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Home Battery Backup Sizing Calculator

Figure out how much home battery backup you need to keep the essentials running during an outage. Enter the energy you want to back up per day and how many days of autonomy you want, and this home battery sizing calculator finds the storage capacity (nameplate) you need after usable depth of discharge and round-trip losses.

Battery capacity to buy

12.3 kWh

10.0 kWh usable energy needed

0.9 units of 13.5 kWh

Nameplate capacity accounts for usable depth of discharge and round-trip losses, so it runs higher than the raw energy you want to cover. The 13.5 kWh unit is a generic reference size, not a specific product. To keep a battery affordable, back up only the essentials — fridge, lights, Wi-Fi, a few outlets — rather than the whole home. Estimate only.

Frequently asked questions

It depends on how much energy you want to back up and for how long. Backing up just the essentials — fridge, lights, Wi-Fi, a few outlets — often runs 5–15 kWh per day, so a single 10–15 kWh battery covers a day of autonomy. Whole-home backup, especially with AC or electric heat, can need several batteries. Size to usable energy, not nameplate.

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Sources & standards

This tool's methodology and data follow US standards and authoritative public datasets: