Running WiFi and Internet on Solar in the Philippines

A router, modem, or Starlink dish draws very little power compared to almost everything else in your house, so keeping your internet alive during an outage is one of the easiest solar or battery-backup wins available. Where an aircon or refrigerator forces real sizing decisions, WiFi barely moves the needle.

How much power does home internet equipment actually use?

Standard routers and fiber modems draw a small, continuous load, typically in the tens of watts — closer to a phone charger than to a major appliance. Starlink’s dish and router combo pulls more than a standard modem because of the dish’s motors and active tracking electronics, but it’s still modest next to a refrigerator, washing machine, or aircon. For a full sense of where WiFi equipment ranks against other household loads, see our appliance electricity cost guide.

Can solar realistically keep my internet running through a brownout?

Yes, easily, with one important catch: a standard grid-tied solar system shuts off during a brownout for safety (anti-islanding), so it won’t power your router even with the sun shining. To keep WiFi alive during an outage you need either:

• A hybrid inverter with a battery, which can island your home from the grid and keep select circuits running, or
• A separate small battery or portable power station, charged ahead of time by a wall outlet or a small dedicated solar panel, independent of your main household system.

Because the router load is so light, either option comfortably covers it for many hours on a single charge.

How does keeping WiFi up compare to other backup priorities?

If you’re planning outage backup more broadly, our solar backup for typhoons and brownouts guide and solar generator vs inverter comparison walk through how to prioritize which circuits or devices matter most when you can’t back up everything.

Do I need a whole home solar system just for WiFi?

No. If internet access during outages is your main goal, and not powering your whole home, a small solar-charged battery or power station is enough on its own. This is a common setup for people who work from home and need connectivity to keep functioning during a brownout — see our solar for WFH computer setup guide for how a router pairs with a laptop and monitor on the same small backup source. A dedicated solar power bank can also cover a router for shorter outages without any inverter involved.

Is this worth setting up?

For most households with anyone working, studying, or communicating from home, yes. The cost is low relative to the payoff, since the load itself is tiny and the equipment needed to back it up (a small battery, a compact panel) is inexpensive compared to whole-home solar. It’s one of the few upgrades where the sizing question basically answers itself.

What should you actually set up?

1. Check your router and modem’s rated wattage on the label or spec sheet so you know exactly what you’re sizing for.
2. Pick a battery or power station rated well above that draw, since routers need to run continuously, not in short bursts like a kettle or microwave.
3. Decide whether you want it solar-rechargeable or just charged from the wall ahead of a typhoon or scheduled outage — a small panel adds convenience during multi-day outages but isn’t strictly necessary for short brownouts.
4. If you already have or are planning a hybrid system, ask your installer to wire your router and modem onto the backup circuit, so it switches over automatically instead of needing a separate standalone unit.

How does this fit into a broader backup plan?

WiFi is worth treating as a first item on your outage checklist precisely because it’s so cheap to secure compared to everything else on that list. If you’re mapping out a fuller backup strategy for typhoon season, start with the loads that are easiest and cheapest to guarantee, like WiFi, lights, and phone charging, before working up to harder ones like refrigeration or aircon. That order gets you the most resilience per peso spent, rather than sinking your entire budget into one large backup circuit while smaller, equally important loads go unprotected.