The short version: for most homes the best solar generator for home backup is a 3,000Wh-class unit with 3,600W of output, and the one we’d buy is the Jackery Solar Generator HomePower 3000. It runs the loads an outage actually threatens, the fridge, Wi-Fi, lights, phones, and a CPAP, for one to two days, ships with its own solar panels, and is safe to run indoors. If you need to keep a furnace blower or a window air conditioner going, step up to the HomePower 3600 Plus, which expands to 21kWh. If you need 240V for a well pump, central AC, or an electric water heater, the Solar Generator 5000 Plus is the smallest unit that can do it.
Everything below explains how we got to those three answers, so you can check them against your own house rather than take our word for it.
The five we’d buy, at a glance
| Unit | Capacity / output | Best for | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jackery HomePower 3000 (most homes) | 3,072Wh · 3,600W · panels included · 120V | Fridge, Wi-Fi, lights, phones, CPAP for 1 to 2 days | Check price → |
| Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus | 3,584Wh · 3,600W · expandable to 21kWh · 120V | Essentials plus a furnace blower or window AC, multi-day outages | Check price → |
| Jackery Solar Generator 5000 Plus | 5,040Wh · 7,200W · 120V/240V · expandable to 60kWh | Well pump, central AC, water heater, hardwired circuits | Check price → |
| Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus kit | 120V/240V split-phase · smart home backup kit | Cheapest route into 240V whole-home backup | Check price → |
| EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra Portable kit | 6,144Wh · 7,200W · 5.6kW solar input · 120V/240V | The biggest platform, most solar input, longest outages | Check price → |
The Anker and EcoFlow kits are sold through Outbound Power, where code CHADPENFOLD takes 10% off at checkout. The Jackery units ship direct from Jackery.
Start with the loads, not the brand
Every bad backup purchase we hear about started with a brand comparison and ended with a unit that either could not start the one appliance that mattered, or cost twice what the house needed. The fix is to spend five minutes on a list before you look at a single product.
Write down what has to stay on during an outage. Not what would be nice, what you would genuinely regret losing. For most households it is the same short list, and the numbers are more forgiving than people expect.
| Load | Typical draw | Energy per day | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator or fridge-freezer | ~150W running | 1,000 to 1,500Wh | Cycles on and off; keep the door shut |
| Chest freezer | ~100W running | 600 to 900Wh | Stays cold for a day unopened even with no power |
| Wi-Fi router and modem | ~10 to 15W | ~300Wh | Cheap to keep on, and it keeps you informed |
| LED lights (ten bulbs) | ~50W | 300 to 500Wh | Assumes six to eight hours of use |
| Phones, tablets, a laptop | ~20 to 60W | 150 to 300Wh | Charging is small; screens are not |
| CPAP (no heated humidifier) | ~30 to 60W | 300 to 500Wh per night | Turn the humidifier off to halve it |
| Gas furnace blower and ignition | 400 to 600W running | 3,000 to 5,000Wh in deep cold | The load winter buyers forget |
| Window AC (small, 5,000 BTU) | 400 to 600W | 4,000 to 8,000Wh | Depends on how hot the room is |
| Sump pump (1/3 hp) | ~800W running, higher to start | 500 to 2,000Wh | Only when it rains, but then it matters |
| Well pump (1/2 hp, 240V) | ~1,000W running, 2 to 3x to start | 500 to 1,500Wh | Needs 240V and a big surge rating |
| Electric space heater | 1,500W | 1,500Wh per hour | Do not plan on running one from a battery |
| Central AC or heat pump (3 ton) | 3,000 to 4,000W, big surge | 20,000Wh and up | 240V, 7,200W-class units only |
Two things fall out of that table. First, the essentials add up to about 2,000 to 2,500Wh a day, which is why a 3,000Wh-class unit is the right starting point for most homes and why we lead with it. Second, the loads that push you into a bigger, dearer unit are heating and cooling, and those are decided by where you live. A Florida buyer sizes for a window AC in September. A North Dakota buyer sizes for a furnace blower in January. Our state-by-state backup guides do exactly that sizing for each state’s outages.
▶ Shop the HomePower 3000, the essentials unit use code DEAL5
The three numbers on the box, in plain words
Capacity (Wh) is the size of the tank. Divide it by your daily watt-hours and you have days of runtime with no sun. A 3,072Wh unit carrying 2,300Wh a day of essentials lasts a little over a day on the battery alone, and longer with any solar coming in.
Output (W) is how big a load it can run at once. A 3,600W unit runs everything in the essentials list at the same time with room to spare, and can start a furnace blower or a window AC. The number that catches people out is the start-up surge: motors in pumps and compressors draw two to three times their running wattage for a second or two. That is why a well pump rated at 1,000W wants a 7,200W unit.
Voltage (120V or 240V) decides whether the unit can run a well pump, central AC, an electric dryer, or a water heater at all. Those appliances are wired for 240V and no 120V-only unit will run them, however large its battery. If any of those are on your must-keep list, the shortlist is the 5000 Plus, the Anker F3800 Plus kit, and the EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra, and nothing else in this guide.
The pick for most homes: Jackery HomePower 3000
The HomePower 3000 is the unit we recommend in most of our state guides, and the reason is the table above. Its 3,072Wh carries the essentials for one to two days, its 3,600W output starts any 120V appliance in an ordinary house, and the bundle includes solar panels, so the tank refills while the grid is still down. It uses a LiFePO4 battery, which is the long-life, cold-tolerant chemistry you want in something that sits in a closet for months, and it runs near 30 decibels with zero exhaust, so it lives inside with the doors shut. It is the first unit we point Florida hurricane buyers at and the first unit we point plains blizzard buyers at, because the essentials are the same in both.
Our full HomePower 3000 review goes through a two-day outage hour by hour. What it will not do: it is not expandable and it is 120V only. If your list has a furnace blower plus a fridge plus a sump pump, and your outages run to three days, you will run it dry before the storm clears. That is the buyer for the next unit down the list.
▶ Get the HomePower 3000, panels included use code DEAL5
The multi-day pick: Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus
The HomePower 3600 Plus starts a little larger at 3,584Wh with the same 3,600W output, and the difference that matters is expansion: add battery packs and it grows to 21kWh. That is a week of essentials, or two to three days of essentials plus a furnace blower, without seeing the sun. It is also transfer-switch ready, so an electrician can wire it to a handful of circuits in your panel and the furnace, fridge, and a few lights come back on without an extension cord in sight.
This is the unit for cold-climate homes, for anyone with a medical device that cannot go down, and for anyone whose last outage lasted longer than a day. Our HomePower 3600 Plus review works through a three-day winter outage with it. It is still 120V, so the 240V rule above applies.
▶ Shop the HomePower 3600 Plus, expandable to 21kWh
The 240V pick: Jackery Solar Generator 5000 Plus
The Solar Generator 5000 Plus is where whole-home backup starts. It delivers 5,040Wh and 7,200W with both 120V and 240V, and it expands to 60kWh. That output and voltage is what a well pump, a central air handler and condenser, or an electric water heater need to start and run, and it is the reason this is the pick in our Phoenix and Texas guides, where losing the AC in a heat wave is a safety problem rather than an inconvenience. Rural homes on a well should start here too; a house with no water is not a house you can stay in. The 5000 Plus review goes through the well pump and central AC cases in detail.
▶ Shop the Solar Generator 5000 Plus, 7,200W, 120V/240V
The two whole-home kits from Outbound Power
If you are already at the 240V end of the decision, two kits deserve a look beside the 5000 Plus, and both are sold through Outbound Power with code CHADPENFOLD for 10% off.
The Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus Smart Home Backup Power Kit is the cheapest way we know of into split-phase 120V/240V home backup, listed at $3,499.99 at the time of writing. It is the unit our four-brand comparison calls the best all-round pick for a house with a well pump or central AC. Capacity and expansion figures are on the product page, and we send you there rather than repeat a number we have not verified ourselves.
▶ Check the Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus kit code CHADPENFOLD, 10% off
The EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra Portable Solar Kit is the largest platform in this guide: 6,144Wh, 7,200W, and up to 5.6kW of solar input, which means it can refill from panels faster than anything else here. That solar input is the spec to notice if your outages run long and your climate is sunny; it turns a two-day battery into a system that keeps up indefinitely in decent weather. Listed at $4,782 at the time of writing, with larger Smart Home and Deluxe kits above it. Our DELTA Pro Ultra kit comparison explains what each kit adds.
▶ Check the EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra Portable kit code CHADPENFOLD, 10% off
Runtime, honestly
Here is how long each of the three Jackery units carries three common load sets on battery alone, with no solar. Sun adds to all of these; in summer a set of panels can add 1,500 to 2,000Wh a day, in a grey winter a few hundred.
| Load set | Energy per day | HomePower 3000 | HomePower 3600 Plus | 5000 Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials (fridge, Wi-Fi, lights, phones, CPAP) | ~2,300Wh | 1 to 1.5 days | 1.5 days (7+ days at 21kWh) | 2 days (20+ days at 60kWh) |
| Essentials + gas furnace blower, deep cold | ~6,000Wh | About half a day | Half a day (3+ days at 21kWh) | Most of a day (10 days at 60kWh) |
| Essentials + small window AC, hot night | ~7,000Wh | About half a day | Half a day (3 days at 21kWh) | Most of a day (8+ days at 60kWh) |
Read the table the way an outage actually unfolds. The first night, you run everything. By the second day you have worked out that the freezer can stay shut, the furnace can cycle at 60°F rather than 70°F, and the lights can be the two rooms you are in. Real-world runtimes are usually better than the pessimistic line because people adapt; plan on the pessimistic line anyway.
Solar generator or gas generator?
Both have a place, and the honest comparison is short.
- Indoors. A battery runs inside with the windows shut. A gas generator never can; carbon monoxide from generators kills people in almost every major outage, usually in an attached garage.
- Noise. A Jackery runs near 30 decibels, quieter than a refrigerator. A portable gas generator runs at 60 to 90 decibels, which your neighbours notice at 2 a.m.
- Fuel. A battery needs none, which matters most in exactly the outage where the gas stations have no power to pump. A gas generator needs a fresh, stored, treated supply and someone to go outside in the storm to refill it.
- Starting. A battery starts at the push of a button in any temperature. Small engines are unreliable in deep cold and after months in a shed.
- Long, dark outages. This is where gas wins. A week of overcast weather will outlast any battery that is not being recharged, and a gas generator keeps going as long as the fuel does.
- Cheap 240V. A gas generator delivers whole-house 240V for far less money up front. A battery that does the same job starts around the price of the 5000 Plus.
Plenty of households keep both: the battery for the quiet, safe, overnight essentials, the gas generator for the rare long outage. If you can only have one and your must-keep list is the essentials, the battery is the better first purchase. Our solar generator vs gas generator guide goes deeper on the cost, noise, and carbon monoxide numbers behind that call.
What we’d buy for each kind of home
- Apartment or renter, no roof, no yard: the HomePower 3000. It needs no installation, and the included panels work on a balcony or in a window. Our renters’ guides cover the details.
- Suburban house, gas furnace, outages under a day: the HomePower 3000. Add the furnace blower to the load list and expect about a day per charge in winter.
- Cold climate, outages of two days or more, or a medical device: the HomePower 3600 Plus, with at least one expansion pack, and a transfer switch fitted by an electrician.
- Hot climate where losing the AC is unsafe: the 5000 Plus for central AC, or the 3600 Plus if a single window unit in one room is enough.
- Rural home on a well, or any 240V must-have: the 5000 Plus, the Anker F3800 Plus kit, or the EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra, in that order of price.
- Hurricane coast: the HomePower 3000 for a shuttered house running a fridge, fans, and a CPAP, sized up if you need a window AC. The Florida guide walks through it.
▶ See current Jackery deals before you decide
Before the first storm
Whichever unit you buy, five things make the difference between a backup that works and a box in a closet. Charge it to full and top it up every month or two; LiFePO4 batteries hold charge well but not forever. Keep it indoors, above freezing and out of the sun. Plug the fridge in once on a normal day and watch the display to see the real draw of your own appliances. Buy heavy-duty extension cords rated for the loads, because a thin cord to a fridge is a fire risk. Keep a battery-powered carbon monoxide alarm in the house anyway, because the next outage is when someone in the family borrows a gas generator.
Keep reading: Jackery HomePower 3000 vs 3600 Plus vs 5000 Plus · Solar generator vs gas generator · Backup power guides for every state · EcoFlow vs Anker vs Jackery vs Rich Solar · Cheapest 240V home backup power · Best solar generator for a well pump