Most people find out how unreliable their power grid is the hard way — mid-outage, in the dark, wondering whether they should have bought a generator months ago.
The problem we're solving
Backup power decisions are usually made blind. People buy a generator because a neighbor has one, or because an ad told them to, not because they know how often — or how badly — power actually goes out where they live. That information exists: the Department of Energy has been recording county-level outage data for over a decade. It just wasn't built into anything a normal person could actually use.
PowerOutageHistory turns 12 years of real DOE/ORNL outage records into something simple: a reliability grade for your county, and a generator or power station sized to match your area's actual outage history — not a generic one-size-fits-all recommendation. See exactly how on our methodology page.
We don't sell your data
We don't sell or rent your personal data. Third-party advertising partners may use cookies to show ads on this site. See our privacy policy for the specifics.
How we keep the lights on
Running this site — hosting, the annual DOE and NOAA data refreshes, ongoing development — costs real money. Our main source of revenue is Amazon affiliate commissions when you buy a generator, power station, or prep item through one of our product links, supplemented by advertising. It costs you nothing extra — the price is identical to going straight to Amazon — and it's what keeps this tool free for everyone else. Full detail on how that works is on our affiliate disclosure page.
If this site helped you figure out whether — and what — backup power you actually need, buying through our links is the most direct way to support it.