Brightbox is a home solar battery service that offers clean, reliable and affordable power. Brightbox can be used for backup when the grid is down, or give you better control over your home energy use and cost.

Brightbox stores the electricity your rooftop solar produces during the day for when you need it most, such as in the evening, at night, or when the electric grid fails.

Yes. Brightbox is part of Sunrun’s holistic solar as a service offering. When you choose to go solar with Sunrun, you can add a Brightbox home battery if it is offered in your market.

Our expert electricians will take care of installing and configuring your battery for you. Batteries last anywhere between 10 and 15 years, and manufacturers typically offer a 10-year warranty.

Still, Brightbox is more than home batteries; it’s a holistic service that includes professional maintenance and monitoring during the life of your agreement. Customers who own their battery get Sunrun service for 10 years, while customers with a BrightSave Monthly or Prepaid contract get free battery maintenance replacement for the lifetime of their contract - generally 20 or 25 years.

You can monitor your Brightbox battery’s performance on your mySunrun app. Sunrun also manages the battery remotely using proprietary software so we keep tabs on your system 24/7 to make sure it’s running as it should, and automatically updates your battery’s settings to save you as much money as possible.

Our BrightSave Monthly and Prepaid solar plans come with 24/7 proactive monitoring and maintenance, on us. So if we notice that your Brightbox or solar panels aren’t working at their full capacity, we’ll send an expert over to fix it without you having to lift a finger.

At this time, Brightbox is only available to new Sunrun customers.  We can’t install Brightbox if you already have an existing solar installation or if it isn’t offered in your area.

However, if you’re still interested in Brightbox please let us know—you’ll be the first to know when we’ve come up with a solution. We’re hard at work on optimizing our technology to provide an even more seamless customer experience.

The amount of available backup power depends on what you choose to back up, what time of day and season the power outage happens, and how much energy your household uses. If the battery is fully charged, it can provide 8-12 hours of backup. If your battery has been discharging throughout the day, it automatically holds a 20% reserve for a backup emergency, or about 3-4 hours for a blackout when the sun is down. When the sun comes back up, your Brightbox will start to charge again!

The electrical circuits in your home that power your lights and appliances are all connected to breakers, safely regulating the amount of power that feeds each circuit. Multiple appliances can be powered by one breaker. For instance, one breaker could power your refrigerator plus nearby outlets or lighting in your kitchen. While you can’t necessarily target individual appliances, with Sunrun Brightbox you can choose which breakers you’d like to back up. What you can back up depends on the current wiring of your home.

You can use a portable generator—however, Sunrun doesn’t offer backup generators. If you’re interested in installing a portable generator, you can contact a local electrician or renewable energy installation company. These experts can recommend a system that will be appropriate for your home.

Please note that Brightbox cannot be installed on homes that already have a standby generator.

Having a home solar battery service in New York will help you power through blackouts, lock in low rates with flexible financing options, and get a clean alternative to loud and potentially dangerous diesel generators.

Your system is also covered by our Sunrun Guarantee, so we handle maintenance and repairs at no additional charge.

One of the best reasons to own a solar system in New York is its Megawatt Block Solar Incentive, where you’ll receive a rebate on your system based on where you live, your utility, and the size of your system. The best part? State-approved solar installers will automatically apply the rebate to your bill so you don’t have to lift a finger. Top that off with New York’s generous Solar Energy System Equipment Credit (cover 25% or up to $5,000 of your system cost) and the Federal Tax Credit (30% of your total system cost), and you could cut the cost of your solar system by over 50%.  

For more information on New York solar incentives, click here.

For most households, one solar battery is sufficient to backup your most important appliances. In the event of a blackout, your Brightbox battery provides up to 8-12 hours of backup and powers your critical rooms and appliances when fully charged.

When sun is back up, your solar panels will charge your battery so you can continue to backup your home until utility power is restored.

In the event of a power outage, your Brightbox automatically discharges power to your critical home appliances.

To learn more about how home solar batteries work, click here.

In the event of a power outage, appliances like your refrigerator, electronics chargers for cell phones, laptops, and your TV can be backed up by Brightbox for 8-12 hours. When the sun rises again, your solar panels will recharge your Brightbox. The most important rooms and appliances in your home will be powered by your home battery until the grid is up and running again. To learn more about how home solar batteries work, click here.

Brightbox works in tandem with the grid, and is not designed as an off-grid solution.