Analysis: Some important points to consider about your electrical backup options, including generators, electric cars and solar panels.
If you live in rural Ireland, you know from Storm Éowyn that you could lose power in the next big storm. What steps can you take now, before that storm hits, to stay powered up? How can you prepare to heat your home and cook your food? Here are some important points about your electrical backup, with generator options from petrol to your electric vehicle to your solar electric system, and your heating and cooking backup with gas.
Add a changeover switch to your home
The simplest starting step is to have your electrician add a changeover switch to your house. Your electrician then installs a special socket on the outside of your house into which you can plug a generator. You simply flick the changeover switch, thus disconnecting the electric power coming from the ESB, and enabling the house to run on an external electric generator. It is the safest way to operate with backup power. It also enables the ESB to work safely on fixing the grid without having to worry about getting shocked by your generator.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's News at One, Storm Éowyn broke wind speed records at four weather stations
Sort out your backup power
This can be a petrol or diesel generator or an electric car with V2L and more commonly solar power with battery backup. The petrol or diesel generator is a traditional solution and is no more complicated than starting and running a lawn mower. With all these solutions, you won't have full power, but you will have enough power to provide basic functionality in your home - and you can even happily charge your electric car.
Solar PV electric can now be used for backup power
To the frustration of many solar PV owners, their houses were not wired to provide solar backup when ESB power was lost. The related electrical rules were disputed and some houses had the backup while many didn't, depending on how the installing electrician interpreted the rules and the costs and ease of installation. A revised set of regulations was released in late 2024 which clarifies the electrical rules for the installation of solar backup. It is now easier to use solar and batteries to provide electrical backup. That said, older installation are not necessarily easily modified to meet the new regulations.
Many new installations are designed to have automatic detection of an electrical outage and the automatic backup by a large bank of solar batteries. That really makes life simpler. However, in the middle of winter with limited sunlight, the electricity may have to be used very sparingly.
Electric vehicle owners have been using their cars as a power source in their homes during power cuts caused by Storm Éowynhttps://t.co/xzWWNLGyfi
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 27, 2025
If you have an older battery system, you are likely to be able to discharge the battery to provide backup power. While the older home-solar battery is typically far smaller than the battery of an EV, it can provide a precious backup for electricity when you need it. It can likely provide power for hours, or days if used sparingly or if you have a large battery. A related big problem with the home-solar or EV battery is that your solar battery has not been charged due to bad overcast weather when the power goes out. If you know a storm is coming, then you must charge your battery to be ready for the storm so that you can use the stored energy for backup.
The petrol generator
A petrol generator is best for home backup while a diesel generator is likely best for business or larger facilities. The petrol generator tends to be quieter, less polluting, and lower maintenance than its diesel sibling. The diesel generator requires more maintenance and cleaning as the filters can block. The petrol generator is more expensive to fuel than the diesel generator. The generator can have an electronic start, but it should also have the option of a pull start, just like a lawn mower, because the battery in the generator can discharge with time, especially if rarely used.
It is important that the home generator comes with automatic voltage regulation, with the acronym AVR. It tightly controls the voltage to your electronic and electrical appliances and protects them against load surges. Take care to buy the generator from a reputable manufacturer through a reputable source and remember there can be cowboys at large selling generators in an emergency. You may consider having a siphon on hand in order to get petrol from your fuel tank. It is also worth having a mini hot water kettle which runs on a fraction of the power of a regular kettle so that you don't overload your backup power when you need a cup of tea on a cold miserable day.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne, why it would cost €100 billion to "underground" rural electricity wires
The electric car with V2L
Many of our electric cars are now coming with vehicle-to-load (V2L) power generators. These are great options for shorter outages. Indeed, an efficient well-insulated house, especially one with the main heating and cooking coming from oil or gas, can run for several days using an EV battery pack. While V2L isn’t technically for use as home backup power, many householders use it successfully and happily to provide power for the small–to-medium electric loads.
Again, you need the changeover switch to ensure safe operation of your appliances. In the absence of a changeover switch, you can plug your portable appliance or appliances, using an extension cord, directly in the V2L adapter or the generator.
Gas is likely best for backup heating and cooking
If you have an existing oil or gas system, it is likely to run fine using the backup generator to provide electricity. Otherwise, you have two backup options for heating and cooking: gas or electric. It turns out that burning gas is the cheaper and the more environmental option for backup heat and cooking. It is very efficient and cost effective to burn gas for heating and cooking.
You can use the petrol generator to generate electricity and then power an electric heater or cooker, but it’s far less efficient, and the electric option will be more costly to run while generating more carbon emissions.
Air to water and ground to water heat pumps, required by building codes for modern houses, take a lot of electric power, especially the older heat pumps. You will have to significantly oversize your backup petrol or diesel generator in order to get these to function. It might be simpler to not use the heat pumps during an outage but to use the backup gas option, or even to go without heating if your house is well insulated, as an A-rated house should be, though that could be a real challenge in cold weather.
Of course, a fireplace or stove will work well for heating, and even cooking. That is, if you still have one as not all houses now have a functioning fireplace or stove.
For more on changeover switches, solar switches and generators and how they can power your home, talk to your local knowledgeable, accredited electrician.
Thanks to Denis Cronin from Cronin Electrical for his assistance with this piece
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
