What to Do When Power Goes Out: A Lineman’s First-Night Load Plan
Here is what to do when power goes out and night is coming: decide what gets battery power before anyone plugs anything in. Keep phones and one light first, then any medical device someone depends on, then the fridge and freezer. Drop the big heat loads, like space heaters, kettles, and hair dryers, because they empty a battery faster than anything else in the house. Unplug sensitive electronics so the surge when power returns doesn’t hit them. Keep the fridge and freezer doors shut. If you run a generator, it stays outside and away from windows and doors.
That order is the whole plan. The rest of this page is how to make it stick on the first dark night, when everyone is tired and reaching for the outlet.
I’m Mike, a union lineman with 22+ years on the job. During big storms I’m usually out on the trucks, on mutual aid across several states, which means my wife and kids run the house on our preps. This plan is what we set up so they don’t have to make decisions in the dark. Size your own leftover watt-hours in the power station runtime calculator.
The first-night keep order
- 1: Keep: Phones, one radio, one light; Why it matters: Utility updates, check-ins, finding the stairs
- 2: Keep: Medical devices; Why it matters: CPAP, nebulizer, oxygen, mobility chargers if someone needs them
- 3: Keep: Fridge and freezer; Why it matters: Food money and food safety through morning
- 4: Keep: Modem or router, in short windows; Why it matters: A few minutes for updates beats running it all night
- 5: Keep: Comfort; Why it matters: Fans, TV, games, extra charging
This is needs versus wants. The first three rows are needs. Everything else is a want, and wants get cut first when the battery is small.
Drop these first
Some loads use more power in an hour than everything in the keep list uses all night. These are the first to go:
- Plug-in space heaters. Most plug-in heaters top out around 1,500 watts on the high setting. That one device can outdraw everything else on your list combined.
- Window or portable air conditioners. Same problem in a summer outage.
- Kettles, toasters, hair dryers, and curling irons. Short but very heavy draws.
- Game consoles and big TVs. Nice to have, not night-one needs.
- A pile of random USB chargers. Each is small; together they add up.
If you want the heat side worked out in detail, see how to size a power station for overnight heat.
How our house splits the loads
At our house the jobs are split by size. The EcoFlow DELTA 3 Ultra stays indoors and runs the essentials: phones, lights, and the small stuff that keeps the house running. The freezers and the furnace run on a gas generator that stays outside. The big loads never go on the battery, so the battery lasts.
When the lights go out while I’m on storm duty, my wife runs the DELTA 3 Ultra the same way every time: each device gets switched off before it’s plugged in, the kitchen fridge goes on first, then the Starlink and mesh router, then lights and phones, and she keeps the load under what the unit can handle.
If you have a generator, it does not get connected to the house through a dryer outlet or any homemade cord. That backfeeds the line and can kill the lineman working on it. The only safe ways are plugging appliances directly into the generator with outdoor-rated cords, or a transfer switch or interlock installed by a licensed electrician, with the main breaker open.
Fridge habits that save power and food
The fridge is usually the biggest load worth keeping. A few habits help it last:
- Keep the doors closed. USDA guidance is that a closed fridge keeps food cold for about 4 hours, a full freezer about 48 hours, and a half-full freezer about 24 hours.
- Put a thermometer in the fridge so you check instead of guessing. Food should stay at 40°F or below.
- Move tonight’s drinks and snacks to a cooler with ice so the main door stays shut.
- Decide what’s for dinner before you open the door, then grab it all in one trip.
For the full when-to-toss list, see how long food lasts without power.
Every fridge draws a different amount. Read the label on yours, or put a plug-in watt meter on it before storm season, and enter the real number in the runtime calculator. Don’t trust a number from a blog, including this one.
Medical devices come before comfort
If someone in the house uses a CPAP, oxygen concentrator, or other powered medical device, it goes on the list before anything else except a phone. Read the watts on the device’s label or power brick and put that number in the calculator.
Some CPAP machines use much less power with the humidifier turned off. Ask the person’s care team whether that’s okay for outage nights before storm week, not during it. I’m not anyone’s doctor. If a device needs more than your battery can give, the care team and your utility’s medical-needs program are the people to talk to ahead of time.
Charge phones early, then unplug
Charge every phone to full in the early evening, then unplug. Charging five devices on and off all night wastes power. Keep one type of charging cable in the house so nobody is hunting for adapters in the dark.
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Power banks are best charged before the storm, while the grid is still up. Charging empty banks off your power station during the outage takes power the fridge could have used.
A first-night budget, worked out
This is planning math, not a test of anyone’s house. Swap in the numbers from your own labels.
Say your battery holds 1,000 watt-hours and you need to get through the night:
- Two phones to full: Example watts: from the charger label; Hours: once; Watt-hours: check the label
- CPAP: Example watts: 20 W (example); Hours: 8; Watt-hours: 160
- LED lights: Example watts: 10 W total (example); Hours: 6; Watt-hours: 60
- Fridge: Example watts: 50 W average (example); Hours: 8; Watt-hours: 400
- Total: Watt-hours: about 620 plus phones
The math is just watts times hours. Now add one hour of a 1,500-watt space heater: that’s 1,500 watt-hours by itself, more than the whole battery. That’s why heaters come off the list without debate.
Battery capacity on the box is not all usable at the outlet. Some power is lost converting to household current. Leave yourself a cushion instead of planning to hit zero at sunrise.
Post the family rules on the fridge
When I’m not home, the plan has to work without me. A short list on the fridge door settles arguments before they start:
- Ask before you plug anything into the power station.
- Medical devices and the fridge come before movies and games.
- Open the fridge once per meal.
- No heaters, hair dryers, or kettles on the battery.
- In the morning, check the battery percentage, then decide what day two looks like.
Write it on paper in daylight, before the storm. Guests and kids aren’t trying to drain the battery. They just don’t know the order unless someone tells them.
Cold nights and hot nights use the same list
In a winter outage, people reach for electric heat first. That’s the fastest way to empty a battery. Close doors, pick one room, and use layers and blankets. If you use any fuel-burning heater indoors, it has to be rated for indoor use and you need working carbon monoxide alarms. See indoor propane heater safety.
In a summer outage, people reach for the air conditioner first. Same problem. A small fan on low uses a fraction of the power, and water and shade do more than a battery can.
Either season, the big comfort loads come off first.
Before the lights come back
Unplug TVs, computers, and other electronics you aren’t using. Ready.gov recommends disconnecting appliances and electronics during an outage to avoid damage from surges when power returns. Leave one lamp switched on so you know when the power is back. When it comes back, wait a few minutes and plug things in one at a time.
What a good first night looks like
By morning:
- Phones still have charge.
- Medical devices ran all night.
- The fridge is still cold, and the thermometer says so.
- The battery isn’t empty because someone ran a heater “just for an hour.”
That’s a good first night. Day two is about recharging, from a generator running outside, solar if the sky cooperates, or the grid when it comes back, and then going through the list again. For longer outages, see multi-day power outage battery backup.
Closely related
- Portable power station for home backup
- Ice storm power outage: heat and CO
- Power station runtime calculator
Written by Mike, a union electrical lineman with 22+ years on the job. He sees how power actually fails on ordinary workdays, not just big-name disasters.
Read the full article on Prepper Evolution: https://prepperevolution.com/articles/what-loads-to-drop-first-night-of-outage. For your own numbers, try the free prepper tools and calculators: https://prepperevolution.com/tools.
