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Backup Power for Auckland Homes: Generator Inlets, Batteries and What Makes Sense

  • 3 days ago
  • 2 min read

For most Auckland homes wanting outage resilience, the honest ranking is: a generator inlet with changeover switch ($1,200–$2,500 plus GST installed, generator extra) for cheap, occasional-use backup; a home battery ($10,000–$20,000+ installed, more useful with solar) for silent automatic backup that also earns its keep daily; and for many households — realistically — neither, once you've seen the numbers against how rarely the power actually goes out. Here is how to decide.

Sick of blackout lottery? Call 021 889 770 — we'll price the option that fits how you actually live.

Option 1: Generator inlet and changeover switch

A weatherproof inlet on the outside wall, a changeover switch at the board, and selected circuits — fridge, some lights, Wi-Fi, maybe the hot water — wired to swap onto generator supply. When an outage hits, you roll out the generator, plug in one lead, flick the switch. Crucially, the changeover switch makes it legal and safe: it isolates your house from the network so you can't back-feed the street and injure a lines worker. The extension-lead-into-a-socket 'suicide lead' some sheds harbour does exactly that, and it's as illegal as it sounds.

Option 2: Home battery (with or without solar)

A battery with backup circuits switches over in milliseconds — the lights barely flicker, no cords, no petrol. Paired with solar it also cycles daily (cheap charging, expensive-hour discharge), which is what justifies the price; as pure outage insurance it's an expensive policy. If solar is on your roadmap anyway, spec the battery's backup circuits at the same time — see our solar-ready guide.

Frequently asked questions

What size generator for a house?

For essentials-only circuits, a 3–5kVA portable covers most homes — fridge, lights, Wi-Fi, TV. Whole-house including hot water and cooking pushes into bigger, louder, dearer territory; most owners choose essentials.

Can I just run extension leads from the generator?

To individual appliances outside, yes — that's what portable generators are for. Into the house wiring, never, except through a proper changeover — that's the line between camping and electrocution risk.

Does an EV count as backup power?

Increasingly — some EVs offer vehicle-to-load sockets that run appliances during an outage, and vehicle-to-home hardware is arriving in NZ. If your next car has V2L, mention it before we wire anything — it changes the plan.

Be the house with the lights on

EWRB-registered electricians · Certificate of Compliance on every eligible job · Based in Remuera, servicing the central Auckland 10km ring

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