Prepare for a Winter Storm with the Best Home Backup Power Option

From ice storms and lake effect snow to atmospheric rivers and deep freezes, winter storms are becoming supercharged. It seems counterintuitive as our planet heats up, but warmer air holds more water vapor, which can lead to heavier snowfall and a weakened polar vortex that allows cold air to flow south.

Intense winter storms have exposed the shortcomings of utilities throughout the United States. For instance:

• During Winter Storm Uri in February of 2021, an unprecedented demand for electricity overwhelmed the grid, causing outages for some 4.5 million Texas homes.*
• An overnight windstorm in November of 2022 cut power to 230,000 customers in Western Washington State.*
• A series of atmospheric rivers that hammered the coast of California in January 2023 left 500,000 homes and businesses in the dark.*

These events prove winter storms aren’t limited to Nor’easters and blizzards that blanket the Plains States. Nearly any soggy or frigid forecast can elevate anxiety levels as residents are left to speculate whether or not their homes will be spared.

As technology advances, now there’s a better way to provide peace of mind during the winter. While backup energy solutions can be hard to come by during an emergency, preparing now can ensure you’re ready for the next unexpected outage.

Your Home Power Backup Options

During a winter outage, it’s crucial to have a backup power source, especially if you live in an area prone to freezing temperatures. While you can survive without lights, there’s no way to activate electric heating systems during an outage, which can create dangerous conditions and lead to hypothermia in extreme cases. Frozen pipes can also crack and burst, cutting off your water supply and causing costly damage.

Below, we’ll discuss the top home backup power solutions to help you decide which option is best for you and your family’s needs.

Option 1: Solar Plus Battery Backup

When you install solar electric panels on your rooftop, you’re creating your own clean energy while the sun is up. This power can only be used at the same time it’s generated, unless you have a way to store it.

During a blackout, your solar system is designed to turn off automatically. This safety feature ensures no power can flow from your home to the grid as repair crews work on damaged infrastructure. Therefore, without a backup battery, your solar panels won’t work in an outage.

When you install solar plus battery backup, your system will automatically store a percentage of your solar production for later use. You can choose your backup power reserve based on your household preferences. Then, during an outage, your most-needed lights and appliances will be powered by your solar battery — even on dark and stormy days — as long as some sunlight penetrates your panels.*

If you live in a climate where winter days are characterized by rain, snow or bitter cold, you may wonder how solar performs in the winter. Good news: Solar electric panels are designed to withstand harsh winter conditions. They’ve been tested time and time again by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Regional Test Centers.*

When the grid goes down in the middle of winter, and you have solar with battery backup, you can enjoy peace of mind, knowing that your home will still run on sustainable, reliable solar power.*

Sunnova Customer Story

For one Texas couple, Winter Storm Uri was a wake-up call. The Houston homeowners decided to install 40 solar panels and two batteries from Sunnova to maximize their protection from unplanned outages.

Option 2: Standalone Battery Backup

Solar panels aren’t suitable for everyone. If your property is heavily shaded or your HOA doesn’t allow rooftop arrays, solar might not be an option. But you can use the same storage technology to charge a battery from the grid and save a backup reserve to power your home in case of an outage. This is called standalone storage, meaning a battery that’s hardwired to your home’s main panel and not connected to solar panels.

While you don’t have the ability to recharge a standalone battery the way you do with solar, you can still keep essential appliances powered until your battery is depleted. And, if you’re on the fence about solar but know you want outage protection, standalone storage lets you retrofit solar panels to your battery with ease.

As extreme weather plagues the U.S., standalone batteries can help ease stress, knowing you have a reliable source of backup power for the winter season.

Option 3: Home Standby Generator

If it’s purely backup power you desire and you have no plans of going solar, a home generator may be the best choice. Also called a standby generator, this device is a permanent fixture installed outside your home, independent of the power grid.

Capable of powering your entire home, a standby generator uses an existing power source, typically natural gas or a connected propane source. Housed outside in a durable metal casing (much like an AC unit), a whole-home generator is wired directly into your electric panel and automatically turns on if you lose power.

A standby generator should not be confused with a portable home generator that relies on gasoline — which may be scarce during a disaster — and poses a risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The price of a whole-home generator is comparable to that of battery storage, so it’s important to understand your energy goals and future plans as you consider your backup options.

Choosing the Best Home Power Backup Solution

Need some help understanding which scenarios are ideal for each solution? Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the three best backup power options that automatically kick in if the grid fails.