Whether planned or unplanned, utilities outages can happen at any time, and they can often happen together! A heatwave may lead to water shortages, and a period of higher than usual temperature can also put strain on other types of infrastructure like electricity cables, resulting in power cuts.
Utilities emergencies affect our ability to ‘keep calm and carry on’ – but familiarising yourself with some of the possible implications to your home will allow you to prepare. Having a few emergency supplies on hand, such as batteries and water bottles, will minimise the impact of a utilities outage, whether planned or unplanned.
Here is a round-up of the latest utilities outage advice for people living in the UK.
What to do if your water goes off
When your taps stop running or the pressure drops, particularly if the water supply interruption is extended, it puts pressure on households, particularly those who are already stretched by health needs or caring responsibilities. Finding safe water for drinking and washing suddenly becomes an extra daily chore, particularly if the water supply disruption is widespread and the water stations are hard to get to.
More information about managing during a water supply interruption
Store and Insure: How to cope during a water supply emergency
UK government’s Prepare campaign: Water supply interruptions or outages
How to manage during a power cut
An electricity outage doesn’t just affect lighting, refrigeration and cooking. Boilers and heat pumps may fail if there’s no power, and the batteries on electronic devices will run out of charge as usual. Medical and accessibility equipment can also be affected by power outages.
Tips for getting through an electricity outage
Store and Insure: How to cope if your electricity is switched off
UK government’s Prepare campaign: Power cuts
Coping when your heating fails
A heating and hot water failure is an inconvenience even during warmer weather. During a cold snap, a lack of home heating can have serious health consequences. So if you are at all vulnerable, ensure that you’re on your power supplier’s priority register.
The general advice is to stay warm with layered clothing and blankets and use a portable heater in the room you use most often. If you can, spend time during the day at work, or in a public space with heating such as a library.
Advice for a heating failure at home
Store and Insure: Coping with a heating emergency
Preparing for a broadband outage
An interruption to digital services such as broadband, phone or internet is likely to have an impact not just on entertainment and communication but also on work, healthcare and even domestic appliances.
Although communications networks are increasingly reliable, bad weather or power cuts can bring the broadband down, sometimes for days at a time.
It can be helpful to consider the implications of an internet outage before it actually happens so that you are not left unable to work from home, or unable to contact elderly friends or relatives who rely on you.
Vulnerable people who use an alarm or telecare service should let their communications provider know so that they can make arrangements.
More information about readiness for an internet outage is available from the government’s Prepare site.
Making space for an emergency kit
Prepare recommends that each household maintains an emergency kit containing a torch, power bank and batteries, radio, first-aid kit, hygiene kit, bottled water and non-perishable food. You should of course add whatever else you need for your circumstances – for example medication or healthcare aids, and supplies for a baby or for pets.
If you’re short of space at home for emergency equipment, consider making room by decluttering or by moving stuff you don’t use every day into storage. Your storage unit is the perfect place to keep equipment that you only need every once in a while. And things like camping showers, or portable heaters and fans could also be kept in storage until you need them. Use our latest guide to costing up self-storage to get an idea of how much you will pay to store your stuff.
Domestic goods in your self-storage unit can be covered by a Store and Insure policy. Get a quote to see how much self-storage insurance will cost.
