If you have a home solar + battery storage system, you can use your battery to power your essential appliances or your whole home during a power outage.
When the power is out:
- A battery can power your essential appliances or your whole home. If you’re a Sunnova customer, when your battery is installed, you may be asked to choose “critical loads” that are important to power during a blackout – i.e., a fridge/freezer, select outlets, a garage door opener, a fish tank, etc. Your battery will power your critical loads.
- If you also have a solar system, during the day, if the sun is out, your solar panels can keep producing power from the sun and excess energy can charge your battery. If you have a home solar system without a battery that is connected to your utility, your home solar system will not work during a power outage.
Even if the power is out for several days, your battery can continue to charge and power your home when paired with a solar system:
- During the day, if the sun is out, your solar panels can continue to power your essential appliances or your whole home and charge your battery like usual.
- When the sun is down, you will only be able to power your home with the energy stored in your battery until your battery is depleted.
The amount of power available from the battery during a power outage is limited, depending on the loads connected, customer usage and battery configuration (i.e. batteries in certain areas may be set up to provide you with the best economic benefit, which may affect the amount of back-up power available). Solar systems and/or batteries may require repairs after weather events and such repairs may be delayed due to forces outside of our control. No assurances can be given that the solar system or the battery will always work. You should never rely upon either of these to power life support or other medical devices.