WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT · light · heat · water · food · one week

Your boiler stops when the power does. By the second night, the cold is in the bedroom.

In a long winter power cut it is older people in cold houses who get hurt: by the cold itself, or by the camping stove carried indoors to beat it. This is how a grid engineer of forty-two years keeps a British home warm, fed and safe for a week without power, on a pension budget.

When the Lights Go Out by Keith Brindley, book cover Sort My House Before the Lights Go£27 · one payment · instant download See what's inside first ▼

What is already true in your house tonight

Sort it now, in daylight, in an afternoon. Leave it, and you will be sorting it in the dark, in the cold, with a phone on ten percent.

01

Pay once. The book is on your phone a minute later.

  1. You payOn the secure checkout, by card. It takes about a minute.
  2. The book opensThe very next screen has your download button. Phone, tablet or computer.
  3. It stays in your emailThe same link goes to your inbox, so you can print the kitchen-wall card and the store list whenever you like.

Nothing is posted, and there is no account to make.

02

Your gas boiler stops when the electricity does. Most houses find that out on the first night.

My name is Keith Brindley. I started as an apprentice electrical fitter in 1977 and retired in 2019. In between I was a substation fitter, a cable jointer, a protection engineer, and for my last twelve years a senior control engineer on the regional control desk, running the switching and the restoration when the weather turned.

On a bad night on the desk the alarm list scrolls faster than you can read it. Breakers trip and lock out, trees are across the roads, and every crew can only be in one place. Most homes come back within hours. The last few streets, at the far end of a long line, can wait days.

Those last few streets are who I wrote this for. A modern house leans on electricity far more than the houses of the 1970s cuts did. The boiler, the phone, the hob, the shower and the freezer all stop together, in an order you can predict, and every one of them has a simple answer if you sort it out before the night it happens.

It has all happened in living memory:

None of those was the end of the world. Every one went on longer than people expected on the first evening, and every one was far easier for the houses that had light, heat, water and food sorted before the lights went.

03

An unplanned power cut costs more than a planned one.

What a long winter power cut costs a house with no plan, set against what is in the book.

No plan

The radiators go cold within the hour, and the whole house cools with nowhere kept warm.
a cold, long night
The freezer opened "just to check" all evening, and a full freezer spoils by the second day.
£100s of food in the bin
A cordless phone and a router that die with the power, and a mobile running flat.
cut off from family
A camping stove or a barbecue brought indoors for warmth.
carbon monoxide
A week with no plan
money, food and health, at risk

With When the Lights Go Out

What fails first in your own house, walked room by room, with the answer for each.
no surprises
One warm room set up in an hour: curtains, door, floor, bed, flasks and hot water bottles.
warm and safe
The week-long store list for one and for two, much of it fine cold, built a few pounds at a time.
in pounds
Light, water, phones, cash and medicines, each with its own short checklist.
sorted
One card for the kitchen wall: the first hour of a power cut, step by step.
printed
When the Lights Go Out
£27

One freezer saved in one power cut pays for the book.

04

Real pages. Every amount is written down for you.

Real pages from the real book. This is exactly what opens on your phone.

Page 21: the what-fails-first checklist for your own house.
Page 24: the first hour: 105, the fridge and the freezer.
Page 40: the one warm room, set up in an hour.
Page 57: the week-long store list, for one and for two.
Page 82: the week plan: day one, day three, day seven.
Page 90: the kitchen-wall card. Print it, fill in the blanks.

← swipe to see more pages →

I want it. Show me the offer ↓
One page from the book, free

If the lights are still off after five minutes, it isn't a blink.

When a fault hits an overhead line, the breaker at the substation trips, waits a moment and closes again on its own. If the fault has blown clear, you are back on before the kettle notices. If it hasn't, the breaker tries a set number of times and then locks out, and from then on a person has to deal with it.

So my rule at home is simple. Five minutes, then torch on and pencil out. Ring 105, the free number for power cuts, and write down the time and what they tell you. Fill a flask while the kettle is still warm, and keep the fridge and freezer doors shut.

And never bring a camping stove, a barbecue or a patio heater indoors to warm up. That is the one rule in the book I will not bend.

That is one page. The book has 100, and the card for your kitchen wall.

05

Ten chapters. Built for a British house or flat.

Combi boilers, storage heaters, the fuse board and the loft tank. Litres, degrees Celsius and pounds. Every chapter ends with a short checklist.

7days covered, start to finish
10chapters, each with a checklist
100pages
1card on your kitchen wall
06

£27. One payment. Thirty days to change your mind.

Instant download, on your phone about a minute after you pay. Nothing is posted.

When the Lights Go Out by Keith Brindley, book cover

When the Lights Go Out: A Grid Engineer's Power Cut Plan for British Homes

Keith Brindley · 100-page book · reads on any phone, tablet or computer

  • What fails first in your house, room by room, and what keeps going
  • The first hour: 105, the Priority Services Register, the fridge and the freezer
  • Light without power: torches, lanterns, batteries, and why candles come last
  • Heat without electricity: the one warm room, layers, flasks and carbon monoxide
  • Water: how much to keep, how to store it, and the toilet with no flush
  • The week-long store list for one and for two, much of it fine cold
  • Cash, phones, the radio and keeping in touch with family
  • Medicines, powered medical kit, and the neighbour who lives alone
  • The week plan: day one, day three and day seven
  • The kitchen-wall card and every checklist, ready to print
£27
One payment · no subscription
Buy nowSecure checkout · instant download
30-day money-back guarantee.Read it, print the kitchen-wall card, sort your warm room. If it isn't worth £27 to you, ask for your money back within 30 days and you get it.
When the Lights Go Out by Keith Brindley, book cover

Forty-two years on the network, from a hole in the road to the control desk.

I'm Keith Brindley. I grew up in a Lancashire mill town and did my homework by candlelight in the 1972 and 1974 power cuts. I joined as an apprentice at eighteen, spent the 1980s jointing cables in all weathers, and finished my working life running switching and restoration on the regional control desk. I retired in 2019.

Jean and I live in a 1930s semi with a gas combi boiler, the same as millions of you. I turned the garage into a workshop, and one shelf of it is the power cut shelf: torches, batteries, a wind-up radio, a camping stove for outside, water, and a list on the wall.

When the lights go out at ours, I check the neighbours' windows, ring 105, light the lantern and fill the flasks. This book is how you get there too.

Questions, answered straight

"I don't want to be a prepper."

Neither do I. No bunker and no generator in the lounge. It is a shelf in the cupboard and a plan on the wall, the way you keep a spare tyre in the car.

"I live in a small flat."

A week for one person fits on the floor of a wardrobe. The book covers flats, including door entry systems, lifts and water pumped to the upper floors.

"I can't afford to stock up."

You don't buy it in one go. The week plan adds a few things to a normal shop, cheapest first, and most of the store list is food you already eat.

"My heating is all electric."

Then this book is for you. Chapter 5 is the warm room without any heating at all, and chapter 7 is food that is fine cold or needs only a flask of hot water.

"Is this American stuff with the names changed?"

No. Combi boilers, storage heaters, the fuse board and the loft tank. 105 for power cuts, the Priority Services Register, litres, degrees Celsius and pounds. Written by a man who worked on the British network for forty-two years.

"Can I print it?"

Yes. It is a 100-page book, an instant download. Print the kitchen-wall card and the checklists, or the whole thing. On a phone or tablet you can make the words as large as you like.

"How do I get it?"

Press any Buy button on this page. Pay once on the secure checkout. The page that opens right after you pay has your download button, and the same link is sent to your email. No account to set up, no password to remember.

"I'm not good with computers."

You don't need to be. Three taps: Buy, pay with your card, then Download. The book opens on the screen the way a photo does. Spread two fingers on the page to make the words bigger.

"Is it a subscription? Will you charge my card again?"

No. One payment of £27, one time. No membership and no monthly anything.

"What if it isn't for me?"

Then you get your money back. Ask within 30 days and it is refunded in full.

When the Lights Go Out by Keith Brindley

On the dark night, you will know exactly what to do next.

One warm room. Light and the radio on. A week of food and water in. One card on the kitchen wall.

Sort My House Before the Lights GoInstant download · £27 · 30-day money back
When the Lights Go Out£27 · instant download
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