8 Power Outage Tips and Tricks

Whether your power is out right now, or you just want to be more prepared, these power outage tips and tricks will help you survive, and even thrive!

Growing up in Oregon  I remember going through many power outages, some lasting for days at a time. We’ve been blessed living in Montana in that we’ve hardly ever had to do without power. For several years we lived in rentals that did not have a heat source other than electric heaters, so a power outage was a true emergency! Now, we are a little more prepared with a wood stove.

Although electricity is relatively new, and for thousands of years people lived without it, most people nowadays are not prepared to live without electricity. We don’t have the knowledge, and our homes are not set up for life off grid.

Personally, I really appreciate having electricity, and would never willingly do without it! But I think it is so important to not be completely dependent on the power grid! That’s why I wanted to share some power outage tips and tricks with my readers. 

Because we don’t want to be so dependent on the power grid, we’ve done a lot of practicing when it comes to doing without it, including cooking, heating, washing clothes and dishes, and keeping animals taken care of.

One area where we’ve had a lot of practice, and not on purpose, is living without running water. Our well has had ongoing problems since we moved onto this property and we’ve had to do without running water several times. Earlier this year, we actually went six weeks straight with no running water! 

Although it wasn’t fun, we learned so much during those very long six weeks, and some of that is what I will share in this list of power outage tips and tricks!

Disclaimer: this page contains affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you 

 

Power Outage Tips and Tricks

1. Keeping warm during a winter power outage, with or without a wood stove
2. Keeping cool during a summer power outage
3. Water: how to store clean water and how to purify dirty water
4. Hygiene when the power goes out
5. Preserving food without electricity, what to do when your fridge doesn’t work
6. What to eat first when the power goes out
7. How to cook without electricity
8. Doing dishes without running water
9. Our most important tip for power outages

 

 

If you have electricity now, but want to be more prepared for a power outage, watch for our next article, where I will share some tips on preparing in advance for power outages!

But first, I will talk about tips and tricks for keeping warm during a winter power outage, keeping cool in a summer power outage, what to do with the food in your fridge, water, cooking without power, doing dishes, washing clothes and preparing ahead.

 

1. Keeping Warm During a Winter Power Outage

 

If your power goes out during the winter, keeping everyone warm and cozy will probably be your top priority.

Hopefully you have an alternative heat source. If you are planning ahead and own your home, I would highly recommend installing a wood stove. It doubles as a way to cook food. We found a used one that had only been used a handful of times, and a contractor friend willing to help us install it. The whole project cost around $1,000. We now save about $100 a month on heating costs for the six colder months of the year, making it a good investment for us. 

Although we aren’t really set up to go out in the woods and cut down trees for firewood, once or twice a year we borrow a truck and pick up some wood from a local fence post company. They sell their scrap wood for $20 a pickup load, much of it already cut to length!

 

Keeping Warm Without a Wood Stove

If you don’t have a way to heat your home without electricity, there are still some things you can do to keep warm for a few hours or days:

• Dress in layers

• Put on socks and a hat

• Close off the rooms in your home that tend to be the coldest

• Keep the doors shut!

• Keep your whole family in one room in the warmest part of your house

• Create a microenvironment 

 

Most of the above power outage tips and tricks are pretty self explanatory. Dressing in lots of layers of warm clothing is probably a given. Keeping your head warm with a hat and your feet warm with socks will really help you to not freeze! You can also put on gloves if needed.

You really want to keep in the warmth that is already in your home, so make sure to keep outside doors shut. Closing off the cooler parts of your house will help to keep the heat concentrated in one area where you can all stay warm. 

Creating a microenvironment will go a long way towards keeping everyone warm. The easiest way to do this is with a tent. The closed off area of a tent will keep your body heat in. If you have kids, give them some books, games and puzzles to play with inside their tent, and make it fun!

 

2 Keeping Cool in a Summer Power Outage

Living in a cooler northern climate, keeping cool is not a big deal for my family like keeping warm in winter is, but I still have a few tips to share!

• Open your windows at night when it is cooler and close them in the day time to keep the cooler air in
• Keep your Blinds or Curtains Closed
• Wrap a wet cloth around your neck to keep cool
• Don’t work outside during the hottest part of the day
• Dress in lightweight, light colored clothing
• Keep hydrated

 

3. Water

Water is probably the most important thing on this list of power outage tips and tricks, and hopefully you’ve prepared ahead. It is so important to keep some water stored in case of a power outage!

If you are without electricity and didn’t prepare ahead, you might be stuck with what you have unless you can get to a store or go to a friend’s house who still has electricity to fill up some containers. Because of that, this section is more aimed at preparing ahead.

In any power outage, drinking water will probably be the first thing you need. For drinking water I keep regular 1 gallon water jugs from the grocery store. Since we have often gone without running water, these get refilled all the time. I don’t buy new ones, but just fill up the same jugs over and over again. 

For dishes, hygiene  and backup drinking water, I keep a couple 5 gallon buckets with gamma seal lids (you can find them here at Azure Standard).

I also recycle 1 gallon containers that held anything from vinegar to fresh apple cider, washing them thoroughly and keeping them full of water. 

Any container that doesn’t seem clean enough for drinking water can be reserved for flushing toilets or washing clothes, or for watering your animals.

A water filtration system is a must-have for power outage preparedness. Depending on your budget I recommend a Berkey water filter, Berkey filtered water bottle, or a Lifestraw which filters dirty water as you drink it. If you are using really dirty water, strain it first with a clean T shirt, then use your filter. Boiling is another method of water purification, although it doesn’t remove every kind of toxin. A final option is to use purification tablets or bleach. These are a last resort for me because I would prefer not to drink chemicals, but they are still a viable option.

 

4. Hygiene When the Power Goes Out

Hygiene is sometimes skipped over when it comes to power outage tips and tricks, but it’s important!

As far as personal hygiene, many toilets are still manual, meaning they don’t have to have electricity to flush. You just need to remove the lid on the back and fill it about halfway with water.

If your plumbing doesn’t work without electricity, the simplest solution is a 5 gallon bucket with a seat that fits over the top. Use kitty litter to keep it fresh!

Baby wipes are really handy to have on hand, but if you are caught without them, keeping a little bowl of water with a washrag in it next to the sink is a good alternative. 

Besides our smaller containers of water, we keep a couple big barrels outside the back door. I get those from Azure Standard as well: Recycled Metal Barrel. I usually have to order a few times in a row before the truck that comes to our state has room for one of these, but really appreciate that they held food rather than chemicals. You can also keep an eye out on Craigslist and other local sales pages for 50 gallon barrels. Just make sure you ask what they contained!

 

5. Preserving Food Without Electricity

 

If your power went out suddenly, chances are you have a refrigerator and freezer full of food. This is one of our most challenging power outage tips and tricks, because there are lot of variables depending on where you live. Hopefully these tips will help you to use up your food before it spoils.

In the winter time, you have a huge advantage when it comes to keeping food cool. Depending on the weather, you can either move your food outdoors in a cooler (making sure it is safe from neighborhood dogs and wild animals!), or freeze baggies of water outside and bring them in to put in your fridge.

In cooler temperatures, I often do this when I have extra food that won’t fit in my fridge. You can move a cooler of food outside to cool down and then back in for a while if the temperatures are below freezing. 

If your power goes out when temperatures are constantly below freezing, you can keep frozen foods outdoors as long as the temperature stays below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I’ve also done this when I have a turkey or some meat that won’t fit in my fridge.

An unheated basement is another way to keep refrigerated foods cold, although basement temperatures are typically too warm for highly perishable foods such as milk or meat.(tip: crawl spaces often have more consistent temperatures and can be used in a pinch to keep food cool. Just be sure to use common sense with highly perishable foods!)

It’s important to keep a close eye on temperatures if you are keeping food outdoors. The great outdoors doesn’t keep a constant temperature like an electric refrigerator, and food can quickly spoil if the temperatures get too warm!

In summer time, you may still be able to keep food outdoors at night depending on temperature, especially less perishable items like condiments. If you have an unheated basement or crawl space, you can check the temperature there to see if that space will work for keeping your food cold. At the least, it can buy you some more time to use up your refrigerated and frozen foods.

 

6. What to Eat First When the Power Goes Out

If the power goes out, it can be tempting to go for easy, prepared foods in your pantry. But it’s better to start with eating the highly perishable foods in your fridge and freezer! This is an important one when it comes to power outage tips and tricks! Eat dairy and meat products from your refrigerator first, and do not allow these items to get warm (this includes leftovers containing meat) then use up your produce. 

Use up your freezer foods as they thaw. If you have a lot of food in your freezer, you might need to preserve the extra by canning or dehydrating. In warm weather, you can dehydrate food on trays in the sun or in your car.  If you have no way to eat or preserve your freezer contents, sharing with neighbors is another option to keep from wasting a large quantity of food! 

 

7. How to Cook During a Power Outage

 

Number 6 on our list of power outage tips and tricks is cooking without electricity.

Confession: this was my first attempt at baking bread over an open fire! Thankfully I’ve gotten a little better at cooking without power, and have made some amazing dishes over a fire or woodstove.

If you have a grill or a camping setup for cooking food, it can be used during a power outage too! Just be aware that most of these cooking methods can emit toxic fumes so are not safe to use indoors. If you have a propane stove, you might be able to still use it by manually lighting it with a lighter or match.

Another option in sunny weather is to make a solar cooker out of cardboard boxes; you can find instructions for these online.

My personal favorite is cooking over a fire. When it comes to power outage tips and tricks, this is a really fun one! In the summer, I cook food over a fire pit or in a charcoal grill (although your grill might not last as long, you can use wood if charcoal is not available). In winter, I already have the wood stove going, so it’s easy to cook a variety of foods on top of it. 

 

 

Camping books and Youtube channels often have good information on cooking outdoors over a fire (speaking of which, Youtube is probably the best resource for power outage tips and tricks!).

If you plan on cooking on a wood stove during an emergency (or any time), I’ve found the book, Woodstove Cookery, to have lots of great information. It’s actually meant for cooking in an old-fashioned wood cook stove (the kind that has burners and an oven). Most of the information also applies to cooking on a regular wood stove too. It goes into detail on how to maintain a consistent heat for cooking. It also covers the burning temperatures of different types of wood.

 

 

Cookware for Cooking Over a Fire

If you are going to be cooking over a fire, cast iron is really important. Stainless or aluminum pans will quickly be ruined on an open fire. For woodstove cooking, stainless or aluminum pots are perfectly fine to use in an emergency. They won’t hold up in the long term, though. The three cast iron pieces I use every day are a frying pan, a Dutch oven without legs and a griddle. 

These can be used on a regular stove or oven as well. Mine get more use than any of my stainless pots and pans. I love how food doesn’t stick to cast iron, and it is so easy to clean! It doesn’t start flaking off into your food like a coated non-stick aluminum pan. It’s probably the most versatile kind of cookware you can own.

 

 

8. How to Do Dishes Without Electricity

Number 8 on our list of power outage tips and tricks is how to do your dishes without running water!

Yes, you really can get your dishes clean with no electricity or running water! This is the system  I used last time we were without running water for six weeks.

You’ll need three containers, such as mixing bowls, pots or water-tight plastic totes. 

Container 1: The first container is for washing. If you have a way to heat water, go ahead and heat some up. If not, just add soap to any water you have. I fill this bowl about ½ full of water.

Container 2: This is your first rinse. Fill the container with a couple inches of clean water.

Container 3: This is your second rinse, and should also be filled with a couple inches of clean water.

 

To Wash Your Dishes

To wash your dishes, first scrape off as much food as you can. If they are really dirty, you might want to first pour a little water over them to rinse them off in the sink. Otherwise, you can go ahead and put them in bowl number 1.

Using a washcloth or kitchen sponge, clean the dishes off in the soapy water. Next dunk the dish into the first rinse, and then into the second. If you are washing a large dish that won’t fit, you can rotate it around to rinse each side. 

If any of your three containers start looking too dirty, you can dump them out and refresh the water. The dirty dishwater can be saved for your plants or garden if you have one. 

That’s it! It’s really pretty simple to wash dishes without running water once you get the hang of it!

9. Most Important!

I think the most important thing you can have in any emergency is the ability to improvise and think outside the box.  And that includes during a power outage! If you aren’t stuck on doing things the way you’ve always done them, you can figure out a way to do almost anything! This is the most important of all our power outage tips and tricks!

When the power goes out, remain flexible, and don’t forget to think outside the box!

 

Have you been caught in a long term power outage? Share your best power outage tips and tricks in the comments!