Size the system to the outage, and be honest about the outage. A few hours of darkness takes one battery. A multi-day blackout takes batteries plus solar to refill them. A week or more takes a bigger bank with a generator behind it. That number, how long the power actually stays out at your house, picks the setup better than any spec sheet.
One thing to settle first. Grid-tied panels without a battery shut off the moment the grid drops. They are required to, so the crews rebuilding the line work on dead wire. Panels alone do nothing for you during an outage. Every tier below pairs solar with a battery and a hybrid inverter, the combination that lets a house run on its own.
A few hours: one battery covers it
Most outages are this kind. A squall line takes out a feeder at dinner and the power is back before breakfast. For that, a single battery on a hybrid inverter carries the fridge, the lights, the fans, and the internet. The switchover happens on its own and the food never warms up.
The Critical Load Backup kit packages this tier: a FlexBOSS18 hybrid inverter, one 16kWh LiFePO4 battery on the garage wall, and an array sized around 3kW. The critical-loads subpanel that gathers your chosen circuits comes from your electrician, since it has to match your panel brand.
A few days: critical loads plus solar recharge
This is the outage hurricane season actually delivers. The storm passes, the sun comes out, and the grid takes three or four days to catch up. Life narrows to the fridge, some lights, the fans, the internet, and a window unit cooling the bedroom. That short list is cheap to run, and a family living on it stays comfortable enough that the kids stop asking when the power comes back.
The same Critical Load Backup kit covers this tier, and here is where its array earns the money. The battery carries each night. The panels refill it each day. The cycle repeats until the line trucks show up, and day four feels like day one.
Want the whole house on instead of a chosen set of circuits? That is the Whole-Home Backup kit: a FlexBOSS21 hybrid inverter, the GridBOSS 200A controller that hands the house to battery power when the grid fails, and a battery bank in 16kWh, 32kWh, or 48kWh steps. The 48kWh build, three wallmount batteries, is the one our install customers order most.
A week or more: the big bank plus a generator buffer
After a bad direct hit, the last houses back on can wait a week or more. For that stretch you want a whole-home bank at the 48kWh end and a generator behind it as the buffer. The generator's job shrinks to one thing: push a fast charge into the batteries on a gray day, then shut off. It burns hours of fuel instead of days.
The packaged tie-in is the ChargeVerter, the generator charger included in our Off-Grid System kit. The generator itself is not in the kit, and plenty of storm-country homes already own one. If a generator has been your whole plan, the batteries and the solar make it quiet and automatic.
The whole decision on one card:
| Outage length | What it takes | The kit |
|---|---|---|
| A few hours | One battery and a hybrid inverter | Critical Load Backup |
| A few days | Critical circuits, battery, solar recharge | Critical Load Backup, or Whole-Home to keep everything on |
| A week or more | A 48kWh bank plus a generator buffer | Whole-Home Backup with a ChargeVerter tie-in |
What the storm itself does to solar
Now the honest part. During the hurricane, solar production is poor. Heavy cloud cover cuts an array to a fraction of its rating, so the battery does nearly all the work while the weather is overhead. Going into the storm with a full bank matters more that day than anything on the roof.
The payoff comes after. The sky clears, the grid is still down, and the array refills the bank every morning. Those days after the storm are where an outage actually wears a family down, the thawing freezer, the still air, the dying phones, and they are exactly the days a solar and battery system changes.
And the panels themselves? We will not promise you a system rides out any storm, because nobody can promise the storm anything. What is true: storm-hardening is real engineering, done job by job. On a permitted install the mounting is engineered to your local wind code for your specific site, the licensed contractor builds to that engineering, and your building department inspects it. That process is the protection, and the insurance question below is still worth asking early.
Three habits before every storm
Three habits, the same kind as filling the bathtub. None of them touch a setting on the equipment.
Go into the storm with a full battery, topped off in the day or two before landfall the same way you top off the truck. A full bank is the entire first night.
Know your essentials before you need the list. Which fridge, which outlets, which room gets the window unit. Nobody makes that list well by flashlight.
If you own a generator, fuel it and start it this week, before the rush.
What Ape Solar would check first
Three things before we recommend a tier. How long outages really last where you live, because your own restoration history sizes this better than a worst case does. Your keep-running list next to a recent power bill, since those two set the battery and the inverter. And where the gear goes, since wallmount batteries want a conditioned space like a garage, and the connection work at your electrical panel is a licensed electrician's job, permitted through your building department.
We design the system, supply the equipment, and run the project. A state-licensed contractor does the install. The pro install page lays out that split.
A note on safety
After a storm, treat every piece of a solar system the way you treat a downed power line. A cracked panel, a shifted mount, a wet inverter, wiring under debris: hands off, all of it, until a licensed electrician has inspected the system. Repairs go through that electrician and your local building department, permitted and inspected like the original install. This guide is for planning and buying, never for repair work.
FAQ
Will my panels survive a hurricane?
No honest company promises that, so we will not either. The real answer is in the section above: the mounting on a permitted install is engineered to your local wind code, built by the licensed contractor, and inspected by your building department, site by site. The storm still gets a vote, which is why anything damaged gets a professional inspection before anyone touches it.
What does homeowners insurance say about solar?
Ask your carrier, before storm season, and get the answer in writing. Policies treat solar differently from company to company, so call yours and ask how the array and the batteries are covered. Keep the reply with your policy papers, next to your equipment list and photos of the finished install. The coverage call is your carrier's to make, so we will not guess at it here.
How long will a battery run my fridge, and can it run the AC?
A fridge is an easy load. It draws little and cycles on and off, so the single 16kWh battery in the critical-load kit carries a fridge, lights, fans, and internet through the night with room to spare, and the array refills the bank the next day. Central AC is the hard load. It draws kilowatts for hours and empties a bank fast, which is why many storm builds cool one room with a window unit or a mini-split instead. For your actual loads, build the system and see the numbers.
Do I have to buy the whole-home kit to be ready?
No. A critical-loads setup with solar recharge carries a family through a multi-day outage comfortably, and it costs a lot less. Whole-home earns its price when you work from home, keep medical equipment running, or simply want zero decisions during an outage. If the smaller kit covers you, we will say so.
Should I get a generator instead of batteries?
Get the pairing if you can. A battery bank gives you instant, silent backup that refuels itself every sunny day. A generator adds cheap capacity for long gray stretches, and through a ChargeVerter it charges the bank directly in a few hours. If you already own a generator, you are halfway to the week-plus tier. The batteries and the solar are the other half.
Not sure yet? Start with the estimate. Your address and your power bill are enough to size a system for your house while the season is still quiet.