Preparing your home for a power outage

Outages often arrive with wild weather, and Melbourne's hot northerly days that end in a sharp cold change are a familiar example. Keep a torch or two where you can find them in the dark, with spare batteries, and a rechargeable lamp for the living room. Energy Safe Victoria recommends battery-operated lighting rather than candles.

Charge phones and a power bank when storms are forecast. The NBN equipment and your modem need mains power, so home internet and many home phones stop with the outage, leaving your mobile as the link.

Note your distributor's name and faults line, which are on your electricity bill, and save its outage page on your phone. Around Altona Meadows, Laverton, Point Cook, Werribee and Tarneit that's Powercor. Yarraville, Kingsville and West Footscray are on Jemena's network, which reaches Williamstown and Footscray.

If anyone at home relies on powered medical equipment, this is the most important part of the plan. Register the address as a life support address. Powercor says you can do that through your energy retailer, the company that sends the bill, or with the distributor directly, and that registered customers are notified at least four business days before a planned outage.

Registration doesn't stop unplanned outages. Powercor says they can happen to life support customers too, through events like severe weather or traffic accidents. The plan needs a backup: equipment kept charged, spare batteries where the device takes them, and somewhere to go if an outage runs long. The equipment supplier or treating team is the right source for what the device itself needs.

Think too about older relatives living alone, anyone who needs heating or cooling to stay well, and medication that has to stay refrigerated, especially on a hot northerly afternoon or a cold July night.

The best thing you can do for food during an outage is keep the doors shut. Every opening lets cold air out. A full freezer holds its temperature much longer than a half-empty one, so a few frozen water bottles in spare freezer space help it ride out an outage, and double as ice for an esky.

A fridge thermometer takes the guesswork out of deciding what to keep afterwards. If food has warmed up and you don't know for how long, throw it out rather than take a chance.

If there's a second fridge or chest freezer in the garage, check which circuit it's on. A freezer on the same safety switch as outdoor points or garden lights can be tripped off by a wet fitting while you're away, which looks like an outage but isn't. A circuit of its own is a small job that protects what's inside.

A motorised garage door stops when the power does. Find the manual release, usually a cord or lever on the motor's carriage, and practise it once in daylight following the maker's instructions. If the car is the only way out, or the driveway gate is motorised too, that matters.

Some doors and gates have battery backup, so check whether yours does and when the battery was last replaced. Alarm systems run on a backup battery for a while and may beep as it runs down.

Smoke alarms are the other beeper. Homes built after 1 August 1997 must have smoke alarms connected to mains power with a backup battery, so they keep working through an outage. If one chirps, the backup battery is probably low, and anyone can change a smoke alarm battery.

When the power fails, Energy Safe Victoria says to switch appliances off, because they could start a fire when the power returns, and to unplug them at the power point to help prevent damage from a surge. Leave one light switched on so you know when supply is back.

That's easier if you've thought about it beforehand. Know which things matter most: the TV and entertainment unit, computers and the modem, and anything that heats, such as a heater, iron, oven or cooktop, that could come back on unattended. A surge power board with an indicator protects plugged-in electronics day to day.

Hard-wired equipment can't be unplugged: split system outdoor units, ducted systems, the oven and the hot water unit. A surge diverter at the switchboard covers every circuit; Energy Safe Victoria describes it as capturing voltage spikes in the wiring before they pass into equipment. It doesn't protect people from shock.

Most grid-connected solar systems shut down when the grid does, so panels alone won't keep the lights on. Staying powered needs a system designed for it, usually a battery set up for backup, and it may cover only some circuits. Energy Safe Victoria's outage advice includes shutting a solar system down using safe procedures, so keep the instructions for yours somewhere easy to find.

Portable generators need care. Energy Safe Victoria says never to run one indoors, in a garage or another enclosed space because of carbon monoxide, to use only outdoor-rated heavy-duty extension cords in good condition, and never to plug a generator into a wall socket or connect it to the switchboard. Connecting one to the house is a job for a licensed electrician.

Energy Safe Victoria's advice for restoring power is to unplug appliances first, turn on the main switch, then switch circuit breakers back on one at a time, and test the safety switches afterwards. Plugging things back in gradually avoids a rush of load and shows quickly if one appliance is the problem.

If a safety switch won't reset or keeps tripping, leave it off and call a licensed electrician. Dull or flickering lights, a shock from an appliance or tap, or damaged cables are signs to stop and get help, not to keep resetting.

Make testing a habit before storm season arrives. Energy Safe Victoria asks householders to press the test button on each safety switch every three months, and a switch that doesn't cut the power needs a licensed electrician.