Missouri sits on a weather fault line, the place where cold air sliding down from the north collides with Gulf moisture coming up from the south. The result is ice in winter and violent wind and tornadoes the rest of the year. Ameren Missouri serves St. Louis and much of the east and south of the state, Evergy serves Kansas City, and a patchwork of co-ops covers the rest, but when the lines come down the wait for repairs is the same everywhere. If you’re already comparing Missouri solar quotes, here’s the part most installers skip: a grid-tied rooftop system shuts off during a blackout, an anti-islanding safety feature, unless you also have storage. For most Missouri homes, the pick that covers both a summer and a winter outage is the Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus, and the rest of this guide explains why and when to choose a different size.
Three real Missouri outages
The one St. Louis still measures others against is the windstorm of 19 July 2006. Winds above 90 mph tore through the metro area, and at least 476,000 AmerenUE customers lost power, with some counts running higher once outside the utility’s own area was included. Ameren called it the worst storm in its history. About 400,000 customers were still dark at 4pm the next day, and more than 217,000 were still without power on Monday 24 July, five days after the storm, in the middle of a Missouri July. More than 1,800 contractors and employees from eight states worked the repairs.
The ice storm came next. Between 8 and 12 December 2007, ice hit Missouri over four days, and utilities reported more than 170,000 customers without power, some for days. About 96,900 of them were AmerenUE customers, mostly in regional areas like the Springfield region rather than metro St. Louis. Empire District Electric reported about 65,000 customers affected, and Aquila’s northern region around St. Joseph lost power for roughly 62,000 customers. Because the damage was spread over a huge area, and road conditions made it hard for crews to even reach the damage, restoration took far longer than the headline numbers suggest.
The most recent is the St. Louis tornado of 16 May 2025. Nearly 200,000 Ameren Missouri customers lost power, with about 105,000 out at the worst point on the Friday after the storm. By 6:30pm on Saturday 17 May about 60,000 were still dark, around 35,000 on the evening of the 18th, about 8,000 on the afternoon of the 22nd, and 4,400 on the morning of the 23rd. Ameren expected nearly everyone back by the end of Sunday 25 May, nine days after the storm.
Three events, three causes (wind, ice, tornado), and the same lesson: when the grid goes down in Missouri, the restoration clock is measured in days, not hours.
Start with your biggest load
Everything in Missouri backup planning flows from one question: are you trying to keep central air running, or just the essentials? A summer outage in Kansas City or St. Louis is a heat-safety problem, and central AC is a heavy load. A winter outage is different: a gas furnace needs only its blower and controls, which is a much smaller load. Size against energy used per day, not the wattage printed on the box. These are typical figures; check the label on your own appliances.
| Load | Typical draw | Energy per day |
|---|---|---|
| Fridge/freezer | ~150W running (cycling) | ~1,200Wh |
| Wi-Fi router | ~10W | ~240Wh |
| LED lights (ten bulbs) | ~50W | ~300Wh (6 hrs) |
| Phone and laptop charging | ~20 to 60W | ~150 to 250Wh |
| Window AC (summer storm) | ~900 to 1,200W while running | ~4,000 to 6,000Wh |
| Furnace blower (winter ice storm) | ~300 to 600W | ~1,500 to 3,000Wh |
| Central AC or well pump (240V) | ~2,000 to 3,500W | ~8,000 to 14,000Wh |
Fridge, lights, Wi-Fi, and phones add up to roughly 1,900 to 2,000Wh a day. Here is how long each unit lasts on its stored charge alone, before any sun comes back, allowing for about 15% lost in conversion.
| Unit | Stored energy | Essentials only (~1,950Wh/day) | Fridge alone | A window AC cycling (~700W average) | Furnace blower (~400W) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HomePower 3000 | 3,072Wh | about 1.3 days | about 2 days | about 3.5 hours | about 6.5 hours |
| HomePower 3600 Plus | 3,584Wh | about 1.6 days | about 2.5 days | about 4.5 hours | about 7.5 hours |
| Solar Generator 5000 Plus | 5,040Wh | about 2.2 days | about 3.5 days | about 6 hours | about 10.5 hours |
The takeaway: a battery alone carries the fridge and lights for a couple of days, and a furnace blower for a night, but anything that cools a room drains it in hours. That is why the panels matter. A few hundred watts of sun refilling the battery each afternoon turns a one-day supply into a week, which is the length of the outages above.
The unit for central air
If you want central air to keep running through a summer outage, only the Solar Generator 5000 Plus has the output for it: 5,040Wh of capacity and 7,200W with both 120V and 240V, expandable to 60kWh. That is enough to start a central system or a 240V well pump and carry several rooms at once.
Solar Generator 5000 Plus specs and price at Jackery (7,200W, 120V/240V)
The right fit for most Missouri homes
Most households don’t need to run central air off a battery: they need heat, food, and one comfortable room. The HomePower 3600 Plus is the middle option: 3,584Wh and 3,600W, expandable to 21kWh, and able to tie into your circuits through a transfer switch. It comfortably handles a window AC, a furnace blower, and your essentials, which covers both the summer and winter versions of a Missouri outage. See the HomePower 3600 Plus specs and price at Jackery.
Essentials only, on a budget
If your goal is simply to protect the fridge, Wi-Fi, and lights through an outage, the HomePower 3000 is the lower-priced option (3,072Wh and 3,600W) and its bundle includes solar panels so it recharges even while the grid is down. It won’t run central AC, but for one to two days of the core loads that matter most, it covers the need. Check the current price of the HomePower 3000 (panels included).
| Unit | Capacity / output | Best for in Missouri |
|---|---|---|
| HomePower 3000 | 3,072Wh, 3,600W, panels included | Fridge, Wi-Fi, lights and a phone charger for one to two days |
| HomePower 3600 Plus | 3,584Wh, 3,600W, expandable to 21kWh | A window AC plus essentials in a summer storm, or a furnace blower through an ice storm |
| Solar Generator 5000 Plus | 5,040Wh, 7,200W, 120V/240V, expandable to 60kWh | Central AC on 240V, a well pump, or a larger home |
Solar versus a gas generator
After ice storms and wind events like these, Missourians buy up gas generators, and then find that fuel stations are dark too and the roads are sheets of ice or blocked with trees. Compared side by side:
- Indoor safety and carbon monoxide. A battery station vents nothing and can run in a garage or a closed room. A gas generator has to run outdoors, well away from windows.
- Noise. About 30 decibels versus 60 to 90.
- Fuel. The battery is charged before the event and refills from the sun after. A gas unit is only as good as the fuel you can find.
- Maintenance. Oil, carburetor, and test runs for gas. A monthly top-up for the battery.
- What gas still does better. A very long outage with no sun, and whole-house 240V at a lower upfront cost.
Compare all Jackery backup options.
Set-up checklist before storm season
- Charge to full and top up monthly. Do it again whenever a severe storm or ice warning is in the forecast.
- Keep it indoors in a closet or utility room, away from extreme heat or cold.
- Write down which loads go on it. Fridge, router, one lamp per room, a window AC in summer or the furnace blower in winter. Tape the list to the unit.
- Buy extension cords rated for the load. A short 12-gauge cord for the fridge and AC runs.
- Test your list on the battery once so the first time is not during an outage.
- Keep the panels accessible for daylight recharging, even in winter.
- Pair the HomePower 3600 Plus with a transfer switch for hardwired circuits. Licensed electrician only.
- Pick your safe room now. The smallest interior room with a door that closes is the cheapest to keep warm or cool.
- Keep a battery-powered CO alarm regardless. A neighbor’s gas generator can still put CO in your house.
If you are not sure which size fits, list what must stay on, add up the wattage, and match it to a unit with room to spare.
Keep reading: Missouri solar incentives & costs · How to keep power during an Iowa outage · Best solar generators for home backup (Kansas)