Power and water shutoff in Project Zomboid

Power and water are two separate timers. Each picks its own day inside a window set by the preset, so the taps can fail a week or more before the lights, or the other way round. The windows count from the default start date, July 9, 1993.

Sources disagree on the water column. One Build 42 settings reference lists water as starting at day 0, as shown above, and a second guide agrees for Apocalypse. A third lists both utilities together as 14 to 30 days on Apocalypse and Extinction and 14 days to 2 months on Outbreak and Rising. Plan for the earlier case: on Apocalypse the water can stop on the first day. See game modes for what else differs between presets.

In Custom Sandbox the two options are Water Shutoff and Electricity Shutoff. Each has a dropdown of ranges. The list given by one guide is Instant, 0 to 30 days, 0 to 2 months, 2 to 6 months, 0 to 6 months, 6 to 12 months, 0 to 1 year and 0 to 5 years, and Build 42 adds the 14 day minimum ranges used by the presets. Counts of the choices differ between sources, so read the dropdown in your own version.

Each option also has a numeric field (WaterShutModifier and ElecShutModifier in the server file). A server hosting guide describes it as the exact shutoff day, with -1 meaning a random day inside the chosen range (one source). The same settings reference shows 14 in that field for the four standard presets, which would explain the 14 day minimum. Having both a dropdown and a number for the same thing is a known quirk of the Build 42 menu (one source).

Related options on the same screens: generator spawn rate (Rare on Apocalypse, Rising and Six Months Later, Normal on Outbreak, Insanely Rare on Extinction), generator range (20 tiles, 3 floors), whether generators power exterior tiles (on in every preset) and Alarm Battery Decay, which sets how long house alarms last after the grid fails (one source). The full list is on the sandbox settings page.

• Power, before. The Automated Emergency Broadcast System warns about the grid in stages: fluctuations about two days out, failing systems one day out, then a blackout report on the day. Two sources describe this warning. Keep a radio with batteries tuned to it from the second week.
• Power, after. Indoor lights and street lights go out, fridges stop humming and a television will not switch on. One guide also describes a sound that plays across the map at the moment of the cut (one source).
• Water. There is no broadcast for water. The first sign is a sink that shows a limited amount of water when you right-click it, where before it was an endless supply.

The mains stopping does not empty the pipes. Sinks, baths, showers and toilets each keep a small amount that you can drink, wash with or drain into containers. It does not refill. One guide notes that this leftover water does not go bad, so it is safe to use at any point (one source).

How much is left is poorly documented for Build 42. Older figures give 20 units for a sink and 100 for a bathtub, from a player discussion and one guide that do not name a build, and Build 42 measures water in liters. Check a fixture in game before you count on a number.

Opinion Every house you loot after the shutoff is a small water cache. Drain the bath and sinks into bottles on the way out, and use this water before you open your own stock.

Opinion Because the water can go on any day, do the water jobs in your first week and the power jobs before day 14.

1. Fill containers. Bottles, pots, kettles, buckets and water dispenser bottles all hold tap water. One guide lists a bucket at 10 L and a dispenser bottle at 15 L, and says containers above 3 L cannot be drunk from directly (one source). Carry a few full bottles on loot runs.
2. Find a generator and its magazine. Generators turn up in garages, sheds, warehouses and storage units, and they are heavy enough that you want a vehicle. To connect one you need the How to Use Generators magazine, Electrical level 3, or the Electrician or Engineer occupation. See generators and skill books.
3. Stock gasoline. Fill every can while the pumps still run.
4. Set up rain collectors. The crate needs Carpentry 3 and the barrel Carpentry 5 (one source), with planks, nails and garbage bags or a tarp, on a tile open to the sky. See carpentry.
5. Deal with frozen food. If no generator is ready when the warning comes, cook the meat from the freezer and eat the perishables first.
6. Gather another way to cook and to see. A barbecue or campfire kit, flashlights and batteries.

A generator powers every device within 20 tiles and 3 floors on default settings. Run it outdoors, because the fumes from one indoors can kill. Fuel use rises with what is connected, so Opinion power the fridge and freezer first and switch off spare lights. A second generator left at a gas station turns the pumps back on whenever you visit.

Rain water, river water and lake water are tainted. Boil it or use Water Purification Tablets before drinking; untreated water is fine for crops and washing. A sink can be plumbed to a collector on the floor above with a Pipe Wrench. One guide states the sink takes on the tainted status of its source, while another reports that players get drinkable water this way, so test it before you drink. Wells on the map give clean water. Rain is seasonal, so read the weather page before you rely on barrels alone.