Why a solar generator does not save much money
A 1 kWh power station fully charged by a 200 W panel takes 6 to 8 hours of good sun to fill, and then holds 1 kWh, which is about 15 to 18 cents of electricity at US average rates. Doing that every single day for a year is roughly $60, and most owners do not. The value is resilience: a fridge, a CPAP, lights and phones through a multi-day outage, with no fumes and no fuel.
Why a plug-in kit does not help in a blackout
Grid-tie microinverters are required to disconnect within milliseconds of losing the grid so they cannot energize a line a crew is working on. That rule (anti-islanding, part of UL 1741) is non-negotiable and applies to every legitimate kit. The sun can be shining on your panels during an outage and the kit will make nothing.
The hybrid: plug-in solar with a battery
Products like EcoFlow's STREAM Ultra and Anker's Solarbank pair a grid-tie inverter with a battery that has its own outlets. During the day they feed the house; surplus charges the battery; in the evening the battery discharges into the house; in an outage, the inverter shuts off but the battery's own outlets keep working. In the US, only EcoFlow's version is on sale (Utah only, often sold out) as of October 2026; the others are Europe-only until the California market opens in 2027. Costs run $1,200 to $2,500, which stretches payback to 8+ years, so buy the hybrid for the backup, not the math. See the kit comparison.
Buying one of each
For many renters the practical answer is a 360 to 800 W plug-in kit for daily savings plus a 500 Wh to 1 kWh power station for outages, charged from the wall normally and from a small folding panel when the power is out. Combined cost is often under $1,200 and each piece does what it is good at.