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What to expect during an outage

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SPAN does not power your home by itself when an outage occurs. To have home backup during an outage, you would need to have a compatible/integrated battery system: Storage System Integrations with SPAN

Below is a breakdown of what can be expected during an outage based on your configuration. 

SPAN Only (No Solar or Battery) 

When the SPAN Panel is not paired with a compatible/integrated battery system, it does not possess any backup capabilities. In the event of a grid power loss, it will act as a normal breaker box and your circuits will lose power until grid power is restored.

SPAN with Solar (No Battery)

During an electrical outage, your solar system will not provide power to your home, unless you have a system that is specifically designed to do so. Solar-only inverters are designed to shut off to prevent sending power to the grid when it could be dangerous to electrical workers and your home will not be powered until grid power is restored. If you have additional questions regarding your specific solar system and what to expect during an outage, it is recommended that you reach out to your solar provider for more information.

SPAN with Compatible Battery System

When the SPAN Panel is paired with a compatible battery system, the battery system will direct your SPAN Panel to go into off-grid mode and you will receive a banner notification in your Home App about the outage: 

Circuits within your SPAN panel marked as “Must Have” and “Nice to Have” will receive power from the battery while any circuits marked as “Non-essential” will turn off until grid power is restored. When your batteries reach 50% capacity, the "Nice to Have" circuits will shut off, conserving battery charge and extending the available backup time during an outage. 

Once grid power is restored, your battery system will notify the SPAN Panel to go back on-grid. Once on-grid, all “Non-essential” circuits and previously turned off “Nice to Have” circuits will automatically turn on and the red "Power Outage!" banner in your Home App will disappear.

Backup priorities cannot be set for any loads outside of SPAN, such as circuits in a downstream sub-panel. You can learn more about setting your backup priorities at How to Assign Your Backup Priorities.

Keep in mind that the following will not be backed up during an outage, even if you have a compatible backup battery: 

  • Circuits with a “Non-essential” backup priority will not be backed up during an outage unless you update the backup priority level to a “Must Have” or “Nice to Have” level:  How to Assign Your Backup Priorities.
  • Your installer may designate certain circuits as "oversized loads" during the commissioning process. This marks these circuits as “Non-essential” and their priority level cannot be adjusted. These circuits are considered too big for your battery system to power or may overload the battery: What if the circuit was an Oversized Load?
  • If you have two SPAN Panels installed in parallel (meaning they are not connected via a breaker or feed-through lugs) and the battery is landed on one of the SPAN Panels, the other will not be powered during an outage. If the battery is landed upstream of both panels, then both panels should be powered during an outage but only one will have backup priorities available. We recommend locating all essential backup loads on the backed-up panel. You can learn more about the multi-panel experience here: How to view multiple Panels in the Home App.

SPAN with a Non-Compatible Battery System

If you have a non-compatible backup system, it should power your home as configured but your SPAN panel will not be able to: communicate with the backup system, the SPAN Home App will show on-grid when using battery power, and you will not be able to set backup priorities. For additional details, see Non-compatible/integrated battery systems.

SPAN with Generator (No Battery) 

SPAN offers limited backup experience when there is no compatible/integrated battery system. The Panel will not go into off-grid mode with only a standby generator, automatic backup load shedding and circuit prioritization features will be unavailable. When there is an outage and your home is solely powered by a standby generator upstream of SPAN, you must manually toggle off non-essential circuits in the Home App. Once grid power is restored, manually toggle on previously turned-off circuits. Any power supplied by a standby generator will appear as grid power in the Home App.

See Can I install SPAN with a Standby Generator for guidance on if a standby generator is right for you.

SPAN with Generator Part of Battery System

When the SPAN Panel is paired with both a generator and a compatible/integrated battery system, the generator must be installed according to the specifications of both the battery system manufacturer and SPAN. 

During an outage, your SPAN Panel will enter off-grid mode, deactivating your "non-essential" circuits and displaying an outage banner in the Home App - identical to the SPAN with battery outage experience. Once your battery depletes to a threshold set by its manufacturer, it will instruct the generator to supply power. For detailed insights into how your battery system and generator collaborate, it's recommended to contact your battery system manufacturer. Upon grid power restoration, the battery system will alert the generator, and your home will transition back to being powered by the grid. Subsequently, you'll receive a banner notification confirming the restoration of grid power.