Whole-Home Backup Power in Central Texas
Central Texas keeps relearning the same lesson: the grid has bad days. The fix is a backup system — but “backup” is three different machines with three different personalities, and the right one depends on your loads, your fuel situation, and what an outage actually costs your household. This page is the comparison we walk customers through in person.
The backup question, unanswered for years?
Three paths, side by side.
| Battery | Standby generator | Battery + generator | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switchover | Instant — you may not notice | ~10–30 seconds, automatic | Instant; generator backs the battery |
| Runtime | Finite per charge; indefinite when paired with solar | As long as fuel flows | Longest practical runtime |
| Noise | Silent | Engine noise while running | Silent until the generator runs |
| Fuel | None — grid/solar charged | Natural gas or propane | Both characteristics |
| Solar pairing | Recharges daily in an outage | Doesn’t use solar | Solar + storage + fuel — full stack |
| Upkeep | Minimal — firmware, health checks | Annual service + weekly self-test | Both |
| Best fit | Short-to-medium outages, solar owners, noise-sensitive | Multi-day outages, high loads, no solar | Critical needs, medical, long-duration risk |
How we actually decide.
Every backup recommendation starts the same way: the load list. What must stay on, for how long, starting from your real usage data — not a worksheet average. From there the math mostly decides for you: a solar-paired battery covers most Central Texas outages silently; a generator wins when runtime is measured in days or the loads are heavy; the hybrid is for households where power is genuinely non-negotiable.
Sometimes the honest answer is smaller and cheaper than what you came in expecting. We show the math either way — and both machines are our trade, so we have no horse in the race: Enphase, FranklinWH, and SPAN certified on the battery side, Generac-certified on the standby side, all installed under TECL #35881.
From load list to lights-on.
The rest of the homework.
Backup power, answered.
Will my solar keep the house on during an outage?
Not by itself — grid-tied solar shuts down in an outage by design (it protects line workers). Add a battery and the system islands: solar keeps producing, the battery keeps you running, and it recharges every day the sun comes up.
Which is cheaper, a battery or a generator?
It depends on the loads and runtime you need — and honestly, on gas availability at your address. We price both paths in the same visit so the comparison is real, not hypothetical.
How long will a battery last in an outage?
A right-sized essentials design typically runs a day or more per charge; paired with solar it can run indefinitely for modest loads. The real answer comes from your load list, and we model it before you spend anything.
How long will a generator run?
On natural gas, as long as the utility supplies it. On propane, until the tank runs down — sizing the tank is part of the design.
Can I start with one and add the other later?
Yes — we design for it. A battery install can leave a clean interconnection path for a generator later, and vice versa.
Do you install both, or partner one out?
Both are in-house, under the same license and warranty. That’s exactly why the recommendation can be honest.
See it in practice: a downtown Austin home running on solar, battery, generator, and SPAN smart panels.
Battery questions? Tesla Powerwall vs FranklinWH vs Enphase, in plain English — read the comparison.