When the street goes dark, your house doesn't.
A home battery that switches on when the grid goes down and keeps your fridge, furnace fan and sump pump running. Solar panels are optional; they recharge it in daylight.
Three ways to plan it.
Start from what you can't be without. Size up from there.
Essentials
One battery on a small backed-up panel: food cold, basement dry, internet up.
- Fridge
- Sump pump
- Lights
- Internet
Essentials + heat
Add the furnace fan so a gas furnace keeps running in a winter outage, and the well pump if you're on a well.
- Everything in Essentials
- Furnace fan
- Well pump
Solar-recharged
Panels on the roof refill the battery on sunny days, so a long outage doesn't drain it for good.
- Battery + panels
- Longest outages
It hangs in the basement and switches on by itself.
It lives in the basement or garage, charges when power is normal, and takes over when the grid goes down. No fuel, no pull cord, no exhaust.
- Rated capacity, one battery
- 13.5 kWh
- Batteries per home
- 1 to 3
- Charges from
- Grid, solar, or both
- Rebate
- $300 per kWh, up to $5,000
Capacity from a widely sold home battery's spec sheet. Rebate: Home Renovation Savings.
Ontario says plan for three days.
The March 2025 ice storm left nearly 400,000 Ontario homes and businesses without power.
Ontario advises every household to be ready to last at least three days in an outage. A closed fridge keeps food cold for about four hours; a full freezer, about two days.
Sources: news.ontario.ca, ontario.ca
From load check to install.
Load check
We walk the house and list what has to stay on, with the wattage from each label.
Sizing
One to three batteries, plus panels if you want them, with the runtime written down.
Rebate and permits
We get the rebate pre-approval and the electrical permit before anything is bought.
Install
Usually one day. We test the switchover with you before we leave.
Before you call.
How long will a battery last in an outage?
It depends on what you run. Use the calculator above: tick what has to stay on and it shows the hours. We confirm it at the load check with your own appliances' labels.
Do I need solar panels?
No. A battery charges from the grid and holds that power for an outage. Panels let it recharge in daylight, which matters in a long outage.
Does solar recharge it in winter?
Less than in summer, and not while snow covers the panels. Plan your essentials around the battery alone, and treat winter sun as a bonus.
Is a battery quieter than a generator?
Yes. It makes no engine noise and no exhaust, needs no fuel, and switches on by itself.
Is there a rebate?
Ontario's Home Renovation Savings program pays $300 per kWh of battery storage, up to $5,000 and no more than half the cost, with written pre-approval before you buy.
Keep the lights on next time.
We walk the house, list what has to stay on, and send a written plan with a price. Nothing to sign on the day.