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The Food Standards Agency says you can cook on a camping stove, barbecue or bottled gas stove in a power cut, and in the same breath says most are designed for outdoor use only. Fire services say the same, less politely. The reason is carbon monoxide.
Why not, briefly
Anything that burns fuel makes carbon monoxide. Outdoors it drifts away. Indoors it builds up, and you can’t see it, smell it or taste it. The early symptoms are a headache, dizziness and feeling sick, which is how most people already feel during a power cut, so you won’t notice.
A fire risk comes with it. A camping stove on a kitchen worktop is a naked flame on a wobbly base beneath your wall cupboards.
Never bring a barbecue indoors, lit or “out”. Charcoal gives off carbon monoxide for hours after the flames have gone. People have died from barbecues left in tents, porches and garages to keep warm.
“But I’ll open a window”
A lot of people do exactly this with a tabletop gas stove and come to no harm. Some don’t. An open window is not ventilation you can measure, and the stove’s instructions will say outdoor use only, which is also what your home insurer will read out to you afterwards.
What to do instead
- Cook outside. A patio, a balcony with open sides, the back step. Flat surface, away from the door, out of the wind. A single-burner stove under an umbrella held by a reluctant teenager works fine.
- Boil once, use all day. Fill a flask and you have hot drinks, instant porridge, pouch meals and hot water bottles without relighting.
- Eat cold for a day. The official three-day list is food that needs no cooking for this reason. Nobody has ever been harmed by a tin of rice pudding.
- Use the gas hob if you have one. It usually lights with a match when the ignition’s dead. That’s indoors and it’s fine, because it’s installed, fixed and flued for the job.
Get a carbon monoxide alarm regardless
If you have a boiler, gas fire, wood burner or any stove, you should own one already. A sealed ten-year alarm costs about the same as the gas cartridges.
If the alarm sounds, or anyone feels ill: get everyone outside into fresh air, and call the Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. If someone has collapsed, 999.
What to cook on, outdoors
Campingaz Camp Bistro DLX
Hot meals on the patio
Single burner, safety cut-out, carry case. Add a pack of cartridges.
Sources: Food Standards Agency, food safety in a power cut; NHS, carbon monoxide poisoning.