What Happens to Solar During Blackout?

Home solar power in New York combines the reliability and savings of solar panels with the convenience of the utility grid. You’ll enjoy significant savings as you rely less on the grid, but you’ll still have electricity at night and on days when solar production is low. This hybrid approach ensures the best return on investment with convenience for family homes. But what happens during a solar during blackout? If the grid is down, will you still be able to use your solar panels to power your home? The answer isn’t as obvious as you might think.

Solar Homes Feed Power Back to the Grid

One important concept to think about when getting solar power in New York is that your home will feed electricity back to the grid. This is one of the primary ways that your panels will generate a return on your investment.

During the day, your solar panels will produce electricity. You can use this electricity in your home to power outlets, lighting, appliances, and all your electronic devices. A lot of the time, your panels will produce more electricity than your home consumes. The excess will be sent back out to the grid to help power other homes. Your meter will spin in reverse, ensuring that you are compensated for anything you send out. This is called Net Metering, and it means that you can optimize your solar benefits. The energy you export during the day will help to cover the electricity that you take from the grid at night.

Because of the way the system works, your home can still be affected by outages on the grid. When the grid goes down, your solar panels will go into standby. This prevents electricity from entering the lines and damaging equipment or injuring line workers.

Many homeowners find this surprising. It’s natural to expect that you could still use solar during blackouts. You don’t need to be disappointed because there is a workaround for this.

Getting a Solar Battery with a New York Solar Installation

If you want to have more energy independence and reliability, you can have a solar battery backup system integrated with your New York solar installation. This will let you use solar during blackouts, while also providing other advantages.

• A solar battery can keep your home isolated during a grid outage. It will deploy stored solar energy to your home.
• The battery system can also be used to further improve your savings. It can harvest energy in the day and deploy it in the evenings. You’ll end up buying less electricity from the utility company.
• A solar battery is the most efficient and affordable way to charge an electric vehicle.

You don’t need a solar battery to enjoy savings with solar, but for many families, the advantages are worth the investment. With New York Power Solutions you’ll get a detailed consultation with a cost/benefit breakdown, so you can see how the cost of panels and a battery compare to the potential savings over time. We’ll give you everything you need to understand what your investment will mean.

We provide the information. You make the choice.

Learn More About Solar with New York Power Solutions

Learn if renewable energy is right for your home. Get your free solar estimate from New York Power Solutions. Get an estimate on a backup system so you can use solar during blackout. Whatever your goals are, we’ll design an efficient solution that gives you energy independence with long-term savings. Talk to our team for your free solar estimate and assessment today.