When the grid drops, ours is the house with the lights on.
Battery backup for Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Navarre, and the rest of the two counties. Sized to what you actually run, priced in the open, recharged by the sun every morning of the outage.
You remember Sally. So do we.
September 2020. The storm parked over this county, the bridge closed, and parts of the Pensacola area spent most of a week in the dark. Freezers thawed, generators ran out of gas, and the gas stations had no power to pump more. That week is why this page exists.
A battery bank changes how that week goes. The power drops and your lights do not blink. The fridge and freezer hold. The internet stays up. And if there are solar panels on the roof, the bank recharges every morning, which no fuel-burning setup can claim once the stations go down.
One thing said plainly, because most solar ads skip it: solar panels without a battery shut off in an outage. If backup power is why you are here, the battery is the main event and the panels are its refueling crew.
Critical loads, or the whole house.
A critical-loads setup backs up the things that matter in an outage: refrigeration, lights, internet, fans, the well pump if you have one. It is the affordable way in and it covers the real misery of an outage.
Whole-home backup carries everything, central AC included. It costs more because the AC is the biggest load in the house. In August, plenty of people decide it is worth it.
Already have solar from somebody else? Batteries retrofit onto existing systems, whoever installed them. A real 2026 example from our books: hybrid inverter, GridBOSS, and three batteries added to an existing 38-panel system, $25,400 all in, whole-home backup on a system that used to go dark with the grid.
Designed here, installed by a licensed contractor.
Ape Solar designs the system around your loads, supplies the equipment from our Gulf Breeze warehouse, and manages the project. The install is performed by a state-licensed electrical contractor. Advanced Wire Pros (FL license EC13005911) is our primary contractor of record.
Prices are published. Batteries, inverters, and complete backup-ready kits are all on the shop, and the system builder prices a full setup for your house, live.
Battery questions we actually get.
Battery or generator? Straight answer.
They solve different problems. A battery covers outages instantly and silently, needs no fuel, and recharges from solar the next morning. A generator is cheaper per stored kilowatt-hour and earns its keep in a rare week-long grid-down, if you can get fuel. The best storm setups here use a battery first and keep a generator as the third layer. What we will not tell you is that one gadget solves everything.
How much battery do I need to get through an outage?
Count what you actually want running. Fridge, freezer, lights, internet, and some fans is a modest bank. Add central AC and the numbers roughly triple. We size from your real loads, and we would rather sell you the right bank than the biggest one.
I already have solar. Can I add batteries to it?
Usually yes, whoever installed it. A real example from our books: a 2026 retrofit added a hybrid inverter, a GridBOSS, and three batteries to an existing 38-panel system we did not install, for $25,400 all in. Whole-home backup on a system that used to shut off with the grid.
Will the batteries run my AC?
Sized for it, yes. Central AC is the biggest single load in a Florida house, and it is a sizing decision, not a yes or no. Plenty of customers choose to back up everything except the AC and cut the battery cost roughly in half. Your call, made with real numbers.
What batteries do you use?
Mostly EG4 LiFePO4 banks, wall-mount and rack-mount, paired with EG4 hybrid inverters. LiFePO4 chemistry is the boring, stable kind, rated for thousands of cycles. Every model we sell is on the site with its price and spec sheet.
Does a battery system need solar panels?
No. A battery bank charged from the grid covers outages on its own, and it is a good first step for shaded lots and condos. Panels make it better: in a long outage they recharge the bank every day, which a grid-charged battery cannot do.
Will my system keep working if a hurricane hits us directly?
We sell the gear; we do not sell guarantees about hurricanes. Equipment rated and mounted for the wind zone routinely rides out storms that take the grid down, and batteries live indoors or in rated enclosures. But whether any system carries you through a direct hit depends on your site and the storm, not our brochure.
Who installs it?
A state-licensed electrical contractor. Advanced Wire Pros (FL license EC13005911) is our primary contractor of record. Ape Solar designs the system, supplies the equipment from our Gulf Breeze warehouse, and runs the project.
Size it before the next storm names itself.
Tell us what you want to keep running and we will do the math honestly. Or build it yourself online with live prices.