Chapter 1 · Solar System Basics
1.7 During an outage, does solar automatically keep the house running?
It depends. Three scenarios:
- A legacy NEM 1.0/2.0 grid-tied system without a battery — the inverter shuts down automatically during an outage (so it does not back-feed and electrocute a lineman working on the wires). Your home goes dark with the grid.
- A hybrid system with a battery and a Backup Panel — the inverter shifts into Island Mode and the battery + panels keep the critical-load circuits running. The Backup Panel is a separate sub-panel and the inverter supplies it uninterrupted.
- Whole-home backup — requires an ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch) plus a large enough inverter and battery. More complex, and if the ATS itself ever fails, the whole house can lose power.
Practical advice: put the fridge, internet gear, a few essential outlets, and the bedroom AC on the Backup Panel and call it done. You don't need whole-home backup.
A simpler alternative: during an outage, manually transfer the main panel to the inverter's Load port. The system then behaves like a silent 24-hour generator.
Next Step
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