For those of us on the east coast we can’t seem to catch a break this week. First an earthquake, and now a potentially very dangerous hurricane is coming our way. Stay tuned next week for the plague of locusts. But with the oncoming hurricane, many are threatened to lose power and unwillingly unplug. So we thought it would be good to give a quick refresher course of how to preserve your phone battery incase it needs to last!

Turn off location services. The phone has to use a lot of battery power to function the GPS so disabling those apps will spare you a big power drainer.

Fetch data less frequently. When your phone is constantly searching the internet for new data such as email, it can put a strain on your battery. In an emergency situation, it might just be best to switch it to manual so you have full control of when your phone is reaching for that data.

Adjust screen brightness. This is an excellent way to drastically extend battery life yet not interrupt your performance or usability. Taking the phone’s brightness down to as low as it can go will increase your phone’s battery life a considerable amount.

Use apps wisely and close when finished. Cut your app usage down to the necessities. In cases of emergencies, it’s important to keep your phone’s battery lasting as long as possible so restricting use of apps is important as well as closing apps such as Pandora which are constantly running in the background.

Turn off Bluetooth. Even as a bluetooth user, chances are you can withhold from using your bluetooth devices for the duration of the power outage. Turning off Bluetooth searching will help conserve battery.

If you’ve done all that and still find yourself needing power, remember that some sound system docks which are battery powered can also charge your iPhone. Keep these charged so they can work as a back up even after you’ve drained your phone’s charge dry.