Flip the breakers you can't lose. See how long a power station, a home battery or your EV keeps them running, hour by hour, with the start-up surge checked. Free, no sign-up.
Outage hours per customer: U.S. EIA. Credit: IRS, systems placed in service after Dec. 31, 2025.
01 Grid on
02 Strike
03 Grid down
04 On battery
A normal stormy night: every house on the street has power.
Status
Grid on
House load
From grid
Battery lasts
—
Fridge, a 1/2 HP sump pump, Wi-Fi, lights and phones for 2.0 days: 1.8 kW if everything runs at once, 4.0 kW when the pump kicks in, 3.8 kWh a day.
Portable power station
2.0 days+
Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus, $1,709 plus 2 expansion batteries (sold separately). No installer needed for plug-in use.
Compare power stations →Home battery
2.0 days+
1 × Powerwall 3, about $13,473 installed. Switches over automatically.
Powerwall vs Enphase vs FranklinWH →Your EV
2.0 days+
Cybertruck Powershare keeping 20% to drive. Needs Tesla's Gateway and a certified installer.
Which EVs can power a house →Chosen on output, surge and price from makers' published specs (October 28, 2026), not tested by us. We may earn a commission at no cost to you.
Anker SOLIX
The most output in the 1 kWh class (2,000 W), so a microwave or coffee maker runs next to the fridge.
$499.99store price, October 28, 2026
Check priceJackery
The strongest starting power we list (14.4 kW): central AC and well pumps start where smaller units trip. Grows to about 30 kWh with five Battery Pack 5000 Plus; solar figure is the low-voltage input.
$3,149unit alone, without panels or extra battery, October 28, 2026
Check priceThe planner
Most calculators stop at watt-hours. Ours checks the three things that make a backup fail at 2 a.m.: continuous output, the start-up surge of your biggest motor, and 240 V for well pumps and dryers. Then it plays the outage hour by hour, with solar if you have it.
Outage data
The US average was 10 h per customer, most of it from hurricanes Beryl, Helene and Milton. In 2025 it fell to 4.4 h. See every state in 3D, download the data or embed the map.
Outage hours by stateWill it run?
Yes, if it can start the compressor. Real runtimes for 1 to 5 kWh stations, why the start-up surge matters more than capacity, and how long food stays safe.
Read →Will it run?
Will it run?
Will it run?
Will it run?
Will it run?
Home batteries
How we work
Sourced numbers
Appliance watts from DOE, ENERGY STAR, DTE Energy and Generac charts; product specs from makers' spec sheets. Every value links to its source.
Dated, flagged
Specs and prices checked October 28, 2026. Anything we could only read from a retailer carries a † until the maker confirms it.
No fake anything
No invented reviews, testers or authors. Affiliate links never change a runtime or a ranking.
An ENERGY STAR refrigerator uses about 1 kWh a day, so a 1,000 Wh power station keeps it running for roughly 20 hours once inverter losses are counted, as long as the station can handle the compressor's start-up surge. Larger stations scale linearly: 2 kWh is about 40 hours, 5 kWh about four days.
No. The IRS says the residential clean energy credit (25D) is not available for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. Some states and utilities still pay rebates or pay battery owners for grid support.
Only some can, and only with extra hardware. A Cybertruck uses Tesla's Powershare Gateway (up to 11.5 kW), an F-150 Lightning uses Ford's Home Integration System (9.6 kW) and a Kia EV9 uses the Wallbox Quasar 2. Plugging a car into an outlet to feed the house is never safe.
No. OutageWatt is independent. Some product links may earn us a commission, but every runtime and verdict comes from the same published specs and formulas, commission or not.