Backup Power: Generators and Batteries for Your Home

Storm season and grid outages make backup power appealing, especially if you work from home, rely on medical equipment, or just want to keep the fridge running. There are a few ways to do it.

The options

• Portable generators are the cheapest option, but they must be run outdoors and connected safely, never plugged straight into a wall socket.
• Standby generators start automatically through a changeover switch and can power the whole home, at a higher cost.
• Solar batteries can keep essential circuits running silently during a blackout, with no fuel and no noise.
• Hybrid solar inverters are set up to provide backup from a battery when the grid goes down.

The safety piece: changeover switches

The single most important part of any generator setup is a proper changeover switch. It isolates your home from the grid so your generator can never feed power back into the network, which could seriously injure a lineworker. Backfeeding through a socket is dangerous and illegal.

Getting it right

We can advise on the best backup option for your needs and budget, size it to the circuits you want to keep running, and install the changeover gear safely and to standard.

Talk to a licensed local electrician

DHG Electrical Services is a locally owned electrical business serving Moreton Bay and Brisbane. We hold Electrical Contractor Licence 90356, are members of Master Electricians Australia, and back every new install with our lifetime workmanship guarantee. For a free, no-pressure quote, call us on (07) 3205 1752 or request a quote online.

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