How long will solar panels provide power if the grid is down? Does the average home solar panel setup have the ability to store energy? School me on home solar panels, and their useage in an emergency situation.
In: Engineering
Depending on how much sun you’re getting, you may have enough power to run entirely from solar assuming you’re not using too much electricity (air conditioning, microwave oven, TV + surround sound system, sick gaming computer, etc). As others have said batteries let you store power in case of the occasional need, the occasional cloud obstructing the sun, etc. Tesla sells a giant battery called the “Power Wall” roughly sized that it could power your home all night or day.
When the power goes out, there’s a rule though. You can’t feed power back into the grid from your solar panels – you must cut yourself off from the grid first. People may be working on the power lines and expect them to be shut down. Those same voltage transformers that turn 50,000 volts on the big lines down to 120 volts at your home will do the reverse as well if you’re putting power into the lines. So you’re required to have something capable of cutting off the outside feed when it shuts down if your house is to stay powered. If your system can’t do that (and some can’t) a power outage still takes out power in your own home.
Latest Answers