Maine sees some of the longest outages in the country, and the benchmark is still the Great Ice Storm of January 1998, when days of freezing rain collapsed the grid across northern New England and left parts of the state without power for weeks in the dead of winter. It wasn’t a fluke: in October 2017 a single windstorm caused the largest outage Central Maine Power had ever recorded, knocking out hundreds of thousands of homes. In a state this rural and this wooded, a multi-day outage is a normal cost of living here. If you’re comparing Maine solar quotes, know that a grid-tied rooftop system shuts off in one of these outages unless you also have storage.
Why restoration takes so long in Maine
Central Maine Power and Versant Power serve homes spread thin along miles of tree-lined roads, so when ice or wind brings down limbs, the damage is scattered across an enormous area and crews work through it circuit by circuit. A house at the end of a dirt road in Aroostook or down east can be among the last reconnected. And a grid-tied solar array is no help while you wait — the anti-islanding safety feature shuts it off the moment the utility line goes dead. What carries you through is stored power you own.
The outages Maine actually gets
Maine sits inside the ISO New England grid and consistently records among the highest outage minutes per customer in the country. The reason is structural rather than operational: long distribution lines running through dense forest, serving a rural, spread-out population. A wind or ice event brings trees onto wires across a wide area rather than knocking out one feeder.
The January 1998 ice storm. Freezing rain left parts of Maine without power for well over a week in the middle of winter. It remains the event every plan here is built around.
The October 2017 windstorm. The largest outage event in Central Maine Power’s history, with hundreds of thousands of customers affected and rural restoration running for days after the wind dropped.
December 2022 and December 2023. Two more storms, two more multi-day rural restorations. That is the point: this is not a once-a-generation event in Maine.
Two Maine problems you plan for separately. A home on a well loses water as well as light, so no pump means no taps. Many Maine homes also heat with oil, where the fuel in the tank needs no electricity but the burner and the circulator do. Both are loads you can cover, but only if you size for them. Central Maine Power and Versant Power restore substations and the largest circuits first, then work outward along the wooded branches, so a house at the end of a dirt road is last by design. Our New Hampshire guide and Vermont guide cover the same pattern across the border.
Covering the essentials in a cold outage
The aim is to keep heat, food, and contact going, not the whole house. A refrigerator draws about 150W, a furnace or boiler circulator around 100 to 200W, ten LED bulbs near 50W, plus a router and phones — typically under 500W of steady draw. A HomePower 3000 runs that for one to two days and includes solar panels that recharge it on the clear days that follow most Maine storms, so it can stretch across a longer outage instead of quitting the first night.
▶ Shop the HomePower 3000 — panels included use code DEAL5
How long each Jackery runs a Maine home’s essentials
Size against watt-hours per day, not the wattage on the label.
| Load | Typical draw | Energy per day |
|---|---|---|
| Fridge | ~150W running (cycling) | 1,000 to 1,500Wh |
| Chest freezer | cycling compressor | 600 to 900Wh |
| Oil or gas burner, ignition and circulator | 400 to 600W while running | 3,000 to 5,000Wh in deep cold |
| Well pump (240V) | ~1,000W running, 2 to 3x to start | Depends on household use |
| Wi-Fi router | ~10W | ~240Wh |
| LED lights (ten bulbs) | ~50W | ~300Wh (6 hrs) |
| Phones and a laptop | 20 to 60W | 150 to 300Wh |
| CPAP | 30 to 60W | 300 to 500Wh per night |
| Space heater | 1,500W | Not recommended |
The last row deserves a plain answer: a 1,500W space heater drains a 3,000Wh battery in about two hours, so it is the wrong plan. Run the burner and circulator instead, which heat the whole house for a fraction of that energy, and keep the rest for the fridge, the well, and the phones.
A mild-weather day lands near 2,000Wh. A January day with the heat running lands nearer 5,000 to 6,000Wh.
HomePower 3000. 3,072Wh and 3,600W covers fridge, freezer, lights, router, and phones for one to two days per charge, and closer to a day once the burner and circulator are on it. A bright day puts 1,500 to 2,000Wh back through the included panels, a grey winter day only a few hundred, so plan a January outage on the battery alone. It is 120V only and not expandable, so no well pump.
HomePower 3600 Plus. 3,584Wh, 3,600W, expandable to 21kWh, and transfer-switch ready. That expansion turns a 5,000Wh heating day into three days or more with no useful sun, which is what a 1998-scale outage actually asks for.
Solar Generator 5000 Plus. 5,040Wh, 7,200W, 120V and 240V, expandable to 60kWh. The only one of the three that runs a 240V well pump, so it is the unit for the Maine house where the outage also cuts off the water.
| Unit | Capacity / output | Best for in Maine | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| HomePower 3000 (our pick) | 3,072Wh · 3,600W · panels included | Essentials for 1 to 2 days; oil burner for about a day | Check price → |
| HomePower 3600 Plus | 3,584Wh · 3,600W · to 21kWh | A week-long ice-storm outage with the heat on a transfer switch | Check price → |
| Solar Generator 5000 Plus | 5,040Wh · 7,200W · 120V/240V · to 60kWh | A 240V well pump, so the taps keep working | Check price → |
▶ Shop the HomePower 3600 Plus — expandable to 21kWh
To work the numbers for your own house, our guide to sizing a solar generator for home backup goes load by load.
For a full house and a well
Many Maine homes are on a well, which means no power, no water. The Solar Generator 5000 Plus delivers 5,040Wh and 7,200W with 120V and 240V and expands to 60kWh — enough to run a 240V well pump, a full heating system, and the rest of a larger home through the kind of week-long outage 1998 became famous for.
▶ Shop the Solar Generator 5000 Plus — 7,200W, 120V/240V
Solar generator vs gas generator in a Maine winter
- Carbon monoxide and indoor safety. A battery produces zero exhaust and runs in a closet or basement with the house shut against the cold. A gas generator can never run indoors or in an attached garage, so it sits out in the freezing rain and someone has to go to it to refuel.
- Noise. About 30 dB, against an engine running all night beside a closed-up house.
- Fuel in a storm. The battery is full beforehand and refills from the sun after. Gasoline has to be stored fresh, and in a week-long outage the stations that still have power run dry while the roads stay iced.
- Cold starting. Push a button at 10 below, or fight a pull cord and cold oil in sleet.
- Maintenance. Oil, carburetor, and monthly test runs, against a monthly charge check.
- Running cost. Sun costs nothing. A week of gasoline is real money.
- What a gas generator still does better. A very long outage with no sun, and cheap whole-house 240V up front, well pump included. For a remote house that expects both, pair a gas generator outdoors with a battery indoors for the quiet overnight loads. Our best solar generators for home backup guide sets the options side by side.
Set-up checklist before the first storm
- Charge to full now, then top up monthly, October through April.
- Keep it indoors and above freezing. A closet, hallway, or heated basement, never an unheated barn or garage.
- List the loads it will carry. Burner and circulator, fridge, freezer, router, one lamp per floor, CPAP. Tape the list to the unit.
- Buy heavy-gauge extension cords for the fridge and the heating runs. Thin cords lose voltage and get warm.
- Test the heat on the battery in October. An oil burner is usually hardwired, so have an electrician add a plug-in connection first.
- Fill jugs of water before a forecast storm if you are on a well, and size the 240V pump separately.
- Use a licensed electrician for a transfer switch, and never backfeed a wall outlet.
- Keep a battery-powered CO alarm regardless. A burner, a wood stove, or a neighbor’s generator can still put carbon monoxide in the house.
▶ Get the HomePower 3000 charged before the first ice storm use code DEAL5
Ready before the first freezing rain
The state’s longest outages arrive with the least warning, and backup power vanishes from store shelves the day a storm is forecast. Charge a unit in the fall, learn its runtime, and keep the panels close. Have a look at the current deals before you decide.
Keep reading: Maine solar incentives & costs · Keep power on in a New Hampshire outage · Keep power on in a Vermont outage · Can a solar generator run a furnace? · Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus review