How do I look after a smart meter and heating in a power cut?

Almost every modern UK heating system depends on electricity even where the fuel does not: the boiler's fan, ignition and controls, the circulating pump, the programmer, the room thermostat and the thermostatic zone valves all need power. Gas keeps flowing during an electricity cut, but nothing burns it. Smart meters are a separate question and cause a lot of unnecessary worry — they have their own internal record and battery-backed clock, and they do not lose your credit or your readings.

Safety

What you'll need

• A torch, one per person, kept somewhere you can find in the dark
• A charged power bank
• A battery or wind-up radio (optional)
• The number 105, and your supplier's number
• Warm layers and blankets

Step by step

1. Look out of the window before touching anything.If the street lights and the neighbours are dark, it is a network fault and there is nothing in your house to fix. If they have power and you do not, it is your installation and the consumer unit is the place to look.
2. Ring 105 — it is free and it goes to your network operator.That is the distribution network, not your supplier, and it is the correct number whether the fault is on the street or between the meter and the network. They can tell you the expected restoration time.
3. Check your consumer unit only if the neighbours have power.Look for a breaker or an RCD that has moved to off. If one has tripped, switch all the circuit breakers off, reset the RCD, then bring them back one at a time to find the circuit at fault.
4. Leave the smart meter alone.It does not need resetting and it keeps its records. The in-home display may take a while to reconnect, or need its own power, and a blank display is not a meter fault. Credit on a prepayment meter is not lost.
5. Switch heating controls and sensitive equipment off at the wall.It stops everything restarting simultaneously when power returns, which is when surges and boiler faults happen. Leave one light switched on so you know the moment it comes back.
6. Keep the heat you already have.Close curtains and internal doors, pick one room, put on layers, and use hot water bottles from a kettle boiled on gas if you have a gas hob you can light with a match. Do not use any outdoor heater indoors.
7. Leave the fridge and freezer shut.A closed full freezer holds for around 24 hours, a fridge for around four. Opening it to check is what loses the food.
8. When power returns, restart in order.Wait a couple of minutes, then bring the boiler and heating controls back on, then the rest. Reset the boiler if it has locked out, and check the system pressure before running it.
9. Reset the clocks and check the settings.Programmers, timers, smart thermostats and the immersion timer often revert to a default. A heating system that comes back on a factory schedule is a common post-cut complaint that people blame on the cut itself.
10. Register on the Priority Services Register before you need it.Free, with the network operator as well as the supplier. It gets priority restoration, advance warning of planned work, and in a long cut, welfare support and sometimes hot meals.

Tips

• A smart meter in prepayment mode normally allows emergency credit to carry you through a cut, and suppliers are required to have arrangements so a vulnerable customer is not left off supply. Ring the supplier rather than assuming.
• Keep torches, not candles. Power-cut candle fires are a well-documented pattern, and a head torch is far more useful than a phone.
• A gas hob with a manual match can boil water even when the electrics are off, but never use a gas oven or hob to heat a room.
• If you rely on powered medical equipment, tell the network operator now via the Priority Services Register, and have a plan for a multi-hour cut including how to charge equipment.
• Network operators pay compensation under guaranteed standards for long or repeated interruptions, though it is often automatic only for some. Note the times the power went off and came back.

Common mistakes

• Ringing the energy supplier about a power cut — Supply of electrons is the network operator's job, not the supplier's. 105 is free, goes to the right people and works from any phone.
• Assuming the smart meter has lost your credit or readings — It has not. Meters keep their register and their credit through an outage; only the in-home display goes blank, and it reconnects on its own.
• Running a generator in a garage or a porch — Carbon monoxide from a generator kills quickly in an enclosed or partly enclosed space. Outdoors, well away from windows and doors, is the only option, and never wired into the house without a changeover switch.
• Leaving everything switched on so you know when power returns — Everything restarting at once causes surges and boiler lockouts. Leave one lamp on and switch the rest off at the wall.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask