Power Outage Preparedness: What Every Household Needs

Power outages are the most common emergency most American families will actually experience. According to the Department of Energy, the US experiences more power outages than any other developed country, with the average customer experiencing over 5 hours of outage time per year — and that average is skewed by the people who never lose power at all. If you live in a storm-prone region, or in an area with aging grid infrastructure, extended outages are less “if” and more “when.”

The good news: power outage preparedness is the most straightforward category of emergency planning. The supplies are practical, the costs are reasonable, and the same items that help you through a 24-hour outage also carry you through a week-long one if you have enough of them.

Here’s what every household needs.

Understanding What Fails in a Power Outage

Before buying anything, it’s worth thinking through what actually stops working when the power goes out:

Lighting — The obvious one. Every room becomes dark, and navigating after dark without prep is genuinely hazardous.

Phone charging — Smartphones typically last 1–2 days on a full charge with normal use. After that, you lose your primary communication, navigation, and news access.

Refrigeration and freezer — A full freezer stays cold for 48 hours if left closed. A full refrigerator stays safe for 4 hours. After that, you’re looking at food safety decisions.

Heating and cooling — Electric HVAC stops working. In a summer heat event, this becomes dangerous quickly for elderly family members and young children. In winter, heat loss depends heavily on your home’s insulation.

Medical equipment — If anyone in your household uses powered medical equipment (CPAP, oxygen concentrator, powered wheelchair, insulin refrigeration), this is a higher-stakes issue.

Internet and cable — Both go down. Local cell towers often have backup power but can get overwhelmed during major regional events.

Gas appliances with electric igniters — Many gas stoves and ovens have electric ignition systems that won’t work in an outage. A manual lighter or matches usually work as a workaround, but check yours in advance.

Work through this list for your specific household — it tells you where to focus your prep.

Lighting: The Foundation of Power Outage Prep

Reliable light transforms a power outage from stressful to manageable. The goal is having enough light for every household member to move safely and handle tasks.

Headlamps (Priority Item)

Headlamps are the most practical lighting for an outage — they free up your hands and go wherever you go. Every adult in the household should have one.

The Energizer Pro360 Headlamp is a strong choice: 360-degree tilt, 300+ lumen output, comfortable to wear for extended periods, and runs on standard AAA batteries. It also has a red light mode, which preserves night vision and won’t wake sleeping family members.

What to buy:

1 headlamp per adult
Extra batteries (buy extras and keep them with the headlamps)

Lanterns (Ambient Lighting)

For shared spaces — kitchen, living room, kids’ room — a battery-powered or solar lantern provides enough light to see the whole room without everyone wearing a headlamp.

The Etekcity LED Camping Lantern is lightweight, bright, and collapsible — takes up almost no storage space. Keep one in the kitchen and one in a common area.

What to buy:

2–3 lanterns for most households
Solar-charging option eliminates battery dependency

Backup: Candles

Candles are the oldest backup light source and still practical. They’re cheap, require no batteries, and provide warm light. The tradeoffs: fire risk (don’t leave unattended, keep away from kids), and they provide much less light than a modern LED.

Keep a supply of candles and waterproof matches or a lighter. Use them as ambient light, not task lighting.

Phone and Device Charging: Keeping Communications Alive

In an extended outage, your phone becomes your most important tool: emergency alerts, communication, weather updates, flashlight backup, maps. Keeping it charged should be a priority.

Portable Battery Banks

A power bank is the simplest solution: charge it beforehand, use it during the outage.

The Anker PowerCore 20000 holds 20,000 mAh — enough to fully charge a modern smartphone 4–5 times (iPhone) or 3–4 times (Android). At roughly the size of a paperback book, it can go in a bag or drawer.

Important: Charge your power bank now. A power bank that hasn’t been charged in 6 months will have significantly reduced capacity. Make charging it a habit — once a month, plug it in.

For a family of four, two 20,000 mAh banks provide comfortable coverage through a multi-day outage.

Portable Power Stations (Higher Capacity)

For households with more significant power needs — medical equipment, a refrigerator, a laptop for remote work — a portable power station is worth considering.

The Jackery Explorer 300 provides 293 watt-hours of stored power and can output through standard AC outlets, USB, and DC ports. It can:

Charge a smartphone 25+ times
Power a CPAP machine through one night (CPAP usage varies significantly — check your machine’s wattage)
Run a small fan for 3–4 hours
Power LED lighting continuously

The Jackery 300 can be recharged via wall outlet, car charger, or solar panel (solar panel sold separately). For a household with medical equipment or extended power needs, this is a practical middle ground between a simple power bank and a whole-house generator.

Note: The Jackery 300 will not power large appliances like a full-sized refrigerator or electric stove. For that level of power, you’re looking at their larger models (500W, 1000W) or a traditional generator.

Food Safety During a Power Outage

One of the most overlooked aspects of outage prep is food safety. The basic rules:

Refrigerator:

Stays safe for 4 hours if the door is kept closed
After 4 hours without power: check each item individually (meat, dairy, eggs are the riskiest)
When in doubt, throw it out — food poisoning during a power outage is a serious situation

Freezer:

A full, closed freezer stays safe for 48 hours
A half-full freezer stays safe for 24 hours
To extend this: fill empty space with bags of ice or frozen water bottles before storm season

What to do during a long outage:

Use food from the refrigerator first (most perishable)
Move refrigerator items to the freezer if possible to extend their life
Use shelf-stable foods — canned goods, crackers, peanut butter, granola bars — as the primary food source
Have a camp stove available for cooking if your gas appliances don’t work (outdoor use only, or well-ventilated space)

If you have an emergency food supply: This is exactly when a kit like ReadyWise earns its place. Add-boiling-water meals require minimal resources and sidestep the food safety question entirely. See our guide to best emergency food kits for beginners for comparison options.

Heating and Cooling During a Power Outage

This is the most physically dangerous part of an extended outage, particularly for young children, elderly family members, and anyone with health conditions.

Summer Outages (Heat Events)

Electric fans stop working. Air conditioning stops working. In a summer heat event, this can become dangerous within hours for vulnerable household members.

Immediate steps:

Close blinds and curtains to block solar heat gain
Open windows at night for cross-ventilation
Identify your nearest cooling center — most communities open them during heat emergencies (check your local emergency management agency)
Know the signs of heat exhaustion: heavy sweating, cool/pale skin, fast/weak pulse, nausea

Products that help:

Battery-powered fans (the Jackery 300 can power a small fan for several hours)
Cold pack towels for neck and pulse points
A portable battery bank to keep phones charged for weather updates

If it’s extreme: A cooling center or family/friend’s home with power is a better option than trying to manage in a dangerously hot house. Don’t tough it out if you have elderly family members, infants, or people with health conditions.

Winter Outages (Cold Events)

Heat loss from a house without power varies dramatically based on insulation quality. A well-insulated modern home may stay above 60°F for 12+ hours in mild winter weather. A drafty older home can drop to dangerous temperatures in a few hours.

Immediate steps:

Close off rooms you’re not using — concentrate body heat in one or two spaces
Layer clothing aggressively — wool, fleece, down
Emergency blankets are surprisingly effective for retaining body heat; keep a few in your kit
Identify your nearest warming shelter

Heating options without electricity:

Propane or kerosene space heaters — these work but require ventilation to prevent carbon monoxide buildup. Never use in a closed room; keep a CO detector operational even if it runs on batteries
A fireplace or wood stove is the most practical non-electric heating option for homes that have one
Chemical hand warmers are useful for extremities but don’t meaningfully heat a room

What to avoid:

Running a car in a garage for heat — carbon monoxide risk
Using a gas range or oven for heating — fire and CO risk
Using a grill or camp stove indoors — carbon monoxide risk

Medical Equipment: Plan Before You Need To

If anyone in your household uses powered medical equipment, this requires dedicated planning before an outage occurs.

Common home medical equipment that requires power:

CPAP/BiPAP machines
Home oxygen concentrators
Nebulizers
Powered wheelchairs
Insulin refrigeration

Steps to take:

Talk to your medical equipment provider — many have emergency power solutions (battery backups, alternative power units)
Register with your utility provider as a medical-needs customer — some utilities prioritize restoration for these households and notify customers of planned outages
Know your backup: where would your family member go if power is out for 72+ hours? A hospital, a hotel with power, a family member’s home?
For insulin: an unopened vial at room temperature is stable for 28 days; check your specific insulin’s guidelines

The Jackery Explorer 300 mentioned above can power many CPAP machines through one night of use, depending on the machine’s wattage and whether the humidifier is running. Check your specific machine’s power consumption before relying on this.

Communication During an Outage

When the internet and cable are down, how do you get information?

NOAA Weather Radio: A battery or hand-crank weather radio provides direct access to National Weather Service alerts without requiring internet or cell service. These are inexpensive and essential. Midland and Kaito both make reliable models with hand-crank backup.

Cell service: Cell towers often stay operational through local outages (they have backup power), but they can get overwhelmed during regional emergencies when everyone is calling at once. Text messages use less bandwidth than calls and often get through when calls don’t.

Out-of-state contact: In a localized emergency, it’s sometimes easier to reach someone out of state than across town (different network load zones). Designate one out-of-state family member or friend as a communication hub.

Power bank for your phone: Already covered above — but worth re-emphasizing. Your phone is your most important communication tool during an outage. Keep it charged.

Power Outage Preparedness Summary

Here’s the shopping and action list in one place:

Category	What You Need	Priority
Lighting	1 headlamp per adult + batteries	High
Lighting	2–3 battery-powered lanterns	High
Phone charging	1–2 portable battery banks (20,000 mAh)	High
Power	Jackery Explorer 300 (if you have medical equipment or extended needs)	Medium
Food safety	3+ days of shelf-stable food	High
Communication	NOAA weather radio	High
Heating/cooling	Emergency blankets, layers, know your cooling/warming center	Medium
Medical	Backup plan for any powered medical equipment	High (if applicable)

What Not to Do

A few common mistakes worth avoiding:

Don’t run a generator inside your home or garage. Carbon monoxide poisoning from generators is a leading cause of storm-related deaths. Generators must be operated outdoors, well away from windows and doors.

Don’t open the refrigerator repeatedly. Every time you open it, you lose cold air. Minimize openings during the first 4 hours.

Don’t wait until the storm starts. Charge everything — phones, power banks, medical equipment batteries — before the storm hits. Everyone’s doing it after the storm starts; wait until the day before.

Don’t rely on your car charger as your only backup. Car charging works in a pinch but drains your fuel faster and requires you to idle your car. Have a power bank as your primary backup.

Power outage prep overlaps heavily with general emergency preparedness. If you’re building your household’s overall plan, see our complete emergency preparedness checklist and our 72-hour kit guide for families for the full picture.

For official guidance on power outage safety, see Ready.gov’s Power Outages guide and your local utility provider’s emergency resources.