Before you get a quote
Savings or backup?
Every battery quote starts here.
A home battery can do two jobs: quietly lower your bill by storing solar for after dark, or keep your home running when BGE goes down. They sound the same, but they're different setups — and the difference decides what you pay. Here's the honest version, so you walk in knowing what you want.
The two jobs
Same battery. Two configurations.
This is the single most useful thing to understand before you shop: a battery set up only for savings won't power your house in an outage. That takes backup hardware — the one real fork in the decision.
The savings play
Self-consumption
- Stores your midday solar surplus so you spend it after sunset instead of buying it back from BGE.
- Gets you ahead of time-of-use rates — run on stored solar through the expensive evening peak.
- Does NOT keep your home running in an outage on its own.
- Simplest hardware, lowest cost of the two.
The resilience play
Backup
- Islands your home the instant BGE drops — automatic, silent, in milliseconds.
- Keeps essentials (or the whole home) running through storms and heat-wave outages.
- Also does everything self-consumption does the rest of the time.
- Adds a backup interface / gateway, so it costs somewhat more.
What's the difference between a self-consumption and a backup battery?
It's about what the battery is set up to do. A self-consumption battery stores your daytime solar and spends it at night to lower your bill and beat time-of-use rates — but on its own it won't power your home during an outage. A backup battery adds the hardware (a backup interface or gateway) that lets it disconnect from the grid and keep your home running when BGE goes down. Backup does everything self-consumption does and adds outage protection, which is why it costs a bit more.
Will a solar battery power my house in a blackout?
Only if it's installed in a backup configuration. This surprises people: a battery set up purely for self-consumption savings still shuts down in an outage, because islanding your home safely requires backup hardware that isolates you from the grid. If riding through BGE outages is your goal — and in Baltimore, where major storm and heat events knock out tens of thousands of homes, it usually is — make sure your quote is for a backup configuration.
Can one battery do both savings and backup?
Yes. A battery in a backup configuration handles day-to-day self-consumption savings and switches to backup power automatically when the grid fails — you get both. The choice isn't really 'savings or backup'; it's whether to add the backup hardware on top of the savings function. Most Baltimore homeowners who already have solar want both.
Which is right for a home that already has solar?
If your main goal is a lower bill and getting ahead of time-of-use rates, self-consumption may be enough. If you also want the lights, fridge, Wi-Fi, sump pump, or medical equipment to stay on during outages, you want a backup configuration. Because you already have panels, either one recharges free from your solar the next day. We'll size and price both so you can see the difference for your home.
Does SolarEdge or Enphase do this differently?
Both SolarEdge and Enphase — the two systems we install — offer self-consumption and backup configurations, so the decision applies either way. The details of the backup hardware differ between the two platforms, and which battery fits your home depends first on whether your existing solar is a SolarEdge or an Enphase system. We handle that matchmaking as part of the assessment.
For a Baltimore home
In Baltimore, most people end up wanting backup.
The grid here is fine on a calm day — but summer storms and heat waves take out tens of thousands of homes for hours to days at a time. If that's the scenario you're solving for, you want a backup configuration. See the Baltimore outage data →
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