How to stay warm when the power's out in winter
Heat one room, not the house
Pick a single interior room, close its door, and close off unused rooms. Layer clothing and use blankets and sleeping bags; body heat and insulation do more than most people expect. The American Red Cross recommends consolidating people and pets into one warm space.
The one rule that prevents deaths: no combustion indoors for heat
Never heat a home with a gas oven or stovetop, charcoal or gas grill, camp stove, or a portable generator — indoors, in a garage, or in any enclosed space. All produce carbon monoxide (CO), which is odorless and kills. The CDC ties hundreds of US CO deaths a year to exactly this. If you run a generator for heat via space heaters, the generator goes outside, ≥20 ft from windows and doors — see our generator-safety guide. Put a battery-powered CO alarm on every level of the home.
Safer heat sources
A UL-listed battery or electric space heater run off a properly-sized outdoor generator, a wood stove or fireplace with a working, unobstructed flue, and simply layering and insulating are the safe options. Keep anything flammable at least 3 feet from any heater, and never leave a heater running while you sleep unless it's a permanently installed, vented unit.
Know the signs of hypothermia
Per the CDC, warning signs in adults are shivering, exhaustion or drowsiness, confusion, fumbling hands, memory loss, and slurred speech; in infants, bright red or cold skin and very low energy. Body temperature below 95 °F (35 °C) is a medical emergency — warm the person's center first, and call 911.
Protect the pipes, protect the food
Let a faucet drip to reduce freeze-burst risk, and open cabinet doors so warm air reaches pipes. Keep the fridge and freezer closed — a full freezer holds safe temperature about 48 hours (see food safety). In deep cold, the outdoors is not a safe fridge substitute: sun and temperature swings make it unreliable, per USDA.
Cars and CO: the garage rule
The same carbon-monoxide physics applies to vehicles: never run a car in a garage, even with the door open, whether to warm up or to charge phones — per the CDC. If you charge from a car, do it parked outside. After heavy snow, clear the tailpipe area before starting a car that's been sitting — a blocked exhaust routes CO into the cabin.
Dress like you're camping
Layers beat one heavy coat: a base layer, insulation, and a shell trap warm air, and you shed layers before sweating (damp clothing chills you later). Cover heads and hands, wear dry socks, and get anyone who got wet into dry clothes first — wet clothing drains body heat fastest, per Red Cross winter guidance.
Check on the people the cold finds first
Older adults, infants, and anyone with limited mobility or illness lose heat faster and may not notice or report it. If the outage is hours old and the indoor temperature is dropping, a phone call or a knock on a neighbor's door is part of winter-outage safety — hypothermia's confusion (above) means the person affected is often the last to know.
If pipes do freeze
Open the affected faucet so melting water has somewhere to go, and warm the pipe gently — warm towels, a hair dryer once power returns — working from the faucet toward the frozen section. Never use an open flame on a pipe, per Red Cross guidance. If a pipe has burst, close the main shutoff (find it today, not then) and drain the taps.
Know how long you're planning for
The decision to relocate to a warming center or a relative's home is easier at hour one than hour six. Check your address for the current restoration outlook — the utility's posted time and our independent estimate, side by side — and turn on free alerts for when power's back.