Independent home power planning software
Know What Your Home Actually Needs
Plan backup power, solar, batteries, generators and electrical upgrades before you spend thousands.
- Independent calculations
- Transparent assumptions
- No installer required
- No account, no phone number
Try it: switch the central air off and watch the runtime.
What a Power Plan tells you
A real result for a sample home, calculated on this page by the same engine you will use.
The questions it answers
Each one opens a working tool. What you enter in one carries into the others.
A recommended strategy for your home, from ten options including doing nothing.
Build My Power Plan → Will it work?Whether a battery can run and start your loads, including the air conditioner.
Outage Simulator → How long will it work?Runtime for your loads, and the stored energy each outage length takes.
Battery Size Calculator → Battery or generator?Compared fairly on cost, runtime, fuel and upkeep. Sometimes the generator wins.
Generator vs Battery → What will solar cost and save?Array size, production, and payback under your own export credit.
Solar Size Calculator → Is this quote reasonable?Price per watt, production claims, financing and what the proposal leaves out.
Solar Quote Checker →How SentryVolt works
About five minutes. "I don't know" is always an accepted answer, and you get results immediately.
Tell us about your home
ZIP code, rough size, your electric bill, and the big appliances. No street address, no phone number.
Choose your goals
Lower bills, backup power or both. How long an outage you want to ride through, and what should stay on.
Compare strategies
Battery, generator, solar, hybrids, efficiency, or doing nothing. Ranked by fit, with cost ranges.
Build your power plan
A recommendation, the numbers behind it, how confident we are, and the questions to ask an installer.
Understand your home first. Shop second.
SentryVolt is not a lead form. Nobody calls you.
Neutral by design
The engine compares every strategy, including hybrids and "do nothing." It does not start from solar and work backward, and sometimes the answer is a generator.
Every assumption visible
Each number is tagged as yours, calculated or estimated, and you can change the defaults. Product specs list their source and the date checked.
Assumptions and sources →Ads are labeled, advice is not for sale
Advertising sits in marked spaces away from results and never changes a recommendation. Your answers stay in your browser.
How we are funded →Nationwide tools, with extra depth for Texas
The calculators work for any U.S. ZIP code. Texas gets its own guides, because ERCOT, retail electricity plans and the weather make planning there different.
Guides
Longer reads for the decisions that deserve them.
Solar Battery vs Generator
Stored energy versus fuel: cost, runtime and upkeep, and why outage length decides it.
Read the guide →Battery Backup Without Solar
How a grid-charged battery works, what it can run, and what the money looks like.
Read the guide →Should You Replace HVAC Before Solar?
Heating and cooling is usually your biggest load. The order you upgrade in changes the system you need.
Read the guide →