The short answer: for most Florida homes, the best hurricane battery backup is a solar generator in the 3,000Wh class — our pick is the Jackery HomePower 3000 — because it runs the loads that actually matter in a Florida outage (fridge, CPAP, fans, Wi-Fi) for days, recharges from the sun mid-outage, and is safe to run indoors with the windows shut. If central AC is non-negotiable, the bigger 5000 Plus is the one to size up to; both are compared below.
Florida doesn’t get hypothetical hurricane outages — it gets them on a schedule. Hurricane Ian (2022) knocked out power to over 2.6 million customers statewide, some for a week or more in September heat. Hurricane Milton (October 2024) put more than 3.4 million Florida customers in the dark — and Orlando, a hundred-plus miles from landfall, was hit hard: the Orlando Utilities Commission alone reported roughly 88,500 customers without power at the peak, alongside 67,000 Duke Energy customers in Orange County. There is no regional grid to borrow from — FPL, Duke Energy Florida, and TECO each rebuild line by line.
If you’re still weighing the basics of panels and incentives, start with our Florida solar incentives & costs guide. If you’re in Central Florida, the Orlando hurricane backup power guide covers the inland version of this problem in detail.
When Florida actually gets hit
Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, but Florida’s risk isn’t spread evenly across it. The season ramps in mid-August, peaks statistically on September 10, and stays dangerous through October — and the state’s recent history lands squarely inside that window:
| Storm | Landfall | Florida customers without power |
|---|---|---|
| Irma | September 10, 2017 | Millions statewide, across nearly every utility |
| Ian | September 28, 2022 | 2.6 million+, some for a week or more |
| Milton | October 9, 2024 | 3.4 million+, including ~88,500 OUC customers in Orlando |
That’s the practical argument for buying early: the storms come in the back half of the season, and so does the run on the shelves. Our full Florida hurricane season timeline and prep checklist breaks down what to have finished by June, by mid-August, and in the hour after a storm gets named.
What an Ian or Milton length outage actually looked like
Restoration runs in priority order, the same order at every Florida utility. Transmission lines and substations come back first, along with the facilities a whole county depends on: hospitals, water and wastewater treatment. Then the main neighborhood circuits, which return the most customers per repair. Then, last, the individual service drop from the pole to one house.
That sequence is why two households in the same storm have completely different weeks. Inland metros such as Orlando have typically seen most customers restored in two to four days. Barrier island and hard hit coastal communities have waited a week or more, as parts of Southwest Florida did after Ian, because poles, wire and sometimes the road itself had to be rebuilt before anybody’s meter mattered.
Your own restoration time depends on where the damage landed rather than on the wind speed at landfall, and a storm that looked weaker on paper can leave your circuit out longer if it dropped a tree canopy across it. Plan for the multi-day version wherever you are.
Why your rooftop array goes dark with everyone else
Here’s the part installers tend to gloss over: a grid-tied solar system shuts itself off the moment the grid fails. It’s an anti-islanding safety rule that keeps your panels from pushing power onto lines a repair crew may be touching. So during the exact hurricane you bought solar to weather, an unbatteried rooftop array produces nothing — you sit in the dark alongside neighbors who never went solar at all. Storage is what closes that gap.
What size battery backup do you need for a Florida hurricane?
Start from the loads, not the spec sheet. These are the things Floridians actually run during a multi-day outage, and what they draw:
| Load | Typical draw | Energy per day |
|---|---|---|
| Fridge/freezer | 100–200W (cycling) | ~1,000–1,500Wh |
| CPAP (humidifier off) | 30–60W | ~300–400Wh per night |
| Two box fans | ~100W together | ~1,200Wh (12 hrs) |
| Wi-Fi router + phone charging | ~20W | ~250Wh |
| Window AC (one room) | 500–900W | ~6,000Wh (12 hrs) |
| Central AC | 3,000–5,000W + 240V start | 25,000Wh+ |
The essentials — fridge, CPAP, fans, Wi-Fi — total roughly 3,000Wh a day. That’s the number to size against, and it’s why the three Jackery tiers land where they do:
| Unit | Capacity / output | Best for in Florida | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| HomePower 3000 (our pick) | 3,072Wh · 3,600W · panels included | Fridge, CPAP, fans, Wi-Fi through a Milton-length outage; window AC with shorter runtime | Shop it → |
| HomePower 3600 Plus | 3,584Wh · 3,600W · to 21kWh | Whole-home essentials for longer, transfer-switch capable; window AC comfortably | Shop it → |
| Solar Generator 5000 Plus | 5,040Wh · 7,200W · 120V/240V · to 60kWh | The only one of the three that runs central AC | Shop it → |
All three are LiFePO4, run near 30 decibels, and vent nothing — so unlike a gas generator they’re safe inside a shuttered, boarded-up house, which is exactly where you’ll be during the storm itself.
▶ Shop Jackery backup generators — compare all three
Running the essentials in a shuttered house
Once the shutters are up and the plywood is on, a Florida house in September is a dark, still, warm box, and the load list changes shape: lighting matters more because the windows are covered, air movement matters more because nothing is opening.
| Load | Typical draw | Energy per day |
|---|---|---|
| Fridge/freezer | ~150W running (cycling) | 1,000 to 1,500Wh |
| Two fans | 60 to 120W together | 800 to 1,400Wh (12 hrs) |
| Wi-Fi router | ~10W | ~240Wh |
| LED lights (ten bulbs) | ~50W | ~300Wh (6 hrs) |
| Phones and a laptop | 20 to 60W | 150 to 300Wh |
| CPAP (humidifier off) | 30 to 60W | 300 to 500Wh per night |
| Small window AC, one room | 400 to 600W | 4,000 to 8,000Wh |
Without the air conditioner that is roughly 2,800 to 4,200Wh a day. Add a window unit in one room and the same day becomes 7,000 to 12,000Wh. Cooling is not an extra load, it is three or four times the entire rest of the house.
| Unit | Capacity | Essentials, no AC | Plus a window unit in one room |
|---|---|---|---|
| HomePower 3000 | 3,072Wh | About a day per charge | A few hours of compressor time |
| HomePower 3600 Plus | 3,584Wh, to 21kWh | A day or so, several days expanded | An evening, a real answer only expanded |
| Solar Generator 5000 Plus | 5,040Wh, to 60kWh | A day and a half or more | Most of a hot day, far longer expanded |
Every figure there is battery only. Once the sky clears, panels add 1,500 to 2,000Wh on a bright Florida day, which is the mechanism that turns a one-day battery into a multi-day one. Our best solar generators for home backup guide sets these three against the wider market.
▶ Shop the HomePower 3000, 3,072Wh with panels included use code DEAL5
Hurricane backup power in Orlando
Orlando’s lesson from Milton is worth dwelling on: the metro is about as far from open water as you can get in Florida, and it still lost power at enormous scale — roughly 88,500 OUC customers out at the peak, plus 67,000 Duke customers in Orange County, with restoration for the hardest-hit homes stretching past the weekend. Inland Central Florida trades storm surge for a different problem: hurricanes cross the peninsula and are still carrying hurricane-force gusts by the time they reach Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties, and the region’s tree canopy takes lines down block by block.
For an Orlando home, that shapes the buy two ways. First, you don’t need to size for a week off-grid the way a barrier-island home might — Milton-scale restoration in Orlando ran days, not weeks, so a 3,000Wh-class unit with solar refill covers the essentials. Second, October and September outages here are heat events: a unit that can at least carry a window AC in one closed-off bedroom (any of the three above) turns a miserable outage into a manageable one.
We’ve written the Orange, Seminole, and Osceola county version of this up separately — sizing, restoration reality, and what to buy first — in Hurricane backup power in Orlando.
How Florida utilities restore power, and why that sets your sizing
Restoration isn’t first-come, first-served. FPL, Duke Energy Florida, TECO, and municipal utilities like OUC and JEA all work the same priority order, and knowing it tells you how long you’re actually planning for:
- Transmission lines and substations — nothing else can be energized until these are back.
- Critical facilities — hospitals, 911 centers, water and wastewater treatment, shelters.
- Main distribution feeders — the circuits that restore the largest number of customers per repair.
- Neighborhood laterals — the branch lines down your street.
- Individual service drops — the wire from the pole to one house, often last.
Two consequences for a homeowner. First, citywide restoration percentages are misleading: a utility can be “90% restored” while your block is still on step four or five. Second, if the drop to your own house or your meter enclosure was damaged, you may need an electrician before the utility can reconnect you at all — which adds days no restoration map will show.
That’s the case for sizing to a multi-day outage with solar refill rather than to a single overnight. A unit that runs one day and then needs a wall outlet is the wrong tool for a storm that took the wall outlet away.
In Florida, size for the heat first
The load that defines a Florida outage isn’t lights — it’s cooling. Decide up front whether you only need to protect essentials or you want to keep air conditioning running, because that answer picks your unit.
For a fridge, Wi-Fi, phone charging, and a few lights over one to two days, the HomePower 3000 is the practical choice. At roughly 3,072Wh and 3,600W it covers the core of a home, runs near 30 decibels, is safe indoors because it vents nothing, and ships with solar panels that refill it during daylight — so it stretches across a multi-day outage instead of dying overnight.
▶ Shop the HomePower 3000 use code DEAL5
If keeping central AC on through the worst of the heat is non-negotiable, step up to the Solar Generator 5000 Plus: 5,040Wh, 7,200W, both 120V and 240V, and expandable to 60kWh — enough to carry an air conditioner plus the rest of the house.
▶ Shop the Solar Generator 5000 Plus — runs central AC
Cooling one room safely
Trying to cool a whole Florida house off a battery is how people run a unit flat by midnight. The approach that works is to give up on the house and cool one room.
Pick the smallest room you can sleep in, ideally with a single window and a door that closes. Put the window unit in that window, shut the door, and let the rest of the house be warm. A small window air conditioner draws 400 to 600W while the compressor runs and can use 4,000 to 8,000Wh over a hot day, but in one closed room it cycles far less, so the real draw sits nearer the bottom of that range.
Then be honest about which unit that needs. On the HomePower 3000 (3,072Wh) a window unit is a few hours, enough to get to sleep, and it will not also carry the fridge overnight. The HomePower 3600 Plus (3,584Wh) is an evening per charge, and a genuine multi-night answer only with expansion batteries toward its 21kWh ceiling. Only the Solar Generator 5000 Plus (5,040Wh, 7,200W, 120V and 240V) carries a window unit for most of a hot day, and only it has the output and voltage for central air conditioning, which draws 3,000 to 4,000W with a large starting surge.
▶ Shop the Solar Generator 5000 Plus, 7,200W with 240V
The gas generator problem in a Florida storm
The default plan for most Florida households is a portable gas generator, and it fails in three specific ways here.
Fuel. After Ian, stations across Southwest Florida were either out of gasoline or unable to pump it without power, for days. A generator with a five-gallon can beside it is a one-day plan in an outage that runs three.
Carbon monoxide. A portable generator has to run outdoors, well away from windows and doors — never in a garage, never on a screened porch. Every Florida hurricane season produces CO poisonings and deaths from people who broke that rule during a storm, usually because the alternative was leaving the machine out in 100 mph gusts.
Timing. You can’t refuel or restart a gas generator in the middle of the storm, which is exactly when the power goes out. A solar generator runs indoors at about 30 decibels with zero exhaust, so it works during the hurricane, not just in the cleanup.
The trade-off is honest: a gas generator has effectively unlimited runtime if you can get fuel, and it costs less upfront. In a Florida hurricane specifically, neither of those advantages survives contact with the actual event.
What to do before the next named storm
- Charge it and leave it charged. LiFePO4 holds a charge for months; top it off at the start of the season and again whenever the NHC flags a system.
- Test against your real fridge. Plug your actual refrigerator into it for an hour and watch the draw. Guessing from a spec sheet is how people find out too late.
- Find your panel spot now. Driveway, back lawn, or flat roof section — somewhere you can set panels out safely after the wind drops.
- Keep the cables together. The most common outage-day failure is a missing DC cable, not a dead battery.
- Know your loads. Decide in advance which three things stay plugged in. In the dark, with everyone stressed, “the fridge, the router, and the CPAP” is a much better plan than improvising.
Your before the season checklist
Here is the full pass to make before the season opens, in order.
- Charge it to full, and top it up monthly. Check the display on the first of the month from May onward.
- Keep it indoors and out of the sun. A closet or an interior utility room, never a hot garage or a screened porch.
- Know which outlets and which loads. Fridge, router, one lamp per room, the CPAP. Tape the list to the unit so nobody improvises in the dark.
- Buy heavy duty cords rated for the load. A short 12-gauge cord for the fridge run. Thin cords lose voltage and get warm.
- Test the fridge on it once. Plug your actual refrigerator in for an hour on a normal day and watch the real draw rather than trusting a spec sheet.
- Keep the panels accessible. Store them, and their cables, where you can carry them out to the driveway as soon as the wind drops.
- Keep a battery-powered carbon monoxide alarm. Someone in the family or next door will borrow a gas generator, and the alarm is what makes that survivable.
- Write the medical device requirements down. CPAP watts, watt-hours per night, and the support number for oxygen or dialysis, on paper, on the fridge.
Why the day you buy matters more than the model you buy
Every season runs the same script. A cone appears with the peninsula inside it, and within about a day the shelves clear: batteries, bottled water, fuel cans, and every generator in the county. Stations queue and then run dry. Shipping windows close as carriers stop delivering into the forecast area, so a unit ordered on the Tuesday of a Thursday landfall arrives after the outage it was bought for.
That timing beats any spec comparison. A 3,072Wh unit sitting charged in your hallway on the day the cone appears is worth more than a 5,040Wh unit still in a warehouse in Georgia.
The rule that follows is simple: buy in the quiet weeks, before June if you can, and keep it charged. Our Florida hurricane season timeline sets out what should be finished by June and what can wait until a storm is named.
Buy before the cone points at you
The worst time to shop for backup power is when a system is already spinning in the Gulf or off the Atlantic coast and every store in the state is sold out. After Ian, fuel and generators were scarce across Southwest Florida for days; before Milton, Orlando’s utility was telling customers to prepare for multi-day outages while shelves emptied. Set a solar generator up at the start of hurricane season and it’s charged and ready when the next storm forms. It’s worth checking the current deals before you need it.
▶ See current Jackery deals before the next named storm
Keep reading: Hurricane backup power in Orlando · Miami renters: portable solar & battery backup · When does hurricane season start in Florida? · Florida solar incentives & costs · Do Alabama homes need battery backup? · Do South Carolina homes need battery backup?