What to do when the power goes out

July 31st, 2014

Appliance Talk

Who turned out the lights?

Whether you’re reading this on your phone in the dark, or planning ahead in case of a sudden surprise blackout, here are a few simple steps that can help protect your valuable appliances, not to mention your priceless loved ones:

Check the fuse box

Regardless of whether it’s just one appliance that’s out of action, or a circuit, or your entire house, it’s worth checking the fuse box regardless, just to be sure.

If you open up your fuse box and find that the circuit breaker has tripped or a fuse has blown, DON’T immediately flick the switch or replace the fuse – the problem that caused the blackout in the first place may just knock the power out again.  Plus, repeated power fluctuations can be very bad for sensitive electronics…

If the fuse box looks fine, the problem must be elsewhere.  For smaller outages around the home, a malfunctioning appliance or defective power point may be the culprit.

If your entire home is blacked out, it may be time to check outside.  Talk to the neighbours and check whether they’re also experiencing blackouts.  If the local streetlights have gone out, that’s a clear sign that something has gone wrong on a significant scale.

If it looks like your local area has been blacked out, get in touch with your local energy supplier, and have your neighbours to do so too – the more reports a power company receives about an outage, the faster their maintenance teams will likely spring into action.

Disconnect your appliances

For power outages limited to just your home, before you reset the circuit breaker or change the fuse, you should take steps to prevent a second outage.

Turn off your power points and unplug your home’s appliances (yes, all of them) first, then reset the circuit breaker.

Switch your power points and appliances back on, one at a time to avoid overloading the circuit – if something doesn’t switch back on, or if reactivating one particular appliance causes another outage, you’re one step closer to finding your culprit.

Try to avoid overloading a single power board if possible, as this can put a lot of pressure on an electrical circuit, and potentially lead to overloads.

Try distributing the appliances or power connections through the house, and if that’s just not possible, seriously consider contacting an electrician about sorting out some additional power points or electrical circuits to share the load.

Double-check the cause of problems

A cautionary tale:

Once upon a time (the other week), a mother of two placed a load of laundry in her clothes dryer, which lived in the garage along with a spare upright fridge and upright freezer.

Hours later, she discovered the clothes still damp, the dryer having apparently died partway through the cycle.

Unperturbed, she went out and bought a replacement.

However, upon setting it up in the place of her old dryer, she found that this one refused to work as well!

Investigating further, she discovered that it wasn’t the dryer’s fault at all – the old spare upright fridge she’d run for decades had finally given up the ghost and short-circuited the power board shared by the appliances, meaning the original dryer was still completely fine!

The moral of the story – always double-check and confirm the cause of any power problems before you start searching for solutions!

Living in the dark

If your home is suffering a total blackout that looks like it’s going to last for a while, you’d best start making a plan.  The first step will be to sort out some light sources.

Keeping a spare torch plus extra batteries handy for just such an emergency is ideal.  In the very short term, the glow of your smartphone’s screen can do in a pinch, at least until you can find a better option.

While candles are a simple light source and quite pretty to boot, their fire risk means you really shouldn’t rely on them as your primary long-term light source.

Safely preserving food

Even if the power is out and your fridge has died, you don’t need to start disposing of refrigerated and frozen food straight away.

Even when switched off, a fridge or freezer is quite well-insulated.  Keep the door closed as much as possible, and the interior will remain at a consistently cool temperature for some time.

Though not forever…

A switched-off and closed fridge can typically maintain the freshness and safetry of its food for about 4 hours, and a freezer for a day or two (according to the NT Department of Health).

That said, every fridge is different, so use your common sense – if your food doesn’t look safe to eat, or if you don’t trust your fridge’s seals, don’t risk it.

Cooking with gas

If the power is going to be out for a while, you won’t be able to use your electric oven, electric cooktop or microwave to prepare food.

Now would be a great time to wheel the LPG gas barbeque out of storage for a bit of alfresco cooking, or to (very carefully!) light your gas cooktop with a match rather than its starter button.

Remember to follow all of the relevant fire safety guidelines, and be extra-mindful of smoke when using your cooktop, as you won’t be able to run your rangehood without power – keep a window open!

Don’t try to fix electrical problems yourself!

Let’s say the cause of your power problems is fairly obvious – a set of sparking, smoking, crossed wires, for example.

If your home spontaneously transforms into a Tesla Coil, something has gone very wrong.

Or perhaps the problem isn’t obvious – perhaps you suspect there’s some wiring problem behind your walls that can’t be accessed easily.

In any case, don’t risk the danger or expense of a do-it-yourself solution – call an electrician to deal with the problem, rather than poking around with your electricity supply yourself.

Invest in surge protection

You’d be surprised by how often a simple surge protector can protect a valuable appliance from power problems.

Think about it – even if a power board with built-in surge protection’s a bit more expensive than a stock standard power board, sensitive electronics such as your computer, Smart TV and the like, would be MUCH more expensive to replace if they were fried by a power surge.

Plus, a surge protector (such as a model from Crest or Thor) can help in preventing short circuits before they happen, and also help limit the wear and tear on your appliances from energy fluctuations.

Just don’t expect a humble surge protector to be proof against a full-blown direct lightning strike – pretty much nothing can stop that.

Your turn:

Do you have a blackout horror story?  Or a plan for dealing with a power outage?  Share your tips and advice with our community!