ERCOT outage prep checklist.

Six things to do BEFORE hurricane season (June 1 onwards in Texas):

1. Sign up for outage SMS alerts from Oncor (or your TDU) and your retail provider.
2. Charge phones, power banks, laptops to 100 percent when a storm is forecast.
3. Stock 1 gallon of water per person per day for 5 days minimum. Beryl outages lasted 5-10 days in 2024.
4. Check your generator if you have one — fuel, oil, test-run it. Don't wait until the storm warning.
5. Identify your medical-priority equipment (CPAP, insulin fridge, oxygen) and know its backup runtime requirements.
6. Identify a backup location — a relative or friend with battery / generator — if you don't have backup yourself.

Five priorities:

1. Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed. A full freezer holds temp 24-48 hours; fridge about 4 hours. Every door open shaves time.
2. Turn off and unplug major appliances to prevent damage from voltage surges when power restores. Especially HVAC, fridge, washer/dryer, computers.
3. Use phones for outage updates only. Conserve battery for emergencies. Cell towers may be on backup themselves.
4. Never run a generator inside a garage or near windows. Carbon monoxide is the #1 post-storm killer in Texas. CDC stats from Beryl: dozens of CO poisoning deaths and hundreds of ER visits.
5. Check on neighbors, especially elderly or those with medical needs. If anyone has solar + battery, they may be a charging hub for the block.

Varies by event:

ERCOT-wide rolling outages (rare, mostly winter): 15-45 minutes per cycle, repeated over several hours or days.
Local outages from severe weather (more common): a few hours for routine equipment failure; 1-3 days for thunderstorms with downed lines; 5-10 days for major hurricanes.
Hurricane Beryl 2024: 2.7 million Texas customers affected, restoration took 5-10 days in Houston.
Winter Storm Uri 2021: extreme outlier — 4 million customers without power for 2-4 days during sub-freezing temperatures.

Uri was an extreme winter event: panels were covered in ice and snow for several days, so solar production was minimal until the snow melted. Homes with batteries still had backup runtime from stored capacity (typically 1-2 days for essential loads). Once panels cleared, recharging resumed. The lesson: in a multi-day winter event with snow/ice, battery capacity matters more than panel size. Modern Texas installs are sized with that in mind. Uri exposed major grid vulnerabilities; some grid hardening has happened since, but multi-day winter outage risk remains real.

Beryl hit Texas as a Category 1 hurricane in July 2024, knocking out power for ~2.7 million customers, mostly Houston metro. Restoration took 5-10 days for the worst-affected. Homes with solar + battery generally kept refrigerators, internet, and essential lights running throughout because the panels recharged the battery each sunny post-storm day. Bloomberg, Houston Chronicle, and local TV all covered solar + battery homes operating normally while the rest of the neighborhood went dark. Beryl measurably increased Texas homeowner interest in residential battery storage.

GENERATOR pros: lower upfront cost (1,000-5,000 dollars portable, 8,000-15,000 installed for whole-home natural gas), unlimited runtime as long as fuel is available.

GENERATOR cons: noise, fuel storage, carbon monoxide risk, gasoline shortages during multi-day events, manual fuel runs, ongoing maintenance.

SOLAR + BATTERY pros: silent, no fuel runs, recharges from sun daily, lowers your bill 365 days a year (not just during outages), zero CO risk, no manual operation.

SOLAR + BATTERY cons: depends on model — buying solar is 20-50k upfront; the no-upfront-cost utility swap model removes the upfront barrier.

Common best answer for Texas: solar + battery as primary (handles 95 percent of outages and lowers daily bill), small portable generator as deep-event backup (handles the rare week-plus winter outage when panels are snowed over). Both is ideal.

Solar PANELS alone do NOT power your home during an outage. Standard grid-tied inverters are required by code (IEEE 1547, UL 1741) to shut down when the grid goes down — this protects line workers from being electrocuted by power flowing back into the grid from your roof.

To keep your home running during an outage, you need solar + BATTERY plus an islanding-capable inverter (sometimes called a "backup gateway"). With that combination, the system disconnects from the grid during an outage and runs the home from solar + battery. Gridhack's utility swap configuration includes battery storage as standard for exactly this reason.