Here are some of the most important questions and steps homeowners should know:

Do you have access to water when the power goes out? 

If you are on a well, your well pump will not have power. You will need drinking water, water for pets and livestock and water to flush toilets. If it is a planned outage, you can fill buckets, water jugs or even the bathtub to safely store non-potable water. Two-gallon water jugs with pouring spouts are available at larger stores for handwashing and drinking. Even smaller metro water disticts may lost the ability to pressurize water within their neighborhood water mains.

How will you heat your home in case of a power outage? 

Do you have a wood, pellet or gas fireplace? Most gas fireplaces will not work when the power is out due to blowers, pellet feeders, thermostats and ignitors. What do you have in place to stay warm? 

Do you know how to open your garage door without power? 

Automatic garage door openers have a way to release the door so it can be opened and closed manually but you must be inside to do so! If you return home to a power outage, how will you get into your house? Make sure you know how to release the garage door opener from inside so you can get out as well. 

Do you have powered medical equipment? Oxygen concentrators? C-PAP machines? 

Power outages can be dangerous for individuals with medical devices that require power. Many of these devices will not work on small, portable batteries, so make sure you have a plan in place for how you will power your device. More substantial battery backup systems are capable of supporting these devices, but are larger and cumbersome and may require specialized adapters for your devices. These types of devices are VERY common in our mountain community, and chances are someone on your street has one, even if you don’t. Consider checking in on your neighbors.

Do you need refrigeration and freezing to preserve medicine or food? 

Injectable medications like insulin, GLP-1s or others typically require careful refrigeration with a specific range of temperatures to keep them safe, and may need to be discarded at significant expense, inconvenience, even danger to the person who uses the medication. If your medication spoils, how long will it take and how much will it cost to replace it?

Short power outages of less than a day usually are not harmful to food if you keep the refrigerator and freezer closed. You may wish to move ice packs to the fridge before the power goes out, to keep it in the safe temperature range longer. You should keep fridge and freezer doors closed as much as possible, as cold can escape very rapidly. Consider getting a battery-powered digital thermometer with a probe on a long thin wire, to monitor the interior temps without opening the door during longer outages. Freezers should stay below 32F optimally (normal temp is 0F), and fridges below 40F (normally 35F-38F) for safety. 

Do you need the ability to cook or heat food? 

Electric stoves and ovens consume a lot of electricity and usually are not practical to operate from smaller-scale battery backup systems. Even modern gas stoves have a safety shutoff interlock that disables the gas valves when the power shuts off, and leaves them locked until a person acknowledges the burner knobs are off when the power returns.

During a power outage, you may need to consider cooking or heating things like meals, milk or formula, or very importantly, coffee!

Do you need lighting?

After the sun goes down, you’ll need to rely on flashlights, other battery-powered lamps, or candles/lamps that burn fuel. Modern LED flashlights and camping lanterns can provide light for literally days before replacing or recharging batteries, but they don’t necessarily put out a LOT of light. Working, cooking, reading or doing other precise work can be much more difficult with smaller battery-powered lights, so plan ahead.

Combustion light sources like candles, lanterns and oil lamps may have a romantic “Little House on the Prairie” appeal, but they don’t last long, are messy and dangerous to refuel and can be dangerous to operate indoors due to open flame, or exhaust products like soot and carbon monoxide. Operating combustion devices in a modern home can be extremely dangerous because homes are so airtight that they can rapidly cause a buildup of hazardous fumes that can be fatal.

Do you need fuel, groceries or cash?

You’re not the only one dealing with the challenges of a regional power outage. Your local businesses, like grocery stores, gas stations and banks all are in the same situation. Plan ahead, because you may not have the ability to do important transactions like buying gas or groceries, or even withdrawing money from the bank. 

With so many people working from home, power outages can directly impact income. Backup power keeps your modem, router, computers, and monitors running, because your job doesn’t stop just because the power’s out.