My family live in a rural area. For a while, we had an unusually high frequency of power cuts around here. If I understood correctly, it was something to do with recurring problems with the overhead lines supplying local substation(s). Mostly it was just a few seconds or maybe a few minutes, enough to reset equipment and cause some irritating disruption but not catastrophic. Occasionally, though, the supply did cut out for a much longer time and you had to start thinking about whether you really needed to open the fridge/freezer right now.

Between that experience and the environmental benefits, we were already discussing installing a big solar panel and battery system at our home with local suppliers, even before the recent dramatic price rises and the bizarre news that in the 21st century there’s a credible threat of rolling blackouts here.

I can tell you from first-hand experience that getting such a system professionally installed and commissioned is likely to be a long wait and then cost a small fortune. Systems that can keep the household power on when the mains supply cuts out can require jumping through extra regulatory and consent hoops before anyone installs the new gear alongside a mains supply. You’ll also have fewer and often much more expensive options for the hardware than systems designed for efficiency/environmental benefits but not resilience to outages.

Of course it might still be a very good idea to do this, if you’re lucky enough to meet the practical requirements and have the money to do it. But it’s definitely not going to be some DIY system you can build for £1,000. More like £10,000–20,000 and several months of waiting for an installation date, at least in this area.