Home Battery, Tesla Powerwall & Generator Backup in Los Angeles, CA

911 Construction & Electric Inc. keeps Los Angeles homes and businesses powered through heat waves, windstorms and Public Safety Power Shutoffs. We're a Tesla Energy Certified installer for Tesla Powerwall and other home batteries, and we connect portable and standby generators safely with permitted interlock kits and transfer switches. We're electricians first, so we handle the parts that decide whether backup power actually works: the load calculation, the panel, the permit and the inspection.

We install batteries. We don't install solar panels.

Battery or generator?

• Home battery: silent, no fuel, switches over automatically, usually without you noticing. On normal days it can run the house during peak hours on stored grid power, depending on your rate plan and settings. It runs until it's drained, then recharges from the grid. Big loads like central AC need enough battery output sized for them. Mostly hands-off.
• Portable generator with an interlock or transfer switch: usually the lowest-cost way to power hardwired circuits like the fridge, lights, internet and furnace fan. You start it and switch over by hand, and it runs as long as you have fuel.
• Standby generator with an automatic transfer switch: natural gas or propane, starts and switches over within seconds with nobody home, runs as long as fuel lasts and handles big loads like central air more easily. Needs periodic service and runs its own exercise cycle.

Some homes choose one, some both. We'll ask what needs to keep running at 2 a.m. during a red-flag outage, then size the system to that, not to a brochure.

Home batteries and Tesla Powerwall

A battery system includes the battery unit(s) (your quote lists the model and how many), backup controls that disconnect the house from the grid so power can't flow back onto utility lines, and app monitoring. The first decision is what it backs up:

• Backed-up circuits (critical-load panel): the fridge, some lighting, Wi-Fi, bedroom outlets, a furnace blower or mini-split, medical equipment. Common in older LA homes, and it stretches one battery much further.
• Whole-home backup: every circuit stays live, including central air. That usually takes more than one battery and often a service or panel upgrade.

Already have solar? A battery can be added to many homes that already have solar. We look at how the battery ties into your existing electrical system. We don't install, move or service solar panels, so any work on the panels themselves stays with your solar company.

Generators and transfer switches

Never plug a generator into a wall or dryer outlet to power the house. That "suicide cord" backfeeds the utility lines and can electrocute line crews. Every option below prevents it:

• Generator interlock kit: a listed sliding plate on your panel makes it impossible to have the main and the generator breaker on at the same time. We add a 2-pole generator breaker and an outdoor inlet box, and you can run any circuit. Needs a listed kit for your panel. → Generator interlock kits
• Manual transfer switch: a separate switch panel with pre-selected circuits. Simpler under stress, and a good fit when the panel has no listed interlock kit.
• Automatic transfer switch (ATS) for a standby generator: senses the outage, starts the generator and switches back when utility power returns. → Whole-house generators

Compare the options: Generator transfer switch guide

How a backup power job works

1. Call and photos. Why you want backup (outages, medical equipment, peak rates), what must stay on, your generator's wattage and outlet type if you have one, and photos of your main panel, its label, the meter, and where the battery or generator would go.
2. Site visit and load calculation. We check service size, panel brand and condition, open breaker space, grounding, and whether a listed interlock kit exists. Code limits how much battery current a panel's busbar can accept, so this is where we find out if your panel can take a battery or generator connection as is.
3. Location. Batteries usually go on a garage wall and must meet the manufacturer's clearances, temperature range and vehicle protection. Generators run outdoors only, well away from doors, windows and vents.
4. Written scope and price: equipment, which circuits stay on, any panel work, the permit, utility paperwork and the timeline.
5. Permit and utility paperwork. We pull the electrical permit under our C-10 license with LADBS or your local building department. Batteries also need utility approval (SCE, LADWP, Pasadena Water & Power, Glendale Water & Power or Burbank Water and Power), which we prepare and submit. Standby generators also need the fuel (gas) connection permitted separately; who handles that connection depends on the job.
6. Install. Interlock or manual switch: usually a few hours. Battery: usually one to a few days, depending on panel work. Standby generator and ATS: usually one to two days of electrical work once the unit is set on its pad and the fuel connection is ready. Any panel upgrade usually comes first.
7. Inspection, testing and walkthrough. For batteries, we commission the system, test a simulated outage and set up the app; it runs normally once the utility gives permission to operate. For portable generators, we walk you through the outage routine: generator outside, main off, generator breaker on, loads on one at a time. For standby units, the exercise cycle and status readout.

More: Tesla Powerwall installation guide · Home battery backup guide · Santa Ana winds, PSPS and backup power