Generator, or battery + solar?
Uses the appliances you set up in the House calculator. The generator and battery calculators each answer “how big.” This page answers “which one” — priced out side by side for the same load.
Your appliances
11 of 11 count for a generator; 7 of 11 count for battery+solar.
A generator can power anything you select. Battery+solar can't — 4 selected items (pumps, big motors, heavy resistive loads) are sized out of that path regardless of tier.
How long without power?
Sizes the battery below — a generator just needs fuel, not a fixed capacity.
Generator
- Fit
- Comfortable (≤80% load)
- Noise
- 74 dBA
- Fuel
- Dual fuel (gas + propane)
- Tank
- 6.1 gal
- Runtime
- up to ~8 h on gasoline at 50% load
Runs as long as you can keep it fueled — refuel and go, day or night, rain or shine.
Battery + Solar
Nothing in our catalog comfortably covers 41.52 kWh at 1,730 W continuous yet — see the battery calculator.
Assumptions you can edit
Neither is a strictly better answer.A generator costs less upfront in most cases, covers everything in the house including pumps and central AC, and refuels in minutes — but it's loud, needs a fuel supply that can run out in a long regional outage, and needs to be run outdoors, away from windows, every time.
Battery+solar is silent, safe indoors, and free to run once bought — but it costs more upfront for the same coverage, can't start big motors, and is capped by what's stored plus what the array produces that day. Many households in outage-prone areas end up with both: battery+solar for routine, quiet backup, and a generator in reserve for the outages that run long.
How this comparison works
Each side reuses the exact same recommendation logic as the standalone generator, battery, and solar calculators — the smallest generator that covers your running and peak watts, the smallest battery station that covers your watts and the watt-hours for your chosen backup duration, and a solar array sized to your daily energy use. Nothing here uses a different formula than those pages; it just puts the two outcomes next to each other with prices attached.
Why the appliance counts differ:a generator can start and run almost anything given enough rated wattage — pumps, well motors, central AC. A battery station's inverter can't, regardless of its capacity, so the battery+solar side only counts appliances flagged battery-suitable, same as the standalone battery and solar pages.
The two “ongoing cost” numbers aren't directly comparablethe way the upfront prices are — one is “cost to fill a tank once” and the other is “worst-case cost to recharge once from a wall outlet.” Neither predicts your total outage cost; they exist to make the fuel-vs-free framing concrete instead of abstract.
Frequently asked questions
Should I get a generator or a battery + solar setup?
It depends on what you value more: a generator costs less upfront for the same wattage, covers everything including pumps and central AC, and refuels in minutes any time — but it's loud, needs a fuel supply, and has to run outdoors. Battery + solar is silent, safe indoors, and free to run once bought, but costs more upfront for the same coverage, can't start big motors, and is capped by stored charge plus whatever the array produces that day. This page prices both out for your actual House selection so it's not an abstract question.
Why does the generator column include more appliances than the battery+solar column?
A generator can start and run almost anything with a big enough rating, including pumps, well motors, and central AC. A portable battery station's inverter can't handle those same motor loads regardless of capacity, so the battery+solar side only counts what's realistic to run off one — the same rule the standalone battery and solar calculators use.
Is the solar array size on this page accurate for my location?
It's a conservative default (4 peak sun hours/day), not your real location — this page is for comparing the two approaches, not final shopping specs. Use the solar calculator directly to plug in your country (and, for the US, your state) for a real figure.
What's the 'ongoing cost' actually measuring?
For the generator, it's the cost to fill its fuel tank once, at the gas price you set — not a per-hour or total-outage cost, since real fuel consumption depends on load and isn't published uniformly across models. For battery+solar, it's the cost to fully recharge the battery from a wall outlet at the electricity rate you set — the worst case, since sunny-day recharging is free. Both numbers are meant to compare the two approaches, not predict your actual outage costs to the dollar.