Home Battery Backup in Texas
What it actually keeps running, what it costs, and the one question to ask before you sign with anyone.
Energy Use InterviewWhy now
The Texas grid has already shown its hand
A statewide freeze has already brought the grid down for days, not hours, and summer conservation appeals have become a routine part of Texas heat waves. Neither of those is a prediction. They’ve both already happened, more than once. A battery doesn’t change how the grid performs, but it changes what happens in your specific house when it doesn’t.
That said, most households don’t need to protect everything. They need to know, specifically, what stays on and for how long, before a freeze arrives, not during one.
The question most quotes skip
“Essentials covered” sounds reassuring until you learn it usually means lights, a refrigerator, and a few outlets, not your AC or your furnace blower. If a freeze is the scenario you’re actually worried about, that distinction is the whole ballgame.
What actually determines the right size
Sizing is a household question, not a product question
A retired couple home most of the day draws power very differently than a family that’s out from 9 to 5 and charging an EV overnight. Whether you want HVAC on the covered circuits, how many people are actually in the house during an outage, and what’s already plugged into your panel all change the number. That’s the conversation the interview below is built to have.
Quick answers
The specifics people usually ask about before the bigger conversation.
The average Texas outage lasts about 2.5 hours, and most battery systems can cover that comfortably. At low, essentials-only usage, a single battery unit can run 12 to 20 hours. Whole-home coverage, including central AC, is a different story and generally needs a larger system, around 27 kWh or more, to get anywhere near a full day.
Ready to size a system around your home?
Your schedule, your household size, and whether you want AC covered all change the answer.