Texas grid outages and home battery backup: how it works

Why your solar shuts off in an outage

It surprises many homeowners: a standard grid-tied solar system stops producing the moment the grid goes down. This is a safety feature — it prevents your panels from sending power into lines that utility crews may be working on. Without a battery, your solar can’t keep your home running during an outage, no matter how sunny it is.

How a battery keeps your home running

A battery with the right setup detects the outage, safely disconnects your home from the grid, and powers your circuits from stored energy. If you have solar, the battery can recharge during daylight — which is what lets a solar-plus-battery system carry a home through a multi-day event rather than a few hours.

How much it covers depends on the battery size and which circuits you choose to back up:

• Essential backup: refrigerator, internet, key outlets, medical equipment, and some lighting — for the longest possible runtime.
• Whole-home backup: the entire home, usually with more battery capacity and smart management of large loads like AC.

The ERCOT context

Most of Texas runs on the ERCOT grid, which operates largely on its own. After events like the 2021 winter storm, resilience moved from a nice-to-have to a real priority for many households. In Texas’s deregulated areas, the retail plan you choose can also affect the economics of storing and exporting energy — so the right battery design considers both resilience and your plan.

Sizing it honestly

A battery should be sized to the outcomes you actually want — how long, which circuits, how much solar to store — not to a brochure. Oversizing wastes money; undersizing leaves you dark sooner than expected. We model your real loads and design to them.