Watt-hours, transfer switches, cold weather, storage. The stuff nobody explains before you spend money.
Your State's Grid
April 2011 put a million Alabamians in the dark after the worst tornado outbreak in a generation. Add Gulf hurricanes on the coast and summer heat everywhere, and here is the plan for a state that gets both.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Xcel started shutting off power on purpose in 2024 when the wind blows. Add spring snow, mountain lines and a state that runs on solar, and the Colorado plan looks different from anyone else's.
4 min read
Your State's Grid
Atlanta shuts down on half an inch of ice, Savannah gets hurricanes, and Helene cut a line of destruction through the middle of the state. Georgia's outages come from three directions and here is the plan for each.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Every island runs its own grid with no connection to anywhere else, electricity costs more than anywhere in the country, and the Maui fires showed what a wind-driven outage does. Hawaii backup is its own subject.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
The August 2020 derecho was the costliest thunderstorm in US history, and it left Cedar Rapids dark for over a week with no warning. Iowa outages are wind in summer and ice in winter, and here is what covers both.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
The January 2009 ice storm was the worst power outage in Kentucky history — weeks without power across the west. Then December 2021 tornadoes flattened Mayfield. Here is what a Kentucky household should own now.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Ida left parts of the state dark for over a month. Louisiana outages are long, hot and humid, and the plan that works here is built around recharging, not capacity.
4 min read
Your State's Grid
Maryland sits where the summer derechos end and the winter ice begins, with the densest tree canopy on the East Coast over the lines. Here is what a Baltimore or DC-suburb household should actually own.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
DTE and Consumers customers lose power more often, and for longer, than almost anyone in the country. Here is what to buy when the outage is not a surprise but a schedule.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
A winter outage in Minnesota is a life-safety event within hours, pipes freeze within a day, and the battery itself will not charge in the cold. Here is what actually works at the coldest end of the country.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Missouri gets the Plains' tornadoes, the Midwest's ice and the Ohio Valley's summer wind — Joplin in 2011, the St. Louis derechos, the ice storms of the 2000s. Here is the plan for a state that gets all three.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
A Las Vegas outage in July is a life-safety event within hours, and no portable battery runs the AC. Reno has the opposite problem. Here is the honest plan for the driest state, and what the desert sun is genuinely good for.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Half of New England heats with oil or propane, and both need electricity to run. That one fact should decide what you buy — and it is the fact most national advice misses.
4 min read
Your State's Grid
Sandy left millions dark for over a week and rewrote what the state thinks an outage is. Here is what a New Jersey household — Shore, suburb or city — should actually own now.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Helene proved that a hurricane can take out the mountains as badly as the coast. North Carolina is three different outage problems in one state, and here is the plan for each.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
No generator, no balcony, no basement — and the building's water pump and elevator die with the grid. Here is what a New York apartment can genuinely prepare for, and what it cannot.
4 min read
Your State's Grid
Two derechos a decade apart, winter ice, and a June 2022 heat wave where AEP cut power to Columbus on purpose. Ohio outages come in three flavours and here is what covers all of them.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Plains outages come from two directions — spring tornadoes that shred lines in minutes, and ice storms that bring them down for a week. The unit that suits one is wrong for the other.
4 min read
Your State's Grid
Seattle and Portland outages are November windstorms and January ice — under a sky that makes solar nearly useless for four months. Here is what that means for what you buy.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Philadelphia suburbs lose power to ice and trees; the Appalachian counties lose it for a week at a time to lines that run through forest. Pennsylvania backup depends entirely on which half you live in.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Maria took the grid down for nearly a year in places, and years later the island still loses power without a storm. This is a guide for a place where backup is not preparation but daily life.
4 min read
Your State's Grid
Charleston prepares for hurricanes, Greenville prepares for ice, and Helene showed the Upstate that hurricanes reach there too. Two plans for one state.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Nashville in 2020, Clarksville in 2023 — Tennessee tornadoes hit at night and take out whole neighbourhoods. Add Memphis ice storms and a TVA system that has cut power on purpose in a cold snap, and here is the plan.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
The 2012 derecho took out over a million Virginia customers in an hour. Add ice in the Piedmont, hurricane remnants in Tidewater and a Dominion grid stretched across the DC suburbs, and here is what actually works.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
Milwaukee loses power to summer storms and winter ice; the Northwoods lose it for days to snow on long lines through forest. Wisconsin backup is a cold-weather problem with a summer exception.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
No battery you can afford will air-condition a house at 115°F. Here is what backup power is actually for in Arizona, and the decision that matters more than any purchase.
5 min read
Your State's Grid
PSPS events are scheduled, not random. That changes everything about what you should buy — and it makes solar panels far more useful here than elsewhere.
3 min read
Your State's Grid
The heat after a hurricane is the real danger, not the storm. Here is what actually runs, why solar panels disappoint, and the mistake that kills people every season.
4 min read
Your State's Grid
If you have gas heat, one 400-watt load keeps your whole house warm. That single fact is worth more than any battery comparison.
4 min read
Your State's Grid
ERCOT is its own grid with its own failure modes, and Texas outages hit in heat as often as ice. Here is what to buy for both.
4 min read
Home Outage & Backup
Four numbers, five minutes, and an answer specific to your house. For a lot of people the honest result is 'buy the ice instead' — and we would rather tell you that.
4 min read
Home Outage & Backup
Two hours on a Saturday tells you more than any review. Kill the main breaker, start the clock, and find out what you actually own.
4 min read
Home Outage & Backup
It takes one form and a doctor's signature. It can mean advance notice of shutoffs, priority restoration information, and in some states a lower bill. It does not mean your power stays on.
4 min read
Home Outage & Backup
Sometimes — and the deciding factor is usually where the power failed, not how much food you lost. Here is how to check your own policy in about four minutes.
5 min read
Home Outage & Backup
Extension cords work fine for most people. Here is exactly when they stop working, what a transfer switch costs, and the shortcut that kills lineworkers.
4 min read
Home Outage & Backup
Everything to do before the storm, in the order that matters. Written for the week you actually have, not the year you should have had.
3 min read
Home Outage & Backup
Your fridge holds cold for four hours. Your freezer holds it for two days. Here is how to stretch both, and exactly when to throw things out.
4 min read
Battery & Tech Basics
12 gauge, and shorter than you think. A thin 100-foot cord is why a fridge that should start on your battery doesn't.
4 min read
Battery & Tech Basics
A 1,000Wh unit adds about three miles of range. The useful version of this idea runs the other way — your car is a far bigger battery than anything you can buy.
4 min read
Battery & Tech Basics
Yes — two to three hours on a 1,000Wh unit. But the spec that decides whether it is useful is switchover time, not capacity.
4 min read
Battery & Tech Basics
Airflow, yes. Fresh air, no. They produce no exhaust — but they produce heat, and a unit in a closed cabinet throttles or shuts down.
4 min read
Battery & Tech Basics
For a work light, no. For a CPAP, a furnace or a fridge, absolutely — and one of those three is why the cheap inverter in the checkout aisle is a trap.
3 min read
Battery & Tech Basics
Store it at about half charge, indoors, and never charge it while it is below freezing. That last one destroys batteries permanently and almost nobody knows it.
4 min read
Battery & Tech Basics
The cells will outlive you. Something else will break first. Here is what actually fails, and the one habit that shortens a battery's life fastest.
4 min read
Battery & Tech Basics
Yes, and that is the entire reason they beat gas generators. Here are the four real risks, and the one that actually kills people.
3 min read
Battery & Tech Basics
One chemistry lasts six times longer and does not catch fire. The other is lighter. Here is why almost every good power station now uses the first one.
4 min read
Sizing & Calculators
MPPT converts extra voltage into extra current. PWM throws it away. That difference is 20–30% of your charging speed, and it is already decided by the unit you bought.
4 min read
Sizing & Calculators
About 20 hours on a 1,000Wh unit — and if you play it right, one battery covers three or four days of freezer, not one.
4 min read
Sizing & Calculators
Series raises voltage. Parallel raises current. Get it wrong in one direction and you charge slowly; get it wrong in the other and you destroy the charge controller.
4 min read
Sizing & Calculators
The honest number is far smaller than the internet says — because you are not running a house, you are running four things in it.
3 min read
Sizing & Calculators
Your battery is big enough and it still shut off. This is why, and it is the spec almost nobody checks before buying.
3 min read
Sizing & Calculators
Watts is how fast. Watt-hours is how much. Get those two straight and every spec sheet in this category stops being confusing.
3 min read
Run This Appliance
A router and modem draw about 20 watts, so even a small battery runs your wifi for a day or more. The catch is whether your ISP still has power at their end — and how to test that before you spend.
8 min read
Run This Appliance
Yes, for a few hours, and only on a big unit. Here is the honest math, the surge that trips most batteries, and what to do instead.
4 min read
Run This Appliance
Mostly no, and the reason is one number nobody checks. Here is what it actually takes, and the cheaper trick that saves most people.
3 min read
Run This Appliance
Yes, and it takes less battery than you have been told. Here is the math, the surge trap, and the size that actually saves your food.
3 min read
