No state has a more complicated relationship with its power grid than Texas. Most of the state runs on its own system, managed by ERCOT and deliberately kept separate from the two big national grids, which means when Texas runs short, it can’t simply borrow power from its neighbors. Homeowners have felt the consequences twice in living memory: Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, when frozen generation triggered days of statewide blackouts, and Hurricane Beryl in July 2024, when CenterPoint customers across the Houston area lost power for over a week in brutal heat. If you’re comparing Texas solar quotes, backup is the part most installers skip, because a grid-tied rooftop system shuts off in an outage unless you also have storage.
Texas grid backup generators, compared
| Unit | Capacity / output | Best for in Texas | Retailer link |
|---|---|---|---|
| HomePower 3000 | 3,072Wh · 3,600W · panels included | Fridge, phones, and Wi-Fi for 1–2 days; apartments and smaller homes | Check the price |
| HomePower 3600 Plus | 3,584Wh · 3,600W · to 21kWh | Window AC plus the essentials through a multi-day outage; transfer-switch ready | Check the price |
| Solar Generator 5000 Plus | 5,040Wh · 7,200W · 120V/240V · to 60kWh | The only one of the three that runs central AC through a July blackout | Check the price |
Why Texas outages hit harder than most
Texas gets hit from both ends of the thermometer. A summer blackout in Houston or San Antonio isn’t an inconvenience, it’s a heat-safety problem, and ERCOT’s tight reserve margins mean conservation appeals are now a normal part of August. Winter is the opposite risk: Uri proved the grid can fail in a hard freeze, and much of Texas housing isn’t built for it. Whether you’re served by Oncor in Dallas–Fort Worth, CenterPoint in Houston, AEP Texas down south, or a co-op in the Hill Country, the fix is the same: enough stored power to ride out the gap. If you’re in the Houston metro specifically, the Houston backup power guide covers what a CenterPoint outage looks like and how to size for a July one.
How much backup a Texas home actually needs
Start with the one load that defines Texas: cooling. If you want to keep central AC running through a summer outage, you need real output. The Solar Generator 5000 Plus delivers 5,040Wh and 7,200W with 120V and 240V, and expands to 60kWh: enough to carry an air conditioner plus the rest of the house.
Solar Generator 5000 Plus specs and price at Jackery (runs central AC)
Most Texas homes that just want to stay comfortable and keep the essentials on land on the HomePower 3600 Plus: 3,584Wh, 3,600W, expandable to 21kWh, and able to tie into your circuits through a transfer switch so a window unit, fridge, and lights all keep running.
HomePower 3600 Plus specs and price at Jackery
If your goal is simply to protect the fridge, phones, and Wi-Fi through a shorter outage, the HomePower 3000 covers essentials for one to two days and ships with solar panels so it refills mid-outage: the lower-priced option for an apartment or a smaller home.
Current price of the HomePower 3000 at Jackery
Already have rooftop panels? They shut off when ERCOT does: here’s how to use off-grid solar as backup during a Texas outage, and what it takes to make an existing array keep running.
Three real Texas outages, and what each one taught
Texas has had three outages in the last five years that no one who lived through them forgets, and each one failed the grid in a different way.
Winter Storm Uri, February 2021. A hard freeze locked up gas wells, pipelines, and power plants at the same moment demand hit a record, and ERCOT ordered rolling outages that did not roll: more than 4.5 million homes and businesses were without power at the worst point, many for days, in temperatures that dropped into the single digits in parts of the state. The official Texas death toll was 246. The lesson is that a grid failure can arrive in the cold, when a home’s heat, water pumps, and even gas furnace blowers all depend on electricity.
The Houston derecho, May 2024. A line of storms with hurricane-force gusts tore through Harris County on May 16, 2024, and knocked out power to roughly a million CenterPoint customers, several days for many of them, with no named storm and only hours of warning. The lesson is that you do not need a hurricane to lose a week of power in the Houston area.
Hurricane Beryl, July 2024. Beryl made landfall on July 8, 2024 and left about 2.2 million CenterPoint customers dark at the peak; many went a week or more without power in July heat, with fuel lines and store shelves emptying out from the first day. The lesson is that the outage that hurts most in Texas is the summer one, because the thing you lose is cooling.
Three different causes, and the same shape: a lot of people out at once, and restoration measured in days rather than hours. A battery that is already in the house and already charged is the only kind of backup that does not depend on the roads, the fuel supply, or the same crews everyone else is waiting for.
What a Texas outage actually draws
Size against energy used per day, not the wattage 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 (Texas summer) | ~900 to 1,200W | ~4,000 to 6,000Wh |
| Furnace blower (Uri-style freeze) | ~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 come to about 1,900Wh a day. A window AC through the hottest hours adds 4,000Wh or more on top. That is why the honest question for a Texas buyer is not “how big is the battery” but “what am I trying to keep cool”.
How long each unit lasts in a Texas outage
Assuming about 85% of the stated capacity is usable after conversion losses, and no sun to recharge:
| Unit | Capacity | Fridge, lights, Wi-Fi, phones (~1,900Wh a day) | Fridge only (~1,200Wh a day) | One window AC (~1,000W) running nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HomePower 3000 | 3,072Wh | about 1.4 days | about 2.2 days | about 2.5 hours |
| HomePower 3600 Plus | 3,584Wh | about 1.6 days | about 2.5 days | about 3 hours |
| Solar Generator 5000 Plus | 5,040Wh | about 2.3 days | about 3.5 days | about 4 hours |
Nonstop is the worst case. A window AC cycles on and off, so it is realistic to run one for the hottest six to eight hours of a day and still keep the essentials on, and solar panels refilling the battery through the day stretch all of these numbers. Central AC is out of reach for the two smaller units on battery alone, which is why the 5000 Plus, with 7,200W and 240V output, is the one we point Texans with central air toward. The specifications for all three are on the HomePower 3000 review and the 3000 vs 3600 Plus vs 5000 Plus comparison.
Solar generator or gas generator for ERCOT outages
| Solar generator | Gas or portable generator | |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | None; recharges from panels or the wall | Gasoline or propane, scarce after Uri and Beryl |
| Indoors or in a garage | Yes, no exhaust | Never; carbon monoxide kills people in every Texas outage |
| Noise | Near silent (around 30 dB) | Loud enough that neighbours notice at night |
| Ready when the power fails | Already charged | Needs fuel, a start, and someone outside |
| Long outage | Refills from sun each day | Runs dry when the fuel does |
| Upfront cost | Higher | Lower |
Gas is cheaper on day one, and for a very long outage with fuel in hand it can move more power. But carbon monoxide poisoning has followed every large Texas outage, in cold and in heat, and a battery removes that risk completely. The full comparison is in solar generator vs gas generator.
A short Texas set-up checklist
- Decide what you must keep cold or cool. Fridge and medications first, then one room’s cooling.
- Pick the unit from the runtime table above. If central AC has to keep running, that means the 5000 Plus.
- Keep it charged. A battery sitting at 20% helps no one; top it up before storm season and before any forecast heat wave.
- Get panels or plan to recharge. Sun is the one thing Texas has plenty of, and it is what turns a two-day battery into a week.
- Ask an electrician about a transfer switch if you want it to power hard-wired circuits rather than extension cords.
- Store it somewhere cool and dry, not in an attic or a car; heat shortens the life of any battery.
Already have rooftop panels? They shut off when ERCOT does, which is covered in how to use off-grid solar as backup during a Texas outage.
The problem with the Texas gas-generator rush
After both Uri and Beryl, Texans emptied store shelves of gas generators, then couldn’t find fuel to run them. A solar generator avoids that scramble: there is nothing to store or spill and no exhaust, so it can run indoors during a storm. Jackery’s units are LiFePO4 and run near 30 decibels, so one can be stored in a closet or garage between outages, as long as it is kept charged.
Jackery backup generator lineup and prices at Jackery
Keep reading: Houston backup power for the next CenterPoint outage · Can off-grid solar back up your Texas home in an outage? · Texas solar incentives & costs · Solar battery backup vs rooftop solar (California) · Best solar generators for home backup (Oklahoma)