When the power goes out, how long will your battery last?
A battery's size is printed on the spec sheet, but that doesn't tell you whether it will get you through the night. It depends on what you run.
The problem
A storm knocks out the power and you have to guess. Can you keep the fridge and the furnace on? Will the well pump trip the battery? Most owners find out the hard way, in the dark.
What the tool does
You pick what you'd want running, from a list of everyday things like the fridge, lights, Wi-Fi and well pump. SolarTriage uses your battery's size and your reserve setting to estimate how many hours you'd get, and warns you if something is likely to be too big for the battery to start.
If you have solar, it also shows how a sunny day could recharge the battery during a longer outage.
Sample estimate
Example: one 13.5 kWh battery, 80% charged
Example- Refrigerator150 W
- Lights (6 LED bulbs)60 W
- Wi-Fi and phone charging30 W
- Furnace fan400 W
About 13 hours on battery alone
This keeps a 10% reserve. Skip the furnace fan and it stretches to roughly 35 hours. With a sunny day, the panels could refill much of the battery.
Made-up numbers for illustration. Not a real member or a real bill.
Free tip
Make an outage list before you need it
Write down the three or four things you truly need during an outage. Fridge, a few lights and phone charging use very little. Electric heat, ovens, dryers and central air use a lot and can drain a battery in a few hours. Knowing your short list is the easiest way to make a battery last.
Be first in line when it opens
SolarTriage is opening to owners by invitation. The working tools are for signed-in members; this page only shows a sample.
Request an invite