Power Cut Kit: The UK Blackout Essentials Guide for 2026

A power cut kit is the one box of gear you never think about until the lights drop and the router dies. Storm season rolls into the UK from October, and every winter a few hundred thousand homes lose supply for a few hours — sometimes considerably longer if you're at the end of a rural feed. The difference between a mild inconvenience and a genuinely miserable evening comes down to about eighty quid of kit sat in a cupboard.

This guide covers what a power cut kit actually needs to do, and the gear we'd put in one. No stockpiling, no prepper theatre — just the four jobs that matter.

What a power cut kit actually needs to do

Strip it back and there are four: get light on the situation, keep information coming in, keep your phone and your car alive, and put hot food on the table. Everything else is optional. Build around those four and you've got a kit that works whether you're out for two hours or two days.

One rule before anything else: it lives in one place, and everyone in the house knows where. A torch you can't find in the dark is a torch you don't own.

Light: two sources, minimum

Phone torches are a stopgap. They eat the one battery you actually need, and they occupy the hand you want free.

Make the hand-crank radio torch below your main light: solar panel and hand crank mean it never depends on a charge you forgot to top up, and it covers the information job too.

Back it up with something that's already on you. The Keyring EDC Light (£12.95) is a squeeze-activated white LED on your keys, with a microfibre screen pad built in. It's not a room light — it's the thing that finds the keyhole, the meter cupboard, or the dropped fuse. It lives in the EDC and pocket tools collection if you want to see the rest.

Information: a radio that can't run flat

When the mobile network is congested or a local mast is down with the grid, broadcast radio is what's left. The catch with a battery radio is that the batteries are always dead when you need them.

The Solar Hand-Crank Emergency Radio Torch (£29.99) solves that properly — solar panel for daylight, hand crank for everything else, so it never depends on a charge you forgot to top up. It's a radio, a torch and a USB charging port in one compact unit, which means it covers two of the four jobs on its own. If you buy one thing off this page, buy this.

Power: phones first, car second

A dead phone in a power cut is worse than a dead light. You want a pack in the kit that's charged and untouched — not the one you've been running your headphones off all week.

The Portable Car Jump Starter and Power Bank (£54.99) does double duty and earns its place for it. It's a 10,000mAh USB pack for phones and sat-navs, and a 1000A peak jump starter for when a cold snap kills the car battery on the same morning the heating's off. Keep it topped up two or three times a year and forget about it.

Mains power from the driveway

This one's for longer outages, or if you're on a rural supply where four hours is normal. Your car is a 12V battery on wheels, and the 1500W Heavy-Duty Vehicle Power Inverter (£64.99) turns it into a 230V feed. Aluminium alloy housing with deep cooling fins, battery clamp cables for direct terminal connection, plus a lighter plug for lighter loads.

Be straight about the limits, though: this unit outputs a square wave. That's fine for resistive loads — heaters, work lamps — and robust power tools. Don't run sensitive electronics or medical equipment off it, and run the engine while you're drawing a serious load or you'll flatten the battery you just plugged into.

Hot food without the hob

Gas hobs with electronic ignition don't light. Electric hobs are obviously out. A hot meal does more for morale on a cold evening than any other item in a power cut kit.

The Suitcase BBQ Grill (£39.95) folds completely flat with a carry handle, so it stores in the cupboard next to the rest of the kit rather than taking over the shed. Steel body and grate, charcoal, lit and cooking in minutes. Outdoors only, obviously — never bring charcoal inside.

The cheap thing worth adding

The Stainless Steel Emergency Survival Whistle is £9.99 and 24g of twin-tube stainless steel. It cuts through wind and noise far better than shouting, and if someone's out in the dark checking a fuse box or a generator, it's how they get your attention. Cheap insurance.

Build it once, check it twice a year

Put the lot in one lidded box. Label it. Top up the jump starter when the clocks change — twice a year, five minutes, done. A power cut kit that's flat is just a box.

Start with the hand-crank radio and the keyring light for under £45; add the jump starter and inverter when you're ready. Every item above ships with free UK delivery.