Choosing backup power for outages
Match the tool to what you need to keep running
Start from the load, not the product. Keeping a phone, a few lights, and a CPAP going is a very different job from running a refrigerator, a well pump, or a whole home. Add up the watts of what you truly need during an outage — that number, and how many hours you need it, drives every choice below.
Portable power stations (battery)
A portable power station is a large rechargeable battery with normal outlets and USB ports. It makes no exhaust, so it can be used indoors — the big advantage over fuel generators. Its lithium-ion battery still needs care: the CPSC has recalled power stations whose batteries can overheat, so charge and store it the way the maker's instructions say, and check your model on the CPSC's recalls page. It runs phones, laptops, CPAPs, lights, and small appliances; larger units with add-on batteries can carry a fridge for a while. It recharges from a wall outlet before a storm, from a car, or from solar panels. Limits: finite battery capacity (you can't refuel it like gasoline) and higher upfront cost per watt.
Portable generators (fuel)
A fuel portable generator delivers a lot of power and runs as long as you have fuel — good for refrigerators, sump pumps, and multiple circuits. The tradeoff is safety: they emit carbon monoxide and must run outdoors only, ≥20 ft from the house, never in a garage, and must never be back-fed into a wall outlet. Read our generator-safety guide before using one — CO from portable generators kills more than 100 Americans a year, per the CPSC.
Standby generators & home batteries (permanent)
A standby generator is permanently installed, runs on natural gas or propane, and starts automatically through a transfer switch — the hands-off option for whole-home backup, at a professional-installation cost. A home battery (often paired with solar) does the same job without fuel or exhaust, with runtime bounded by its stored energy. Both connect to your home's wiring through a transfer switch so power can never back-feed the grid and endanger line crews. (For a portable generator connected to a home through a transfer switch, OSHA's fact sheet says the switch must be approved for the use and installed by a qualified electrician, following the manufacturer's instructions.)
The safety rules are non-negotiable
Whatever you choose: no fuel-burning generator indoors, ever; a transfer switch installed by a qualified electrician — never a cord plugged into a wall outlet, which the CPSC warns can electrocute utility workers and neighbors — for anything wired into the house; CO alarms with battery backup on every level; and fuel or batteries stored per the maker's instructions. Ready.gov's outage guidance, the CPSC's generator safety alert, OSHA's generator fact sheet and the manufacturer's manual are the authorities here.
Solar panels alone won't ride through an outage
A common surprise: standard grid-tied solar goes dark with the grid. The Department of Energy explains that the standard for small inverters, like those on a household solar system, is to ride through small disruptions but to disconnect from the grid and shut down when a disruption lasts a long time or is larger than normal — so the panels neither power the house nor send power onto the lines crews are working on. Riding through an outage takes a system built for it: DOE notes that solar-plus-battery systems rely on advanced inverters to run without the grid in an outage, if they are designed to do so. If you have or are considering solar, ask the installer specifically about backup capability — "has solar" and "has backup power" are different purchases.
Runtime math in one minute
Battery capacity is sold in watt-hours (Wh); loads are watts (W). Hours ≈ Wh ÷ W, minus conversion losses. A 1,000 Wh station running a 60 W fan lasts roughly a dozen hours; the same station on a 600 W microwave lasts about an hour of actual cooking. Refrigerators cycle on and off, so their average draw is far below the nameplate — which is why a big station can carry one longer than the label math suggests.
Fuel realities
Gasoline: stations without backup power can't pump in a wide outage, so keep only what you'll actually rotate, treated the way your generator's manual says, in labeled safety containers outside living space, per the CPSC. Propane: dual-fuel portable generators run on it as well as on gasoline. Natural-gas standbys skip storage entirely but depend on gas service staying up. Match the fuel to how often your area actually loses power — which is exactly what your area's outage history shows.
We don't sell power equipment — we tell you how long you'll need it
This guide is independent information, not a purchase recommendation. What we do is the outage side: search your address for the live restoration outlook, so you can size backup power to the outages your area actually gets. Your county's page shows how long its recent larger outages took to restore, where we have tracked them, and our public accuracy record shows how close our county-wide estimates have come.
- CPSC — Carbon Monoxide Information Center (generators and CO)
- CPSC — Portable generator hazards (safety alert, PDF)
- OSHA — Grounding requirements for portable generators (fact sheet, PDF)
- CPSC — HALO 1000 portable power station recall (2024)
- DOE — Solar integration: inverters and grid services basics
- Ready.gov — Power outages
General safety information drawn from the public sources linked above, not medical, electrical or legal advice for your situation. In an emergency, call 911.