The Home Backup
A timber house on a hillside at blue hour, every window and porch lamp burning warm gold across the lawn.

The power goes out.

The lights stay on.

Every house gets a night like this one. What matters is what’s still running an hour later: the fridge, the furnace, the lamp in the hall.

1,449watts
On backup
Fridge · furnace · two lamps · the router
Start here

The short version

  • Four categories, and nothing else: whole-house generators, home batteries, portable power stations, and portable solar panels. No rooftop solar, no Powerwall.
  • Every price on this page was re-checked on August 28, 2026, and carries that date beside it.
  • Product photographs are the manufacturers’ own studio shots, used as supplied. No stock, no renders.
  • We earn a commission on some links. It has never changed a pick, and the price you pay never changes either.

Start with how long your outages last

An hour is a different problem than three days. Pick the shelf that matches your worst night, not your average one. A quiet box in the hallway keeps the fridge and the router going until morning. A generator on a pad keeps the whole house going until the line crew arrives. Both are correct answers to different questions, and the question is always the same one: what has to stay on, and for how long.

Whole-house generators Wired in, automatic, runs on gas. For outages measured in days, and the only answer when the whole house has to stay warm. 4 guides, installed costs dated Home batteries Silent, indoor, no fuel to store. It grows as your outages get worse, and one of them speaks 240 volts for the well pump. 4 guides, expansion ceilings printed Portable power stations The fridge, the router, the CPAP. Plug in tonight, no electrician, no fuel in the garage. For most houses this is the right first buy. 7 guides, the friendliest corner of backup Portable solar panels Day three, when the gas stations have lines and the battery is low. Daylight is the only refill that never runs out. 6 guides, real watts in real weather

The four we would plug in at our own houses

The short answer, if you only have a minute. Every price below carries the day we checked it.

Three of these are portable power stations of roughly the same class: about 2 kWh, 120 volts, lithium iron phosphate, which is about two nights of refrigerator. The fourth is a home battery, and it is here for one reason only: it is the one cabinet in this group that speaks 240 volts, so a well pump keeps its job. If your must-keep list is all 120 volt, save the money and stop at the stations.

3 models in this class

Product photographs are the manufacturers’ own studio shots, used as supplied. Specifications and prices come from their US product pages, checked August 28, 2026.

And the one that speaks 240 volts

A well pump, most dryers, and some furnace air handlers want 240 volts, and no amount of extra battery makes a 120-volt station do that job. One cabinet in this group can.

Our pick
Official Anker SOLIX studio photo of the F3800 home backup battery, a tall charcoal cabinet on wheels with a colour display and a bank of outlets behind a flap.

Best for 240 volts

Anker SOLIX F3800

3,840 Wh and 6,000 watts across both legs, with a 9,000 watt surge for the moment the pump starts. It is the only machine on this page that keeps a well running.

$2,199.98

Price checked Aug 28, 2026

$2,199.98 at Anker SOLIX

Every figure comes from the manufacturer’s own product page, checked August 28, 2026. Prices move, so follow a link for today’s. Where a maker does not print a number, we leave the cell quiet rather than guess.
ModelRated capacityRated outputWeightVoltsPrice
Explorer 2000 Plus Jackery 2,042.8 Wh3,000 W61.5 lb120 V$899
AC200L BLUETTI 2,048 Wh2,400 W62.4 lb120 V$899
C2000 Gen 2 Anker SOLIX 2,048 Wh2,400 W41.7 lb120 V$999.99
F3800 Anker SOLIX · home battery 3,840 Wh6,000 WNot printed120 / 240 V$2,199.98

A station is enough if

  • Your must-keep list is 120 volt: the fridge, the internet, some lamps, maybe a CPAP.
  • You can live without air conditioning for the length of a typical local outage.
  • You would rather have a quiet box in the hallway than a gasoline engine in the rain.

Go bigger if

  • A 240-volt well pump or dryer is non-negotiable. That is the F3800, or a standby generator.
  • The whole house, heat and air included, has to run for days on end.
  • You were shopping rooftop solar or a Powerwall. Different product, different site. More on about.

The panels that refill them

Every battery on this page runs out. Daylight is the half of the plan most people skip, and by the third morning it is the only refill that has not gone to a queue at the gas station. Three folders earn their space in a garage.

3 folding panels

Panel photographs are the manufacturers’ own studio shots. Rated watts are laboratory figures at full sun and square to the light, which is not what a driveway in October gives you. Plan on rather less.

Figures from the manufacturers’ own US product pages, checked August 28, 2026. BLUETTI prints an open-circuit voltage and no ingress rating, so that is what we print.
PanelRated wattsWeightWeather ratingPrice
SolarSaga 200W Jackery 200 W14.33 lbIP68$379
SP200L BLUETTI 200 W17.15 lbNot printed$399
PS400 Anker SOLIX 400 W35.3 lbIP67$699.99

Everything we have worked out so far

No listicles bought by a brand. Just the reading we did before we spent our own money, written down. Twenty-one guides, grouped the way the shopping actually goes.

If you read only one more page, read the method behind all of them.

How we review, the whole method How much battery your house needs What a standby really costs

We buy the boring answer on purpose

Backup power gets sold with storm footage and countdown timers. We would rather tell you the smallest thing that solves your actual night. Four rules do most of the work, and we apply them to every page on this site.

  1. Manufacturer specs, printed as printed. If a maker will not publish a number, we say so instead of estimating one on their behalf. That is why some cells in the tables above read “Not printed”.
  2. Prices re-checked, dated on the page. Every price on this site carries the day we looked. This one: August 28, 2026. Check the live page before you spend four figures.
  3. Product shots straight from the maker. No renders and no borrowed gear photos on a product page. The unit in the picture is the unit you would receive.
  4. Commission never moves a pick. We earn one on some links. The order of this page has never changed because of it, and the price you pay never changes either.
A clamp meter and an outlet tester on a workbench beside a coil of cord.
The homework we ask of you is one afternoon: start your own fridge on the machine once, while the weather is calm, and write down what the meter says.

A quiet word on who we link to: the featured shops are Jackery, BLUETTI, and Anker SOLIX. The price you pay never changes if a commission is paid. EcoFlow makes fine hardware, but its affiliate window is usually quoted at 7 days, and backup shoppers compare for weeks, so we do not feature it. The whole arrangement is on the disclosure page.

And the honesty you deserve: we have not cycled every one of these machines through a winter. Our picks lean on the makers’ own printed ratings, the failure modes buyers actually report, and a refusal to guess where a page was unclear. We are writers, not your electrician: for anything touching your panel, your permits, or fire code, please bring in a licensed pro. Method: how we review. Spotted something off? Write us. Corrections are welcome here. Privacy: privacy.

New here and not sure where to start: the friendliest category · who writes this · how we review.