Power cut checklist: what to do in the first ten minutes
Is it your meter, your building or the whole feeder? The quick diagnosis that saves an evening.
The first question in any power cut is scope: your flat, your building, or the street? The answer decides who you call — and whether you need to call anyone at all.
Check your own MCB board first: a single tripped switch means one overloaded circuit — reset it once, and if it trips again, unplug the newest appliance before blaming the grid. Then look at the stairwell light and the neighbour's balcony: building-wide means the society's mains or a blown fuse at the meter bank.
Whole-street darkness is a feeder issue. Most distribution companies now run a helpline and a text-status service against your consumer number — save both in your phone TODAY, not during the outage.
Keep a small ritual ready: one charged power bank, one torch that lives in one drawer, and the inverter's water level checked with the month's bills. Ten minutes of setup turns cuts from a crisis into an intermission.
