THE SHORT ANSWER
Decide what matters most during an outage before choosing equipment. Share your critical loads, household needs, and expected outage duration with a qualified installer.
Choose the everyday essentials
Walk through your home and list the equipment you want to use when grid power is unavailable. Refrigeration, lighting, connectivity, well equipment, and cooling can lead to different system designs. Identify which loads are essential and which you could leave off. If a household member relies on powered medical equipment, follow the equipment provider’s backup guidance and discuss those needs explicitly.
Describe the outage you want to prepare for
A short interruption and an extended outage are different planning problems. Ask the installer to explain what the proposed system can support in each scenario. For storage, discuss usable capacity and the circumstances in which recharging is possible. For a generator, discuss the planned fuel supply and service requirements. Neither nameplate capacity nor a broad “whole-home” label answers every runtime question.
Review the installation as a whole
Ask which circuits are included, what transfer equipment is proposed, and where equipment will be located. The project team should review site conditions and applicable requirements. Keep the scope clear about electrical work, any fuel work, permits, and commissioning. Do not assume adding a battery to existing solar automatically provides backup; compatibility and the system configuration need review.
Practice the handoff
Ask for a homeowner walkthrough that covers normal status, how to recognize an alert, and the support contact for problems. Follow the manufacturer’s operating guidance. Keep operating instructions and support numbers accessible when internet service is unavailable. A backup system is more useful when the household understands its limits before an outage begins.
Questions for your project
- Make an essential-load list.
- Record large appliance and motor equipment details.
- Ask which loads can run at the same time.
- Keep operating instructions and service contacts accessible.
Make it specific to your home.
Try an appliance backup scenario →
Share your backup priorities with Origin to discuss an equipment and installation scope.