Can you use a camping stove indoors? The UK safety answer for a power cut

The short answer: cook on a camping stove outdoors, not in the house

People search for an “emergency stove for indoor use” for a sensible reason: the power is off, the electric hob is dead, and a camping stove is sitting in the cupboard. The official answer is clear and it is the same everywhere we looked. The NHS says: “do not use a barbecue or camping stove indoors or inside a tent.” London Fire Brigade says: “It’s never safe to use any type of outdoor cooking equipment like a BBQ or camping stove indoors. Doing so poses a serious risk of fire and deadly carbon monoxide poisoning.” The UK Chief Medical Officers’ advice on keeping warm in a national power outage says: “Do not use camping stoves and barbecues indoors as there is a risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, which can kill.”

The reason is carbon monoxide (CO). The HSE describes it as a “colourless, odourless, tasteless, poisonous gas produced by incomplete burning of carbon-based fuels”, and the NHS lists using barbecues or camping stoves inside among the things that can cause it to build up. Carbon monoxide gives no smell to warn you, and none of the official advice says an open window makes indoor use acceptable. Writing about tents, campers and other enclosed shelters, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service puts it plainly: “Opening tent flaps, doors, or windows is insufficient to prevent build-up of CO concentrations from these devices.”

None of this means a power cut leaves you without hot food. It means the gas stove does its cooking outside, and anything you use indoors should be something that burns nothing.

What the stove makers’ own manuals say

Portable butane cartridge stoves, especially the flat single-burner hobs that take a slim cartridge, look like kitchen appliances, so it is easy to assume they are made for indoors. We read the English instructions for three sold in the UK (two tabletop hobs and a compact cartridge barbecue-cooker), and none of them says that.

Campingaz’s manual for the Camp’Bistro DLX says: “The stove should only be used outside premises and kept away from inflammable materials.” It adds: “It is imperative NOT to use the stove in caravans, cars, tents, huts, sheds or any small enclosed areas”, and explains that the stove uses oxygen and “gives off certain substances and gas, which could be dangerous such as carbon monoxide.” Outwell’s manual for the Etna Solo says “Use only outdoors” and “Only use in well-ventilated areas”. Cadac’s manual for the Safari Chef 30 Compact says “For outdoor use only!”, and that it “may not be used in an exterior enclosed balcony, porch or entertainment area!”

We looked for a portable butane hob whose own manual allows indoor cooking in a home and did not find one among the manuals we could read. We did find a UK retailer listing for a catering cartridge stove that mentions “indoor use in a well ventilated area”. A shop’s description is not the maker’s instructions, and it is not what the NHS, the Chief Medical Officers or the fire services advise for a home. If you already own a stove, read its manual: if it says outdoors, it means outdoors.

Using a gas stove safely outside in a power cut

Cook in the open air: a garden, yard or patio, not a garage, shed, porch or conservatory. Campingaz names “huts, sheds or any small enclosed areas” as places not to use its stove, and Cadac rules out an enclosed balcony or porch. Stand the stove on a stable, level surface away from anything that can burn; Outwell’s manual shows minimum clearances of 25cm around the stove and 120cm above; Cadac asks for 600mm at the rear and sides and 1.2m above, so check your own.

Use the pan the manual allows. Campingaz says not to use pans smaller than 12cm or larger than 26cm across on the Camp’Bistro DLX, and Outwell recommends 160mm to 260mm for the Etna Solo. Stay inside your own stove’s stated pan range. Do not block the ventilation hole in the cartridge compartment, which Campingaz also warns against. Campingaz says the stove “should not be used while sleeping or left unattended.”

Then carry the food indoors. The cooking happens outside and the eating happens in, which is the same pattern our cooking-without-power guide uses for every fuel-burning option.

Changing and storing gas cartridges

Change cartridges outside. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service says: “If you are using a camping stove outdoors, never change gas cartridges indoors or near ignition sources.” Campingaz says to fit or remove a cartridge “in a well-ventilated area, preferably outside and never in the presence of a flame, heat source or spark”, at a good distance from other people and flammable material.

Store them somewhere cool and ventilated, and never below ground. Campingaz’s instructions are to “Store the stove and the cartridge in a cool, dry and well-ventilated area, out of reach of children. Never store in a basement or cellar”, and to take the cartridge out of the stove for storage or transport. The HSE’s description of LPG explains why low spaces are a risk: it is “flammable and heavier than air so that it will settle and may accumulate in low spots such drains and basements.” For camping, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service advises storing cylinders outside, “away from direct sunlight and freezing temperatures”.

What you can cook on indoors: something that burns nothing

If you want to cook in the kitchen during a power cut, the answer is electric, run from a battery. An electric hob gives off no exhaust, so the carbon monoxide question does not arise. A portable induction hob plugged into a portable power station is the closest thing to an “indoor emergency stove” that the evidence supports.

The catch is power. Morphy Richards rates its Portable Single Induction Hob at 2kW, and it is suitable for induction-safe pans 12cm to 20cm across. EcoFlow’s DELTA 2, a common 1kWh-class power station, is rated at 1,800W total AC output, below that hob’s rating, EcoFlow says its X-Boost technology lets the unit “prevent overloading from devices up to 2400W”, but it does not say an induction hob will cook normally that way. On our own arithmetic, even at its full 1,800W rating a 1,024Wh battery would be flat in a little over half an hour, before conversion losses, and induction hobs cycle on and off, so real use varies. Check the hob’s rating plate against the power station’s rated AC output before you rely on it, and turn the hob down where you can.

For many households the cheaper answer is a vacuum flask filled from the kettle as soon as a cut is forecast. A power station is still a large lithium battery, so charge and store it as its manual says. If you have a fitted gas hob, that is an installed appliance and a different question; our cooking-without-power guide covers when it still works in a cut.

Barbecues, charcoal, heaters and generators: what stays outside

London Fire Brigade says: “Never take portable or disposable BBQs, grills or charcoal fuel burners into your home or any confined spaces such as a tent, houseboat or caravan.” It adds that an extinguished BBQ “can continue to produce CO for many hours after it has been extinguished”, so a barbecue that looks finished still stays outside, well away from the building.

Gas heaters need care too. London Fire Brigade lists portable heaters using LPG among the things that can produce carbon monoxide, and the only gas heater the Chief Medical Officers’ power-cut advice mentions using indoors is one that “uses gas bottles and is approved for indoor use”, with the room well ventilated and all instructions followed carefully. A patio heater is sold for outdoor use: unless its manual says it is approved for indoor use, it stays outside. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service adds: never use portable gas cylinder heaters in high-rise flats. The same advice says: “Do not use petrol or diesel generators or other similar fuel driven equipment indoors”.

A carbon monoxide alarm, and what to do if it sounds

The NHS advises getting “a carbon monoxide alarm that makes a loud sound if there’s carbon monoxide present”, one “for each room of your home containing appliances that burn gas, oil, coal or wood”. London Fire Brigade says to buy only alarms certified to British Standard EN50291 with an approval mark such as the Kitemark, and to choose audible alarms rather than colour-change or black-spot indicators. UKHSA adds that an alarm will not go off at lower levels of carbon monoxide, so it is no substitute for regular servicing of appliances. It is a backstop, not permission: no source we read says an alarm makes it acceptable to use a camping stove indoors.

The NHS lists the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning as including a headache, dizziness, feeling sick, weakness, confusion and shortness of breath, and says they may get better when you leave or go outside. If you suspect CO, London Fire Brigade says to leave the property; if someone has collapsed or is showing signs of poisoning, get them outside, call 999 and ask for an ambulance. The NHS says to call 111 if you think you might have symptoms, and 999 or go to A&E if someone exposed is finding it hard to breathe, has suddenly become confused, has lost consciousness, is feeling weak or has chest or muscle pain. Do not drive yourself to A&E. If your alarm sounds or you suspect CO, UKHSA says to call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999, and London Fire Brigade says to call it before you go back in, even if the source was not a gas appliance.