Why solar alone goes dark
A standard grid-tied solar system shuts itself off when the grid goes down. That is not a defect. It is a safety requirement, so your panels do not push power into lines that utility crews believe are dead.
Panels on the roof do not mean lights in a blackout. To keep power on during an outage you need a battery and equipment that can safely separate your home from the grid.
kW vs kWh, in plain terms
Two numbers matter on any battery, and they answer different questions.
- kW is power. How much your home can draw at one moment. It decides what you can run at the same time.
- kWh is energy. How much is stored. It decides how long you can run it.
Think of a fuel tank and an engine. A big tank with a small engine runs a few things for a long time. A small tank with a big engine runs a lot for a short time.
What a battery can run
Most backup designs protect critical circuits, not the whole house. You choose what matters, and we wire it to a separate panel. Typical draws, approximate and varying by appliance:
| Load | Typical draw | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi router and modem | 10 to 30 W | Always on, barely a dent. |
| LED lighting, several rooms | 50 to 150 W | Cheap to keep running. |
| Refrigerator | 100 to 200 W average | Cycles on and off. Starts draw more. |
| Phones, laptops, TV | 100 to 300 W | Small per device, adds up. |
| Well pump or sump pump | 700 to 1,500 W | Only while running, but starts hard. |
| Central air conditioning | 3,000 W and up | The big one in Florida. |
Air conditioning is the deciding factor in Florida. Essentials such as the fridge, lights, internet, and phones use very little. Central AC can use more than all of them together, so backing it up means a much larger battery.
Hurricane season reality
Outages after a storm can last days. A battery with solar has a real advantage over a battery alone: panels can recharge it each day the sun is out, stretching a few essentials across a long outage.
- Design for what you must run, not what you would like to run.
- Cloudy, stormy days produce much less, so plan a conservative buffer.
- Batteries are not a substitute for a storm plan. Keep a flashlight and a full phone battery bank anyway.
Batteries and your bill
Here is the honest part. Under net metering that credits excess power at close to the retail rate, the grid already works like a free battery for your bill. That makes the bill-savings case for a battery weaker in many Florida situations than in markets with time-of-use pricing.
For most homeowners the main reason to buy a battery is resilience: keeping critical loads on. If a utility changes its credit rules or rate structure, the savings case can improve, but do not count on it. See net metering, explained for the rule that drives this.
Add it now or later
If budget is tight, you do not have to decide today. Every Harborline design leaves battery-ready pathways so storage can be added later without redoing the solar. If outages are your main worry, adding it during the original install is usually simpler.
Our demo 10kW + Battery package starts at $27,499 and includes priority circuit support. Prices are illustrative only.
Not sure which fits? See all packages or send us your address and we will size both options.