Be Ready Checklist: What the Official List Covers, and Where Plug In Solar Stops

The Be Ready checklist is the UK Government's list of supplies a household should keep for three days of disruption. It covers water, food, hygiene, light, communication, money, medicine and baby or pet needs, but it contains no battery, no plug in solar system and no generator.

That matters in a power cut, because a torch and a charged power bank are on the list while a working fridge, boiler or router is not. This guide reads the official list for what it means for home power, then examines the honest upgrade path: a hardwired home battery with an off-grid port, rather than a larger plug in solar kit.

What does the official Be Ready checklist actually ask for?

Be Ready is a free, downloadable checklist from the Cabinet Office campaign launched on 22 October 2026, the first stage of a three-year programme, and its framing is deliberately modest: prepare for three days of disruption.

What do those three days actually cover?

Supplies, not electricity. The campaign's own wording is that being ready for three days helps you manage while support reaches those in need. Nothing in it promises that lights, heating or internet will continue; the horizon is how long help may take to arrive.

The categories are short: three litres of drinking water per person per day, non-perishable food that needs no cooking, hygiene items, a torch with spare batteries, a battery or wind-up FM radio, a charged power bank, cash and copies of documents, first aid and medication, and baby or pet items. Build it gradually and check it every six months.

For a power cut, that last sentence is the important one. Every category on the page assumes you can still open a tin, cook elsewhere or walk to a shop; none of them supplies a circuit in your home, and no plug in solar kit is listed either.

Where does electricity appear on the official list, and where does it stop?

Electricity appears three times, each small: a torch that needs batteries, a radio that runs on batteries or a wind-up handle, and a power bank charged before the cut. That is the entire electrical content of an emergency kit uk search, whatever the commercial bundles imply, and no plug in solar kit appears anywhere on it.

The list stops where households notice first. The official power cuts page says gas ovens, boilers, heat pumps and home internet will not work without power, mobile service may fail if the local mast is affected, and mains water can be disrupted. A plug in solar kit changes none of that.

Landline providers may offer a free backup battery for emergency calls lasting a minimum of one hour, but that is a safety net, not a household supply. A 3 day emergency kit uk bundle built strictly from the official categories keeps you fed, warm, informed and able to call for help; it will not run your heating, fridge or broadband.

Even a 72 hour emergency kit, searched for and bought as one box, is still a supply of things rather than a supply of power. That is the distinction the rest of this guide works from, and it is the distinction a plug in solar kit cannot bridge.

Why is a torch not a backup supply?

Scale. A power bank holds tens of watt-hours; the Anker SOLIX Solarbank 4 E5000 Pro is rated at 5,024Wh in the official Anker SOLIX datasheet. That is a different order of magnitude, and still not whole-home backup. The honest comparison is hours on selected circuits, not days for the house.

What does the checklist imply about the fridge, the router and medical equipment?

Three items behind the list have a power requirement. The Food Standards Agency advises that a closed fridge stays cold for up to four hours, and that a full freezer keeps food frozen for up to 48 hours, about 24 when half full. Broadband is a router question, and medical equipment is a supply question.

That is where a home battery earns its place: not by replacing the checklist, but by carrying the loads the checklist cannot.

How do you decide which loads come first?

Write a priority list before a cut, and give it to your electrician rather than deciding in the dark.

• Priority one: medical equipment and communications, including the router and a charged phone.
• Priority two: the fridge-freezer, kept shut to protect food.
• Priority three: lighting in the rooms you actually use.
• Not on the list: electric showers, ovens, kettles, immersion heaters and EV charging.

A hardwired battery can serve a chosen set from that list. A plug in solar kit cannot serve any of it in a cut, because it has no store and no off-grid output.

Why does a plug in solar kit go quiet in a power cut?

A plug in solar kit is one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity, and in daylight it does real work. It is not a backup system, and the reason is structural.

Grid-tied inverters must stop exporting when the grid goes down. The protection, called anti-islanding, stops a generator energising a network that engineers may be repairing. A panel-only plug in solar kit has no battery, so the shutdown is complete.

This is where the power bank earns its place: a plug in solar system without storage cannot charge it during an outage, because its inverter is offline.

The official power cuts guidance acknowledges the exception. Where a home has solar panels, including a plug in solar array, and a battery with backup capability, some installations can keep supplying power in a cut if they are designed and configured to operate independently of the electricity grid.

That final clause is everything. Independence from the grid is what separates a plug in solar array from a home battery with a dedicated off-grid port.

How much can 5,024Wh really carry in a power cut?

Start with the tank. The official Anker SOLIX datasheet lists 5,024Wh of rated energy for the Anker SOLIX Solarbank 4 E5000 Pro, a fixed quantity rather than a duration. A plug in solar kit, by contrast, stores nothing.

Run time follows the division rather than the marketing: 5,024Wh over a 500W load is about ten hours, over 1,000W about five, and over 2,500W about two — all illustrative, before losses and any reserve.

Those figures are illustrative, before conversion losses and any Backup Reserve. Ofgem's 2026 typical domestic consumption value is 2,500 kWh a year, about 6.8 kWh a day, so the battery holds less than one average day of household electricity as a benchmark. A plug in solar kit has no storage to divide, so do the division before you buy a battery.

What does the off-grid port carry, and at what limit?

In a cut the unit switches to Off-Grid Mode within 10ms and supplies up to 2,500W to the loads on its dedicated off-grid port, as the Solarbank 4 E5000 Pro product page sets out. Backup reaches only loads wired to that port; whole-house, three-phase and on-grid-port backup during an outage are not supported.

The 2,990W figure belongs to another mode. In normal grid operation a load above 2,500W can draw 2,500W from the battery plus up to 490W from the grid, giving 2,990W of maximum AC bypass output. In outage mode the ceiling stays at 2,500W, and the higher number is never a backup rating.

What do Backup Reserve and Storm Guard add?

Backup Reserve ring-fences a minimum state of charge for outages; the product page gives 15% as an example, roughly 754Wh of the 5,024Wh, or about an hour and a half at 500W. Storm Guard Mode monitors weather alerts and charges the battery ahead of forecast severe weather, and the datasheet also lists Rapid Charging Mode.

Can you add capacity later?

Yes. The datasheet lists support for one to five parallel units, and storage adds linearly: two units hold 10,048Wh, five hold 25,120Wh, before losses and reserve. Multi-unit design should be confirmed by your installer and by Anker.

Who can install a home battery, and what has to be notified?

Not you, and not over a weekend. Part P of the Building Regulations 2010 requires a Part P-registered electrician to hardwire the Anker SOLIX Solarbank 4 E5000 Pro home battery to a dedicated circuit, working with the Anker SOLIX Smart Meter Gen 2. The hardware is engineered for a plug-in future, yet plug-in connection is not permitted today, so a plug in solar kit remains the only socket option, and it cannot back up a circuit.

The grid side is already covered. The unit is G98 certified and listed, and at 2,500VA, or 10.9A, it sits below the 16A-per-phase threshold where G99 approval would begin. The installing electrician files the G98 notification with the network operator within 28 days, and the factory default AC output stays at 800W until the hardwired installation and that notification are complete.

What should you do in the first hour of a power cut?

Report it on 105 in England, Scotland and Wales, or on 03457 643643 in Northern Ireland. Keep fridge and freezer doors shut, and switch off or unplug irons, ovens, electric fires, fryers and computers so nothing is caught by a surge when the supply returns.

If anyone at home depends on medical equipment, join the Priority Services Register through thepsr.co.uk; it brings priority updates but does not guarantee an uninterrupted supply. Note your load block letter from your bill or powercut105.com: in a national emergency, scheduled disconnections would rotate area by area, around three hours at a time, and a plug in solar kit would simply go dark with each one.

This article is general guidance, not legal, medical or electrical advice. In a real emergency follow official instructions and the emergency services; for installation, consult a qualified electrician.

Conclusion

The Be Ready checklist is a good document, and its discipline is the point: it plans for three days of supplies, is not a plug in solar shopping list, and never pretends that a torch is a power station.

If you want the fridge, broadband and heating to survive the first hours of a cut, that is a separate project. It starts with a hardwired battery, a dedicated off-grid circuit and a realistic view of what 5,024Wh can carry. A plug in solar kit is a sound way to trim daytime imports; it is not that project.

If that is the route you want to research, read the Solarbank 4 E5000 Pro product page and then speak to a Part P-registered electrician before ordering.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Be Ready checklist include a battery or a generator?

No. The checklist covers water, food, hygiene, light and warmth, communication, money, documents, medical items, baby supplies and pet food. The only electrical items are a torch with spare batteries, a radio and a charged power bank. There is no home battery, no plug in solar system and no generator on the official list.

Is a 72 hour emergency kit the same as the official list?

Broadly yes, and the official list is the better starting point. A 3 day emergency kit uk search usually leads to commercial bundles, while the Be Ready version covers the same horizon across water, food, hygiene, light, communication, paperwork, medicine, babies and pets. Check bundles against the official categories.

Why is a power bank on the list but not a home battery?

The checklist is written for everyone, including renters and people on tight budgets, so it recommends the smallest useful electrical items. A power bank keeps a phone alive for emergency calls and alerts. A home battery is a fixed installation with real cost, and a plug in solar kit is no substitute.

Can a plug in solar kit keep my lights on during a cut?

Not normally. A grid-tied plug in solar kit must stop producing when the grid fails, because anti-islanding protection prevents it energising a network that engineers might be repairing. Without a battery and an off-grid output, a plug in solar system has nothing to supply your circuits.

How long will 5,024Wh actually last in an outage?

It depends entirely on the load. Divide 5,024Wh by the wattage: about ten hours at 500W, five at 1,000W and two at 2,500W. Those figures are illustrative, exclude losses and reserve, and cover only circuits wired to the off-grid port.

Do I need an electrician to install a home battery?

Yes. Part P of the Building Regulations 2010 requires a Part P-registered installer to hardwire the unit to a dedicated circuit with the Anker SOLIX Smart Meter Gen 2. Plug-in connection is not permitted yet, so plan for that visit and for the G98 notification your electrician files.