When a nor’easter rolls up the Chesapeake and BGE crews are stretched thin, the power on the West and Severn River peninsulas can stay out for a day or more. A home battery keeps your sump pump, well, fridge, and Wi-Fi running through it — no generator to gas up at 2 a.m. David Williams Electric installs and ties in whole-home battery systems across Annapolis, Severna Park, Pasadena, and the rest of Anne Arundel County, with the price written down before any work starts.
Battery backup built for Anne Arundel's outage pattern
Outages here aren’t random. The waterfront stretches — Annapolis Neck, the Broadneck peninsula out toward Arnold, the creeks off Pasadena and Riviera Beach — sit on long radial feeders with a lot of mature tree canopy overhead. One downed limb in a summer thunderstorm or a January ice load can drop a whole branch circuit of homes, and restoration runs longest at the ends of those lines.
A battery sizes around what you actually need to ride that out. We start with the loads that matter when the grid is down: the well pump or sump in a basement that backs up against high water table near the South River, the refrigerator and freezer, a few lighting and outlet circuits, the furnace blower or a mini-split, and the router so you can still work or check on family. A single Tesla Powerwall 3 carries those essentials for most of a day; pair two and a typical Severna Park colonial rides through an overnight outage without rationing.
What we install — Powerwall, EcoFlow, and the transfer gear behind them
We work with Tesla Powerwall and EcoFlow whole-home systems, and the choice usually comes down to whether you’re pairing solar now, later, or not at all. Powerwall 3 has the solar inverter built in, which keeps the wall cleaner on a new PV-plus-storage job. EcoFlow’s modular packs make sense when you want to start with backup only and add capacity a season at a time without re-pulling everything.
The part most quotes gloss over is how the battery actually takes over when BGE drops. That’s the transfer equipment — either a whole-home automatic transfer switch or a protected-loads subpanel we build out so only your critical circuits draw from the battery. We map those circuits at your panel before quoting, because a 1970s split-level in Arnold with a 100-amp Federal Pacific or Zinsco panel is a different job than a 2015 Crofton build with a clean 200-amp service. If the panel needs replacing or the service needs an upgrade to land the battery cleanly, you’ll see that line item up front, not as a surprise on install day.
Solar pairing, net metering, and the older-home wrinkles
If you already have rooftop solar or you’re adding it, the battery turns daytime production you’d otherwise export into stored power you keep. Under Maryland net metering you still get credit for what you send back to BGE, but a battery means a cloudy-week or a grid-down day doesn’t leave that array sitting idle. We coordinate the BGE interconnection paperwork and the county electrical permit and inspection so the system is signed off and legal, not just wired.
Anne Arundel’s housing stock throws a few curveballs worth naming. Plenty of homes in the historic Annapolis district and the older Glen Burnie and Brooklyn Park neighborhoods still have aluminum branch wiring from the ’60s and ’70s. We don’t ignore that to get a battery in faster — where we tie into aluminum, we correct it properly with pig-tailing and ALUMACONN connectors so the connections run cool and code-compliant. Same honesty on grounding and bonding: a battery is only as safe as the system it lands in.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long will a home battery actually power my house during a BGE outage?
It depends on what you're running and how big the battery is. Sized for essentials — well or sump pump, fridge and freezer, some lights and outlets, internet, and a furnace blower — one Powerwall 3 (about 13.5 kWh) typically covers most of a day. Two batteries comfortably ride through an overnight outage, which is the common scenario when a storm takes out a waterfront feeder around Annapolis or the Broadneck peninsula. We size the system to your real load list after walking your panel, not to a brochure number.
Do I need solar to install a home battery?
No. Plenty of our Anne Arundel installs are battery-only backup — the system charges from the grid when rates are normal and holds that charge for the next outage. Solar pairing adds the ability to recharge during a multi-day outage and to bank daytime production, but it's optional. EcoFlow's modular packs are a good fit when you want backup now and may add panels later.
Will a battery run my whole house or just certain circuits?
Either, and it's a real cost decision we walk through with you. A whole-home automatic transfer switch backs up everything but needs enough battery and the right panel to support it. A protected-loads subpanel — backing up only the circuits that matter when the grid's down — costs less and stretches the battery further. For most homes from Pasadena to Crofton, the protected-loads approach gives the best ride-through for the money.
My house has aluminum wiring and an old panel. Can you still install a battery?
Yes, and we'll handle it the right way. Older homes in Glen Burnie, Brooklyn Park, and the historic Annapolis district often have aluminum branch circuits and dated panels like Federal Pacific or Zinsco. Where we connect to aluminum, we correct it with pig-tailing and ALUMACONN connectors so it runs cool and to code. If the panel or service needs an upgrade to support the battery, that's a separate line on your quote — spelled out before we start, never tacked on later.
Do you pull the county permit and handle the BGE paperwork?
Yes. Every battery install in Anne Arundel County needs an electrical permit and inspection, and a grid-tied or solar-paired system needs a BGE interconnection agreement. We file the permit, schedule the inspection, and submit the interconnection paperwork as part of the job under Maryland license #11734. You get a finished, inspected, utility-approved system — and our 100% satisfaction guarantee stands behind it.
Serving Anne Arundel County
David Williams Electric provides home battery installation throughout Anne Arundel County, including Annapolis, Glen Burnie, Severna Park, Pasadena, Crofton, Arnold, Odenton. Explore all Anne Arundel County electrical services or learn more about home battery installation across Maryland. Call (410) 781-4357 for a free, up-front quote.
