Skip to content
Home Generator Index

What Does a Power Outage Actually Cost You?

Last updated:ByStandby Power Desk

Health Canada gives an unopened fridge about four hours and a full freezer about 48. Past those, the food goes. This applies those published thresholds to your own numbers and works out what one outage costs, and what a year of them costs.

What this outage costs you

This outage costs you

$1,000

On the values you gave. At 1 outage a year that is $1,000 annually, which is the figure to hold against the price of a generator.

Refrigerator contents
$300
Freezer contents
$700
This outage
$1,000
At 1 a year
$1,000

Refrigerator contents: Past the 4 hours Health Canada gives an unopened fridge, so the perishables go: meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, leftovers and cut fruit and veg.

Freezer contents: Past the 24 hours Health Canada gives a half-full freezer. Anything still holding ice crystals can be re-frozen, so this is the worst case rather than the certain one.

Separately: what is at risk, not what it costs

With the sump pump off, a wet basement is on the table. Public Safety Canada puts the average cost to repair a flooded basement at over $40,000, and lists sump pump failure among the flood types insurance is bought against.

That figure is deliberately NOT added to the total above. It is a risk you carry during an outage, not a cost you incur in every one, and adding $40,000 to the price of every blackout would produce a number that deserves to be disbelieved.

Four hours, then forty-eight, and nothing in between

The guidance is a set of steps rather than a curve, and this calculator applies it as steps because that is how it reads. At three hours and fifty-nine minutes the fridge is fine. Past four hours, Toronto Public Health's instruction is to throw out any perishable foods in it. There is no published figure for what happens at five hours as distinct from twenty, so none is modelled.

The freezer is the more interesting one, because how full it is genuinely changes the answer. Full is 48 hours and half-full is 24, so filling the empty space with jugs of water before a forecast storm doubles the window for nothing. And the freezer loss is the softer of the two: Health Canada says food still containing ice crystals or feeling refrigerator-cold can be re-frozen and will be safe once cooked to a safe internal temperature. The figure this tool reports is the worst case.

One thing neither authority softens: do not put frozen food outside, even in a Canadian winter. Health Canada gives two reasons, and both are practical rather than theoretical. Animals get at it, and the sun thaws it even when the air temperature is well below freezing.

The numbers this page asks you for, and why

The value of the food in your fridge and freezer, what a night somewhere else costs you, and what a day off work costs you. All three are inputs rather than defaults, because no Canadian source publishes a typical figure for any of them and they vary by an order of magnitude between households. Everything else on Home Generator Index traces to a named source; where a number does not exist, this register asks for it instead of inventing a plausible one.

The $40,000 flooded-basement figure is handled differently again. It is real, it is from Public Safety Canada, and it is directly relevant when the power is out and the sump pump is off. But it is exposure rather than expenditure: most outages do not flood a basement. Folding it into every total would give a headline figure that is technically sourced and practically absurd, so it sits in its own panel with a label saying exactly what it is.

The figure worth carrying away is the annual one. Put it against the cost of a generator, or let the worth-it checker do it, which takes this annual number against the install, the fuel and the servicing.

Frequently asked questions

How long does food last in the fridge during a power outage?

About four hours, if you keep the door shut. Health Canada and Toronto Public Health publish the same figure independently, and both say that past it you throw out the perishables: meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, leftovers, and cut fruit and vegetables. The four hours assume the door stays closed, so every check costs you some of them. Health Canada also says to discard anything that has been at room temperature for two or more hours.

How long will a freezer keep food frozen without power?

About 48 hours if it is full, and about 24 if it is half full. That difference is the single cheapest piece of outage preparation there is: a full freezer holds its own cold, so filling gaps with jugs of water before a storm genuinely doubles the window. Afterwards, anything still holding ice crystals or feeling refrigerator-cold can be re-frozen and is safe if cooked properly, which is why the freezer figure on this calculator is a worst case rather than a certainty.

Why does the calculator ask me for the dollar values?

Because no Canadian source publishes a typical value for the food in a home fridge and freezer, and it varies by a factor of ten between households. Putting a confident-sounding average in that box would be inventing the most important number on the page. Everything this register publishes traces to a named source, and where a figure does not exist we ask for it rather than manufacture one. The thresholds are sourced; the values are yours.

Why is the $40,000 flooded basement figure kept out of the total?

Because it is a risk, not a bill. Public Safety Canada puts the average cost to repair a flooded basement at over $40,000 and lists sump pump failure among the flood types insurance is bought against, so it is a real and relevant number when the power is out and the pump is off. But most outages do not flood a basement, and adding $40,000 to the cost of every blackout would produce a total no reader would believe and none should. It is shown separately, labelled as exposure.

How many outages a year should I put in?

Use what you have actually had rather than a national average, because it varies enormously within the GTA. A downtown condo on buried cable and a rural property on overhead lines through trees see completely different numbers. If you are not sure, your local utility publishes outage history, and your own memory of the last three winters is a better guide than any figure this page could give you.

Does this tell me whether to buy a generator?

It tells you the number to hold against the price of one, which is the annual figure rather than the single-outage one. A generator installed at $9,500 to $13,000 against an outage costing you $1,000 twice a year is a very different proposition from the same generator against one four-hour cut. Our worth-it checker takes this annual figure and puts it against the install, fuel and servicing costs directly.

Where these thresholds come from

Two Canadian public-health authorities publishing the same three windows independently, and one federal department for the flood figure. The dollar values are yours. Home Generator Index applies the published thresholds and adds up what you entered, and does nothing else in between.

If the annual figure is bigger than you expected

An annual figure in the high hundreds changes what a generator quote looks like next to it. There are 56 standby generator installers in the Greater Toronto Area on this register, rated 4.74★ on average, and the three below sit highest on the published review-weighted score. Nobody pays to be there.

See all 56 standby generator installers