the UK definitely do their job in producing electricity for home batteries that when aggregated over the year mean savings on your electricity bill. Their worth, however, can be questionable if you need to recharge your power station and you are in the depths of winter. You would obviously take advantage of the summer months to keep your power stations charged up by the solar panels for use at anytime of the year but equally you could do the same, much more cheaply, by charging them up with the mains in normal times. The question really boils down to is the cost of solar panels worth it for the opportunity to use them for maybe less than half the year?
Obviously, if you live in sunnier the climes the ‘maths’ is a lot different, equally if you can use them for non-emergency uses, like if camping or even just dining al-fresco, it can make more monetary sense. We would recommend you make that decision based on whether you can afford such a ‘belt and braces’ approach and whether you practically have the space to set them up. Solar panels are a nice addition but may not be cost-effective in every case.
Ecover’s range of power stations are definitely worth a look at. The EcoFlow Delta 3 Series Portable Power Station (1800w) at c.£900-£1,300 can, they state, power a fridge for 7-14 hours or a TV for 8 hours. With the addition of extra batteries, like two Delta 3 Extra batteries at c.£500-£700 each, the total output can be increased to 5kW which they state increases power to enable powering the fridge for 40-70 hours or the TV for 40 hours. If you really wanted to go for it with Ecover than the EcoFlow Delta 3 Max Series (2048Wh) Portable Power Station at c.£1,100-£1,400 is reported to be able to power your microwave, kettle, fridge, and blender all at once, although it can only do this for a few hours. If you’re selective with your appliances, say you choose the fridge alone, it can keep that running for 24 hours. Add two extra batteries, Delta 3 Max Plus Smart Extra battery at c. £700-£900 each and you increase your capacity to cover running your main appliances for up to three days.
Anker also supply a range of power stations and solar panels. . The Anker SOLIX F3000 Solar Generator + 400W Solar Panel at c.£2,000-£3,000 (c.£400-£800 less without the panels) provides 3kWh of output that should be sufficient to power a fridge for almost 15 hours or a TV for 17 hours. As with all of their power stations this can be expanded by additional batteries, a 3kWh battery costs c. £1,400-£1,800 and doubles your capacity. A maximum of six additional batteries can be added to give you a total capacity of 21kWh, which should cover the electrical needs of even the biggest homes, coming in at a whopping price of £12,000-£12,400!At the other end of the scale is the rather diminutive Anker Solix C300 DC Portable Power Station - 288Wh | 300W at c.£200-£275. This is for small devices such as phones, which it can charge 19x, laptops which can be charged 4x or a portable fridge that can be charged for 5 hours.. This is for small devices such as phones, which it can charge 33x, laptops which can be charged 7x or a portable fridge that can be charged for 10 hours. As a mid-range option, they offer the Anker Solix C1000 Gen 2 Portable Power Station - 1,024Wh | 2,000W at c.£800-£1,200. This power station holds the Guinness world record for being the fastest charging, 1kWh in under 44 minutes, and will power your fridge freezer for 7-14 hours or a microwave for 80 minutes or a phone 67x.
Our last power station supplier, Jackery, offers a similar range. The Jackery Explorer 1000 Plus Portable Power Station at c.£375-£525 is 1070Wh. Adding 2x100W solar panels in a bundle costs c.£1,000. They are also doing a deal on the power station with a battery pack that doubles its output to 2kWH for £1,900. Various discounts do make calculations a bit odd! Up to an extra three batteries can be added to bring the total output to 5kWh with additional batteries costing c.£650-£800 for 1264Wh and c.£1,250-£1,750 for 2042Wh. The biggest power station provided by Jackery is their Jackery Explorer 3000 v2 Portable Power Station at c.£1,400-£1,800, which has 3kWh so it can power a fridge for 24 hours or a mini-fridge for 21 hours and charge a laptop 48x.Unfortunately, it can’t be expanded with extra batteries.
Power stations at a glance
Battery
Storage
Runs (maker's figures)
Guide Price
Anker Solix C300 DC
288 Wh
Phone 19x, laptop 4x
c.£200-£275
Anker Solix C1000 Gen 2
1,024 Wh
Fridge-freezer 7-14 hrs
c.£800-£1,200
Jackery Explorer 1000 Plus
1,070 Wh
Expands to 5 kWh
c.£375-£525
EcoFlow Delta 3
1,800 W
Fridge 7-14 hrs, TV 8 hrs
c.£900-£1,300
EcoFlow Delta 3 Max
2,048 Wh
Fridge 24 hrs
c.£1,100-£1,400
Anker Solix F3000
3 kWh
Fridge 15 hrs, TV 17 hrs
c.£2,000-£3,000 with panel
Jackery Explorer 3000 v2
3 kWh
Fridge 24 hrs, laptop 48x
c.£1,400-£1,800
We need to say that all power stations are heavily discounted at times by their manufacturers and the prices we quote are the undiscounted ones found on Amazon. These prices were correct at the time of writing and have quite probably changed. Do double check as there are savings to be made.
Is a big power station worth it?
We do think that you may consider buying enormous power stations with enough capacity to power your whole property or a large amount of it as not worth the expense. It does seem that with both installed home batteries and portable power stations that in order to power a flat its c.£5,000-£10,000 and a 4 bedroom home it can be £10,000-£20,000 and that provides full power just for a few days. To extend to the week we think an emergency could possibly last, you would need a significant amount of solar panels. To charge the 3kWh Jackery Explorer would take 44 hours with just one 100w solar panel, to be able to charge it with a day’s worth of sun (12 hours) you would need 4 panels or 2 panels if 200w and a day’s worth of sun.
If you are looking at getting home batteries or even portable power stations so you can take advantage of cheaper rate electricity at off-peak hours or you live somewhere that suffers frequent power outages then you can probably justify the expense and with that you can implement a system of back up power that switches on seamlessly when the lights go out. This is the route that we think provides you with the most benefits, but with that comes the most costs and they are quite considerable. The fact that you can discount your electricity costs does mean you will pay off the initial expense over time.
If, however, you are considering power stations simply to power your devices in case of an emergency, then we think you should focus on which individual appliances will need powering and how long can you power them for. For example, my fridge freezer uses 1kWh per day of electricity, so to power it for a week is 7kWh. I would need 2x Anker Solix F3800 Portable Power Stations costing a whopping c.£7,000-£9,000. Which is a lot money to keep your salad fresh, peas frozen and your wine chilled.
At the time of writing, another one of the main power station suppliers Bluetti (definitely worth a look) has announced that it will be launching its FridgePower product. A 2kWh battery specifically as emergency power for your fridge/freezer to enable it stay powered after a power cut. Using my fridge as an example it could last for 44 hours. The estimated price is £960 when it comes on sale later in 2026.
You should read our articles on curated meals, where we will supply you with information about delicious food that doesn’t need a fridge, or the article ‘Kitchen in a Crisis with Slightly Anxious’ where we explain how transferring necessary food to a camping fridge and having that powered by a power station is a far more effective and economic alternative to buying multiple massive power stations
We think the best strategy is to focus on those appliances that you need most and get power stations specifically for them and to have ones that use to charge your small devices like phones and laptops.
What we would buy
We would suggest maybe having an EcoFlow DELTA 3 Max Series (2048Wh) Portable Power Station at c.£1,100-£1,500 so you can use your kitchen appliances when absolutely necessary. Then supplement this with a couple of Anker Solix C300 DC Portable Power Station - 288Wh | 300W at £200-£275 each for your phones, laptops and lights.
Power banks and chargers
You should also consider investing in some 12v power banks. These are an interesting technological legacy as many of the items we use for emergency preparedness are also used for camping and those using motorhomes (RVs) and their manufacturers seem to think that vehicles still come equipped with cigarette lighters, the original way of getting 12v power from your car’s battery. While it is possible to power appliances and power stations from your electrical vehicles battery, for most of us wanting to charge our battery powered TVs and DVD players, see our article ‘Keeping Entertained with Slightly Anxious’, we will need 12v battery banks. Other items that usually need a 12v charge are camping lanterns, cameras and drones and they also charge phones and laptops/tablets. Our three power station manufacturers all make them: The EcoFlow Trail Series DC Portable Power Station at c.£120-£160 offers 192Wh (60,000mAh) capacity which is the equivalent to 3-6 power banks in one or charging your phone 11x. The Anker Solix C300 DC Portable Power Station - 288Wh | 300W is more powerful (90,000mAh) at c. £190-£230. This can charge your iPad 8x or your laptop 4x or your phone 19x. The Jackery Explorer 300D Portable Power Station at c.£200-£300 has a capacity of 288Wh and can charge your phone 13x or a tablet 6x..
You should also have an array of battery chargers as quite frankly you will always need them to keep people’s devices charged. Staying for a week indoors will see record breaking periods of time on people’s phones if the internet is working, considerably less so if not, but there is still quite a lot of entertainment content on our phones that doesn’t need wifi to work. So expect a demand for chargers. Ones we recommend, though there is not a huge amount of difference in the vast array on offer, are the: Iniu 100W 25000mAh Portable Charger at c.£60-£90 which can charge your phone 4x and your laptop/tablet 1x. It charges MacBooks super-fast with its PD 3.1 Next Gen charging. With an almost identical power capacity and ability is the Anker Laptop Power Bank, 25,000mAh Portable Charger at c.£80-£110. This comes with built in cables which can be lifesaving in an emergency. One of the biggest we’ve seen, in terms of power but not in physical size, is the EcoFlow Rapid Pro Power Bank (27,650mAh, 300W, 140W Built-in Cable) at c. £150-£200. This can charge a phone 5x and a laptop 1-2x.
As you can see, you may want to be thinking that if all the people you are caring for in an emergency have a phone, then they would probably need at least 2 chargers each to see them through 5-7 days. You could make it a pr-requirement that they purchase them themselves or take the safe route and just stockpile enough chargers to ensure everyone has them. It's also critical that they get re-charged at least every six months to ensure they can perform if needed. Part of the service we supply to our members at Slightly Anxious is a reminder service of when to charge up your batteries.
At the slightly more survivalist end of the Prepping spectrum is the opportunity to stock up on a AA/AAA-powered USB charger. This is a charger that charges up re-chargeable AA and AAA batteries. We do suggest that people stock up on their AA/AAA batteries as not everything charges with a USB cable these days, such as torches or radios (although they can take type D batteries). The advantage of this charger is that as well as letting you recharge batteries, you can use the batteries as a low power battery charger (3.5v instead of the usual 5v). This will not recharge your phone fully but should provide you with just enough power for some emergency calls and messages. As rechargeable batteries are always needed the ability to have an emergency power bank is simply a bonus. The eneloop SmartPlus Travel USB Charger at c.£40-£55 is the only one we can find available in the UK. We would recommend if you use AA and AAA batteries.
Your to do list is:
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Make a list of the appliances you could not do without for a week, and how much power each uses
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Buy one larger power station for kitchen essentials, rather than one big one for the whole house
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Get a small power station or two power banks for each person, for phones, laptops and lights
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Recharge every power station, power bank and rechargeable battery at least every six months
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If you are on a cheap overnight tariff, price up a home battery, the savings can help pay for it
The bottom line
In essence, surviving what happens when the power goes out is simply about the size and number of the batteries you purchase and whether you buy solar panels as well. At the most extreme, you can get away with just a lot of phone battery chargers, if your food, lighting, heating and entertainment needs are rather spartan. The more that you want to get through an emergency in relevant comfort the more that you will need to spend.
Before you start getting worried about the expense, think about what ‘normal times’ usage you could put the batteries to and things may get more palatable. Installing home back-up batteries and solar panels on the roof becomes a different financial calculation if you consider the savings to your annual electricity bill. Portable power stations and solar panels become more appealing if you use them on holiday, camping or dining and entertaining al fresco.
Remember, keep calm and visit us here.
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