Putting together a solar setup and going back and forth on whether to also get a generator for backup, or if that’s a waste of money. What do folks actually do for those long cloudy stretches?
Great question, and it’s one just about every off-grid homesteader wrestles with before they’ve lived through their first real cloudy stretch.
Short answer from what I’ve seen: most serious off-grid folks end up with both, and they’re glad they did.
Here’s the honest picture. Solar plus a good battery bank handles the day-to-day beautifully. But there are stretches — winter weeks with heavy cloud cover, equipment failures, unexpected high draws — where the batteries just can’t keep up. That’s when a generator earns its keep. Even folks with big, well-sized systems usually run a generator a handful of times a year. Better to have it sitting quiet in the shed than to be scrambling.
A few things worth thinking through:
Battery bank size matters a lot. The bigger your storage, the longer you can coast through low-sun days before you need backup. If you’re still sizing your system, that’s worth prioritizing before adding a generator.
Propane vs. gas vs. diesel. Each has tradeoffs for storage and shelf life. Propane stores indefinitely and is popular with homesteaders for that reason.
Auto-start inverter-generators can tie into your solar charge controller so it kicks on automatically when batteries hit a set threshold. Real peace of mind, especially if you’re away from home.
A modest generator goes a long way. You don’t need a huge unit — just enough to top off batteries and run essentials. Many homesteaders size small and run it a few hours rather than buying a monster.
What’s your battery storage looking like, and what are you trying to power? That’d help me give you a more useful picture.