The holidays are one of the best times to test your readiness for a grid failure. During these months, life slows down enough for you and your family to practice your skills and evaluate your supplies before a real emergency.
Why the Holiday Break Is the Perfect Time for a Blackout Drill
During the holidays, you usually have the elements that make a power outage drill more feasible. The temperatures are lower, family members are at home or nearby, and there are fewer scheduling conflicts. With the entire household involved, everyone can learn what the plan looks like and how to respond quickly.
Preparing for winter blackouts is becoming more essential than ever. Power grids usually experience stress due to high heating demands. Today, data centers are adding excess strain, which could lead to long-term challenges.
Knowing what to do during winter power outages is also a lifesaving skill. In 2023, around 2,520 Americans died of hypothermia. Most people who succumbed to these conditions were house-less, with inadequate access to heating. Even if this is not an issue for you and your family, learning how to manage heat without access to electricity, especially during brutal winter temperatures and storms, helps ensure survival.
[Editor’s note: As I read this my youngest son is winter camping in sub-20 degree weather. I’m glad he’s challenging himself, but it’s just not for old men like me anymore, lol.]
How to Prepare Before Your Drill
Before flipping off your breaker, you need a clear structure so the drill stays organized and safe.
Pick an Appropriate Time and Duration
Select a time frame that corresponds to a realistic outage scenario. Some of the world’s longest outages have lasted several days. For instance, Texas experienced a blackout that spanned over two weeks in 2021. However, it might be best to start with a few hours or half a day, especially if it’s your family’s first time.
[Editor’s note: Yes, don’t test the limits just yet, but it’s wise to see how things go for several hours at a minimum. But if you do leave the power off overnight, you’ll want to ensure that you’re being safe with heating options, such as indoor space heaters. Ensure everyone in the family knows what to do!]
Create a Detailed Plan
Outline what the drill will include. You can run a partial drill and test just a few aspects of your total plan, like lighting, heating, communication or food preparation. Set specific goals depending on the duration of your plan. For example, you can specifically target consistent heating for several hours or test your ability to communicate with your extended family and community.
[Editor’s note: Yes! This might be a better option that “going cold turkey” as they say. Try living without the lights for an entire night and see how it goes. You might quickly realize how important a few strategically placed flashlights are around the house. I might also recommend auto-on lights that turn on when the power goes out. Those are wonderful.]
Give Everyone Roles
Everyone needs a clear job. During an outage or emergency, confusion and panic can waste precious time. Assign duties like managing lighting, checking on heating, handling radio communications, or monitoring food and water levels. Walk everyone through the plan and take suggestions when necessary.
[Editor’s note: Be sure the little kids have jobs too if nothing other than finding a fun game to play when the lights go out.]
Follow Safety Precautions
Create a checklist that includes proper heater ventilation, carbon monoxide monitoring, setting up a fire extinguisher and identifying emergency exits. It’s also best to inform your neighbors or extended family that you’re staging a drill, so they can assist you if you need it.
Essential Supplies for a Power Outage Drill
Aside from assessing your skills, a holiday blackout drill can test your home inventory. Here’s what you should prepare for your drill and for emergencies:
- Backup power: Generators, fuel, power stations, solar chargers and extra batteries
- Emergency lighting: Flashlights, lanterns, LED strips or candles
- Winter heating: Heaters, stoves and insulation
- Food and water storage and purification: Shelf-stable food, freeze-dried meals, canned goods and off-grid cooking equipment
- Medical supplies and specific needs: First-aid kits, prescription medications, mobility devices, pet supplies and other items unique to your household
- Communication devices: Battery-powered radios, walkie-talkies, satellite phones, chargers and whistles
- Personal items and hygiene needs: Wet wipes, hand sanitizer, feminine hygiene products, thermal underwear, wool blankets and other comfort items
[Editor’s note: I’ve never been a fan of candles for lighting when there are safer options, like LED lights. You also need to consider using generators ONLY outdoors as they can be extremely dangerous as well. Same goes for anything that is meant for outdoor use, like camp stoves.]
How to Execute Your Holiday Blackout Drill
Once you’ve planned and prepped, you’re ready to run the drill. The goal is to behave as you would in a real outage, so keep the process simple and realistic.
Turn Off the Main Power
Shut off the main breaker or your home’s key circuits. This step immediately puts your household into test mode and shows how quickly you can adapt without electricity. Once the power is off, there is no more room for extra prep.
[Editor’s note: If you’re going to do this, flip each individual breaker off first BEFORE the main breaker for safety. Then, when you’re ready to turn everything back on, flip on the main breaker before the individual ones. That said, you may not need or want to turn off everything. You could, instead, turn off only the lighting and entertainment system breakers; maybe the heat too, while keeping on the refrigerator and other crucial electrical demands, whatever those may be.]
Test Emergency Lighting and Communication
Move through the house as if the outage just happened. Turn on your flashlights and lanterns, check radio connections, and confirm that everyone can locate the necessary supplies.
[Editor’s note: I recommend warning everyone in the household that you’re staging this scenario for safety.]
Run Your Alternative Heating Source
Start your backup heat and check for fuel issues and ensure adequate ventilation. Track how long it takes to warm a room, how well the heat holds and how much fuel your system consumes within a specific time.
[Editor’s note: Pay attention for areas that get too cold since water pipes can freeze and burst, canned food seals can become compromised, water bottles could burst, and so on. This is no time to take a nap!]
Evaluate Your Food Storage and Cooking Methods
Prepare a full meal using non-electric tools. Test your stove and other equipment to determine how long meals take and identify any challenges that arise. You can also get a good idea of how much you consume.
[Editor’s note: If you’re going to use alternative cooking (or heating) methods, be sure to use them outdoors ONLY! Because they could quickly become a fire hazard indoors and/or an carbon monoxide danger. Yes, cooking outdoors sucks in the winter, but it’s better to be safe than sorry … or dead.]
Test Your Water Purification System
More than stomach upset, contaminated water can transmit diseases like diarrhea, cholera, dysentery and hepatitis. During your drill, pretend your tap water isn’t safe. This will force you to filter, boil or treat it for your household. This step also helps you estimate the time and effort required for water purification.
[Editor’s note: Absolutely. How will you get clean water if the power is out and the pipes freeze up? Of course, I don’t recommend going out and sourcing water due to safety concerns, but it’s something to consider. Granted, you could either use some of your stored water and/or just take water from the tap and “pretend” it’s been sourced elsewhere, then test out your treatment plans.]
Evaluate Your Performance
When the drill ends, gather the household and review what worked and what needs fixing. A short written record helps you track improvements and run a smoother drill next year.
Preparing for What Comes Next
A holiday blackout drill is a practical way to test your readiness under realistic winter conditions. This activity enables you to test your existing systems and identify areas for improvement, sharpening your skills and keeping your household prepared for whatever the colder months may bring.
[Note: This was a guest post.]
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