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Ask anyone in New Hampshire about losing power and the conversation comes back to December 2008. A slow band of freezing rain glazed the whole state, and the weight of the ice pulled down trees and lines until roughly 400,000 homes went dark — some of them, out in the smaller towns, for a week or more with temperatures well below freezing. It remains the storm the state’s utilities size their crews and their planning against. If you’re comparing New Hampshire solar quotes, the detail installers rarely mention is that a grid-tied rooftop system shuts off in an outage like that unless you also own storage.
Why an ice storm is the worst case here
New Hampshire is served by Eversource, Unitil, and the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, and the hazard that defines the state isn’t wind so much as ice. Freezing rain loads branches until they snap onto lines, and the same weather that causes the outage makes the roads too dangerous for crews to move quickly — which is why 2008’s restoration stretched out so long around Manchester, Nashua, Concord, and the rural co-op territory. Add that a grid-tied solar array shuts down the moment the line drops, and a house with panels on the roof is no better off in an ice storm than one without.
Sizing backup for a cold-weather outage
The goal isn’t the whole house, it’s staying warm and fed. A refrigerator runs about 150W, the electric blower on a gas or oil furnace roughly 100 to 300W, ten LED bulbs near 50W, plus a router and phone charging — most homes land under 500W of steady draw to keep heat, food, and light going. A HomePower 3000 carries that for one to two days and ships with solar panels that recharge it on the clear, cold days that usually follow an ice storm.
▶ See the HomePower 3000 solar generator use code DEAL5
For a farmhouse on a well
Rural New Hampshire homes lose their water when the power goes, because the well pump stops. A Solar Generator 5000 Plus delivers 5,040Wh and 7,200W with both 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 a long winter outage.
▶ View the Solar Generator 5000 Plus
Have it ready before the freezing rain
Ice storms arrive with little warning, and the stores sell out of backup power the moment the forecast turns. Get a unit charged and tested in the fall, keep the panels handy, and you won’t be scrambling when the lines come down. Check the current deals before you buy.
Keep reading: New Hampshire solar incentives & costs · Keep power on in a Vermont outage · Keep power on in a Maine outage