The Power is Out: Should You Run Your Water?

The first things we think about when the power goes out are usually how you are going to see in the dark, how you will keep your food cold, and probably how long your phone will last without a charge. For many people water is usually not on their minds. Generally speaking, you do not need electricity for water to flow through the pipes to your home faucets. But here are few reasons why you still might not want to run your water during a power outage. Make a note of which of these situations apply to you before the next time you lose electricity.

Disinfection Systems

If you rely on any kind of disinfection system, such as a UV light or chlorine-doser, for your whole house plumbing, it is critical to not run your water during a power outage. When those systems were installed, your home plumbing should have been disinfected to kill any bacteria that was living in your pipes and fixtures. The disinfection system then treats any new water entering the home to keep bacteria out of your drinking water. If you run your water while the power is out, for any use at all, you are sending untreated water past your disinfection system and into your home plumbing. Your whole house plumbing should be shock-disinfected again to ensure that bacteria are not hanging out and reproducing in your pipes if water is run while the disinfection system is off.

Other Water Treatment Systems

Almost every kind of water treatment system requires electricity for all or part of its processes. Many will have a small reserve of about 2-3 gallons that you could access before they stop putting out filtered water, mostly due to pumps no longer running. It may be okay to run your water, as long as you are not also running a disinfection system. However, you may not be getting the same filtered water that you are used to experiencing. If you run the reserve dry in your treatment devices, you may also introduce air pockets in the line that could impact their performance when power is restored.

Pressure Tanks

Private water supply users (wells, springs, cisterns) and even some public water supply users depend on pressure tanks to send water to all the faucets and fixtures in their homes. Eventually, you will deplete the volume of water in these tanks if they depend on pumps to refill them. So, use this limited water wisely.

Hot Water Heaters

Water heaters that depend on electricity will obviously not continue to heat your water. A tank full of water, if you don't have a tankless system, may seem appealing as a potential source of water in an emergency. If you do drain your hot water heater, be sure to turn the breaker off that supplies power to the tank. And be sure to refill the tank with water Before you restore power. The heating element will likely become damaged if run while the tank is dry.

Wastewater Pumps

Even if your household water is running safely, you have one more thing to consider. Does any of the wastewater in your home rely on pumps, such as sewer ejector pumps or grinder pumps to get it out of your home completely? While most wastewater moves by gravity out to your sewer line or septic system, some plumbing in your home may need to be pumped uphill to reach that exit out of your home. The most common places you might see these pumps and the tanks or pits associated with them are in basements/cellars. You might also have a pump lift station somewhere on your property if you are downhill from the sewer main in your neighborhood, and a similar type of pump moves wastewater uphill if you have a sand mound system. Without power to the pumps, they will not operate. It may seem like everything is fine at first, but eventually the holding capacity will be reached, and they overflow or send water and sewage back up the pipes and into your home. You will need to be careful about how much water you are putting down the drain.

What You Can Do in Advance

If you depend on disinfection treatment systems in your home, it is wise to stock up on treated water for brushing your teeth and drinking in the event of a power outage. You can keep several gallons of store-bought water on hand for these times or fill a few jugs just before a major storm in the forecast.

What You Can Do During

Limit your water use to the absolute necessities while the power is out, or not at all if you have a disinfection system. Use hand sanitizer in place of hand washing when you have no water.

Turn off the breakers that power your expensive treatment systems, so they don’t get damaged from surges when the power returns.

What to Do Afterwards

When the power is restored, turn on the breakers to your treatment systems, refill your hot water tank if you emptied it, and then turn on power to your water heater. Do an inspection of systems to make sure they are working properly. Slowly return to normal water use to allow your treatment systems and wastewater systems time to recover from the outage. They may need time to process water before it is actually available for use or treated properly as wastewater.