Top 5 Home Power Outage Preparation Tips

Power outages aren’t fun – it can also be incredibly inconvenient. Yet, in extreme weather conditions and as our demand for electricity gets higher and higher, power outages will be more and more common. This is why it is critical to be prepared. Not only is it important to be prepared for when the power goes out, but also when the power comes back on. Yet, in the winter or even the summer – it is important to know what to do when the power goes out, because it could affect your wellbeing. If your home loses the power to heat and cool, you could be left to withstand the elements. Here are the top five home power outage preparation tips.

1. Make sure that you have a plan. Your plan should include where to find emergency supplies, where you will convene, and even what you will do while the power is out. If your family doesn’t know what to do when the power goes out, there could be mass confusion or risk of injury. Moreover, if you don’t know where you have put the emergency supplies or have misplaced them, you might be left to your own devices.
2. Have everything you need in the emergency supply kit. Not only should you have one place that you keep the emergency supply kit, but you should also have everything you need inside it. These supplies include candles, a small flashlight, matches, batteries, a can opener, and a radio. You want to be able to tune in to the radio to make sure there are no serious problems and you want to have a can opener in case you can’t prepare food for a couple of days – or if the food inside your refrigerator has perished. Owning a camping stove could also really make life much easier and enjoyable in the event of a power outage.
3. Use a surge protector. When the power comes back you will want to protect all of your electrical items. Generally, when the electricity comes back after a long power outage, it will come back in a powerful surge that could damage the electrical items and gadgets in your home. An electrical surge protector is easy to install. If you don’t have a surge protector, you could simply unplug items inside your house. If televisions and other items were on before the power outage, a surge could be even more devastating.
4. Install a geothermal heat pump. One of the biggest benefits of geothermal heating systems vs traditional heat pumps is that they don’t require the same energy source. Power outages can leave us unable to use our traditional heating systems. Yet, with a geothermal heat pump, you will have heat whenever you want it, because they rely on the heat of the earth, not the electricity provided from a power plant.
5. Put all your perishables in an icebox or cooler. If you want to prevent your food from going bad – and wasting money – it is recommended to immediately put all of your perishables into a cooler. This should keep your food relatively fresh until the power comes back on. The last thing you want is to have to throw out an entire fridge worth of food.