What actually happens in a blackout - backup explained

The surprise

A standard grid-connected solar system shuts down during a blackout - even in full sun. This is deliberate and mandatory: anti-islanding protection stops your system energising lines that grid workers believe are dead. It protects lives; it also surprises nearly every new solar owner the first time the power goes out.

Solar panels alone are not backup. Backup requires storage plus hardware designed to island your home safely.

What real backup involves

A backup-capable battery system adds a gateway or changeover arrangement that disconnects your home from the grid during an outage, then runs selected circuits from the battery - with the solar able to keep recharging it while islanded. Configured well, an outage becomes a non-event for the circuits that matter.

The design decisions: which circuits (essentials like fridge, lights, internet and medical equipment - or whole-home), how much capacity to hold in reserve versus cycle for daily savings, and how large loads behave on battery. Whole-home backup on three-phase supply is a genuine engineering exercise, not a checkbox.

Setting honest expectations

Backup duration is arithmetic: a 13.5 kWh battery running 1 kW of essentials lasts far longer than one asked to run air conditioning. Reserve settings, seasonal solar, and outage length all move the answer. We model your realistic outage scenario in the design rather than promising 'never lose power' - and if backup is your primary motive rather than savings, say so early, because it changes the right system.