A satellite dish on the roof connects straight to the sky, so it does not rely on local exchange equipment or a nearby cell site that might go down. That makes it one of the most resilient links a rural home has, provided the dish and router are powered. In a big storm it can be the only way to check road closures, message family or get help, while neighbours on other services are cut off.
Satellite dishes and routers take a while to reconnect after losing power. With the battery and inverter in UPS mode they never lose it, so video calls, school lessons and messages carry on through a grid failure. The dish is a modest load, and dishes with snow-melt heating draw more on cold nights. All of that sits within 15 kW continuous, and the fuel cell keeps the battery charged from stored hydrogen through a long outage.
How it works →
Wifi calling over a satellite link can keep phones working when the local cell site has run out of battery, and the house can keep everyone's phones charged. Charging happens on cheap off-peak power or from wind or micro-hydro. Round-trip efficiency is 30% or less, so running the dish on stored hydrogen costs more than on the grid, which is why the system is a backup rather than the everyday supply.
It is designed to. The battery and inverter run in UPS mode, so the dish and router keep power with no gap and do not need to reconnect. Video calls and downloads carry on without a pause.
If your phone supports wifi calling and your satellite link is up, calls may still work over wifi. That depends on your phone and provider, not on this system, which only keeps the equipment powered.
Dish heating draws more on cold nights, but it is still small next to 15 kW continuous output. It runs alongside the house without issue. Check your dish's own settings for how its heating behaves in cold weather.
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