WattBackup exists to answer one question properly: how much power does your home actually use, and what will it take to keep the important parts of it running when the grid stops.
Why this site exists
Search for how many watts a refrigerator uses and you get two kinds of result. The first is a manufacturer blog, which will never tell you that its entry-level product is too small for your house. The second is a solar lead-generation portal, where the article exists to move you toward a quote form rather than to answer the question.
What is missing is the plain version: this appliance draws this much running and this much at startup, that unit will hold it for this many hours, and here is what each option costs. That answer currently lives on Reddit and in homeowner forums, assembled by strangers, with no sources attached. WattBackup is an attempt to write it down properly.
Who this is for
Mostly homeowners in the United States, in the states where the power goes out often enough to plan for it: the hurricane coast from Texas to the Carolinas, the ice-storm belt across the Midwest and New England, and California during public safety shutoffs. If your house has a well, a sump pump, a second freezer or a furnace with an electric blower, four loads decide your entire sizing problem and this site is built around them.
It is also written for readers in the United Kingdom, where the vocabulary differs but the arithmetic does not. Cost tables carry both US and UK electricity rates.
What we do not do
We are not electricians and this site is not an installation manual. It explains what equipment exists, what it costs, which code applies and where the real limits are, then it tells you to hire someone licensed. There are no wiring walkthroughs here and there never will be, because the failure mode is somebody dying.
We also do not have a product test bench. Every recommendation is built from published specifications, official data and verified owner reports, and we say so on every page rather than implying laboratory work that has not happened. How we test sets out exactly what that means.
Who runs it
WattBackup is written and edited by Álvaro Melgar Merenciano, who is responsible for everything published here. Our editorial policy explains how articles are produced, including where AI is used and how every figure is checked before it goes live.
Found an error? Tell us and we will fix it: get in touch.