When the lights go out, plenty of UK households still reach for candles first — they're cheap, they need no batteries and they'll sit in a drawer for years. But as the main way to get through a modern power cut, a candle is one of the least safe and least practical choices you can make. It throws only a small, flickering pool of light, can't be carried safely while you move, and is an open flame in a dark house where people are tired and half-asleep. House fires caused by candles rise every time the power goes out, which is exactly the wrong outcome from a piece of emergency kit.
A torch does the same job far better and far more safely. A modern LED torch is inexpensive, runs for many hours on a charge or a set of batteries, and gives a bright, steady beam you can point wherever you need it and carry safely from room to room. There's no flame, no heat and nothing to leave smouldering when you drop off to sleep. The one genuine thing a candle offers that a torch does not is total independence from power — it needs no batteries at all — which is why the sensible answer is a torch (or a head torch) as your primary light, with a few candles and matches kept purely as a last-resort backup.
| Feature | Torch | Emergency Candles |
|---|---|---|
| Light quality | Bright, steady, directional LED beam you can aim and carry. | Small, soft, flickering pool of light; poor for tasks or moving around. |
| Safety | No flame, no heat; safe to hand to a child and safe to set down. | Open flame — a real fire risk near children, pets, curtains or the half-asleep. |
| Moving around | Easy — carry it safely from room to room and light your path. | Awkward and unsafe to move while lit; wax spills and flames blow out. |
| Power needs | Needs charged batteries or a USB top-up kept ready before an outage. | None at all — its one real advantage; burns with no batteries or charging. |
| Run time | Many hours per charge or battery set, often with a dimmable low mode. | A few hours per candle; you need several to cover a long night. |
| Cost and storage | Low cost, reusable for years; keep spare batteries or a power bank with it. | Very cheap and stores for years, but consumed as it burns. |
| Best kit role | The primary light for a power cut — ideally one per person. | A silent, power-free backup of last resort, used with care, never unattended. |
Make a torch — or better still a head torch — your primary light for any power cut, and ideally keep one per person. A good LED torch gives a bright, steady beam you can aim exactly where you need it, carry safely between rooms, and hand to a child without a second thought, with none of the fire risk of a naked flame. Look for a sturdy model with a useful low mode to stretch run time, and decide between a rechargeable torch (top it up from a power bank) or one that takes common AA or AAA batteries you can stockpile cheaply. Keep it somewhere everyone can find in the dark, store spare batteries or a charged power bank alongside, and check it works before winter storm season. For a few pounds it transforms how a household copes with an outage — which is why the torch, not the candle, is the light to buy first.
Emergency candles earn a place in a kit for one reason only: they need no power whatsoever, so they can't be caught out when a torch's batteries die and there's nothing to recharge them with. Keep a few — ideally sturdy pillar candles in stable holders, or long-burning tea lights — as a genuine last-resort backup, stored with matches or a lighter kept dry. If you do burn one, treat it with the respect an open flame deserves: stand it on a stable, heat-proof surface well away from curtains and anything flammable, never leave it unattended, keep it out of reach of children and pets, and always put it out before you sleep. As a silent, power-independent fallback they're fine; as your main plan for a power cut they are simply the wrong tool.
For a modern UK power cut the torch wins comfortably: brighter, safer, portable and reusable, and one per person turns a stressful dark evening into a manageable one. Candles have a single real virtue — they need no power at all — which is precisely why they belong in the kit, but only as a silent, last-resort backup used with care, never as the main plan. Buy torches (or head torches) first, keep spare batteries or a charged power bank with them, and tuck a few candles and matches away for the unlikely day every battery is flat. Light is one of the first things you lose in an outage and one of the most reassuring to get back, so it's worth getting the primary source right — and keeping the open flame as the exception, not the rule.
A bright, rechargeable LED torch with multiple modes including strobe and SOS. A dependable handheld light for power cuts and outdoor emergencies.
A straightforward, bright handheld torch from a battery brand most people already trust. It's the one to leave in a kitchen drawer, the car door pocket or a coat pocket for when the lights go out. Nothing clever — just reliable light on demand.
Fifty unscented tea lights with an 8-hour burn time each — a cheap, compact way to keep light in the house through a power cut. Longer-burning than the usual 3–4 hour tea lights, so a few will see you through an evening without constant relighting. Stand them in jars or a proper holder on a non-flammable surface, and keep a torch handy for moving around.
Broad, long-burning paraffin pillar candles that give hours of steady room light in a power cut, standing securely with minimal dripping and no batteries required.
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A printable checklist for cold weather, outages, travel disruption and home prep.