Channelview and Crosby Battery Backup: Backup Power on the East Side

Lin ZeriLin Zeri·
Single-story east Harris County home on a raised lot at dusk with a wall-mounted battery backup unit on the side wall and the San Jacinto River treeline behind it.

Drive east on Interstate 10 past Beltway 8 and the ground changes before the map does. Channelview sits on the west bank of the San Jacinto River. Crosby sits north and east of it, where the land thins into pasture and pine. Both have been told to leave in living memory, and not only during Harvey.

Most Houston backup guides assume a 2,500 square foot slab home in a deed restricted subdivision with a 200 amp panel in the garage. Out here that house is the exception. Housing stock, service size, and the height of the ground under the equipment come first. Kilowatt-hours come second.

Key Takeaways

  • Manufactured homes are 21.2 percent of Channelview's housing stock and 12.3 percent of Crosby's, against 2.5 percent countywide (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024).
  • The San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund site sits in Channelview on the west bank north of Interstate 10, listed for dioxins and furans in March 2008 (EPA).
  • After Harvey, one of fourteen areas EPA divers sampled there showed a damaged cap and dioxins at 70,000 ng/kg against a 30 ng/kg cleanup level (EPA, 2017).
  • Beryl left roughly 2.2 million CenterPoint customers dark at peak, more than a million still out days later, in heat indices of 100 to 106 F (Houston Public Media, 2024).
Check what a backup system would cover at your address→

The river is the reason this side of the county plans differently

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey was "the most significant rainfall event in U.S. history, both in scope and peak rainfall amounts," with totals above 60 inches in places and 2,123 high-water marks later recovered across 22 southeast Texas counties (U.S. Geological Survey, 2018). Channelview and Crosby sit in the lower basin that carries all of it toward the bay.

That is why people here watch reservoir operations, not just the rain gauge. During Harvey, Lake Conroe releases into the West Fork peaked at 79,100 cubic feet per second, and hundreds of downstream property owners later sued the San Jacinto River Authority (Houston Chronicle, 2017).

It is not only a Harvey story. On May 2, 2024, Harris County ordered a mandatory evacuation for residents along the East Fork between FM 1485 and Lake Houston while the river authority released from Lake Conroe at 66,100 cubic feet per second. The order stood until May 6 (Houston Public Media; Community Impact, 2024). Seven years after Harvey, on an ordinary spring week, thousands packed a bag again.

[UNIQUE INSIGHT] Here is the part that gets split apart everywhere else. Flood and outage arrive together, then diverge. Water leaves in days. Power does not.

Kingwood reads the same river from upstream:

How the same river looks from the upstream side→
covers that half.

What the Superfund site on the river means for a Channelview homeowner

The San Jacinto River Waste Pits site is in Channelview, on the western bank north of Interstate 10, added to the National Priorities List on March 19, 2008 for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans left by mid-1960s paper mill waste disposal (EPA). The northern impoundments cover about 14 acres, sit partly underwater, and were capped with armor in 2011.

Storms are how the site enters a backup conversation. On September 28, 2017, EPA reported sediment data from fourteen areas its dive team sampled after Harvey. One showed confirmed cap damage with waste exposed underneath, at 70,000 ng/kg of dioxins against a recommended cleanup level of 30 ng/kg (EPA, 2017). Repairs followed. Southern Impoundment excavation finished in November 2023, and EPA conditionally approved the Northern Impoundments remedial design on September 9, 2025.

Now the honest part. A home battery does nothing about dioxin. What this record explains is why floodwater in this basin gets treated as a hazardous unknown rather than as dirty water, and why local guidance leans so hard on staying informed and staying out of it. Staying informed is a load on your electrical panel.

Your housing stock changes the whole question

Manufactured homes are 2,923 of Channelview's 13,788 housing units, or 21.2 percent, and 180 of Crosby's 1,467 units, or 12.3 percent. Across Harris County the share is 2.5 percent, and across Texas it is 6.4 percent (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024, table B25024). Channelview's rate runs more than eight times the county figure.

Manufactured homes as a share of housing units: Channelview 21.2 percent, Crosby 12.3 percent, Texas 6.4 percent, Harris County 2.5 percent Manufactured homes as a share of housing units Channelview Crosby Texas Harris County 21.2% 12.3% 6.4% 2.5% Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024, table B25024
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024, table B25024

That one number moves four practical things.

Service size. Late-1980s builds and manufactured homes skew toward 100 amp service where newer suburban construction carries 200 amp. That decides whether a battery ties in behind the existing main or whether panel work comes first, and it gets read off the main breaker label on site rather than guessed from the build year. Our guide on

What a 200 amp panel changes about battery installs→
covers both cases.

Mounting surface and height. A manufactured home's exterior wall is not masonry, and in this basin mounting height is not an aesthetic question. It is "above what water line." Elevation over the last documented high water is a design input here.

Who owns the ground. In a leased-lot community the lot owner has a say, exactly the way a landlord does. That is a paperwork step, not a dead end.

The panel's age, not the neighborhood's. The median Channelview home dates to 1989 and the median Crosby home to 1988. Harris County's median is also 1988, so this is not an old neighborhood by county standards (U.S. Census Bureau, table B25035). It is a place where many original panels are past thirty years old and get replaced during the install rather than worked around.

[PERSONAL EXPERIENCE] On a 77530 or 77532 survey the first five minutes never vary: main breaker label, load center or exterior meter-main, mounting wall, where the water reached last time, and who owns the lot.

Two battery modules give 18 kWh nominal and 17.52 kWh usable on a single 11.5 kW controller with 17.1 kW surge. That is the tier most single-family homes out here land on once the refrigerator, the water pump, fans, and a window unit are on the list.

See which system size fits your home→

Renting in Channelview or Crosby does not end the conversation

Roughly 3,513 of Channelview's 12,626 occupied homes and 458 of Crosby's 1,402 are rented (U.S. Census Bureau, table B25003). Both rates sit below Harris County's 45.3 percent, so this is not a rental-heavy corner of the county. It is a place where several thousand households need an owner in the loop first.

What an owner wants to hear is short. The equipment is permanent and permitted, most configurations need no roof penetration, and the asset stays with the property. Our guide on

Getting a landlord to approve battery backup→
lays out that conversation. If the lease is short or the answer is no, see
The portable versus whole-home tradeoff→
.

Why Crosby waits longer than the inside of the Beltway

Restoration is sequenced to return the most customers per repair. Crews secure downed lines and restore facilities vital to public safety first, then transmission and substations, then main distribution lines and fuses, and finally individual transformers, each of which typically serves about ten customers (CenterPoint Energy). Every step of that order pushes thinly populated areas toward the back of the queue.

The geometry is the reason, not the utility. Federal data shows customers in lower-density service areas carry more powerline miles and more trees per customer, which lengthens repairs. In one year of that data, cooperative customers averaged close to five hours without power against about two hours for municipal customers in denser urban areas (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2016). Crosby's roughly 1,467 housing units sit across a large unincorporated area well outside Beltway 8. Same geometry.

Beryl showed what that looks like at scale. Roughly 2.2 million CenterPoint customers lost power at peak, more than a million were still out days later, and the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston office logged heat indices of 100 to 106 F through the restoration (Houston Public Media; NWS Houston/Galveston, 2024).

[UNIQUE INSIGHT] That moves the sizing target. An area restored late does not need a system that runs everything for a few hours. It needs one that holds a short list for days. On a well or septic aerator, that list has a pump on it. See

Keeping a well pump running through an outage→
.

What to have ready before a site survey out here

Six things, none of which need a tape measure.

  1. A clear photo of the main breaker label showing service amperage.
  2. Whether the panel is an indoor load center or an exterior meter-main combination.
  3. Whether the home is site-built or manufactured, and whether you own the lot.
  4. The last known high-water line on the property, if there is one.
  5. Well and septic, or municipal water and sewer.
  6. The landlord or lot owner's contact information if you do not own.

We cover this corridor from

Our Houston service area→
, and the closest dedicated location page is
The Humble and Lake Houston page→
. There is no separate Channelview page.

Start your Houston backup plan→

Or call Eos at 833-989-3737 to talk through your setup with an installer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you install a home battery on a manufactured home in Channelview?

Often yes. It comes down to service amperage, the mounting wall, and whether the lot is owned or leased, all answered during a survey. With manufactured homes at 21.2 percent of Channelview's housing stock, this is routine here.

Do I need a 200 amp panel for battery backup?

Not always. A 100 amp service supports a battery in many configurations, and in others the panel gets upgraded as part of the job. What decides it is the main breaker rating and the loads you want carried.

How long does a home battery last during a Crosby outage?

Each module holds 8.76 kWh usable out of 9 kWh nominal, good for up to 6 hours at minimal load. Two modules give 17.52 kWh usable and up to 12 hours. Longer outages call for more capacity, and

The full plan ladder→
lays out each tier.

Will a battery let me stay home during a flood evacuation?

No. A battery keeps a dry house running through an outage. It does nothing about rising water and it is not a reason to stay. If Harris County calls an evacuation for your stretch of the river, leave.

The short version

  • The river sets the hazard. Two evacuations in seven years is a pattern.
  • The housing stock sets the install. Panel size, mounting surface, and lot ownership come before kilowatt-hours.
  • The low-density grid sets the runtime target. Plan for days of a short list, not hours of everything.

For the wider metro picture, start with our

Houston power outage preparedness guide→
.

Sources

Lin Zeri is the lead site surveyor at Eos Backup and Battery and runs installs across east Harris County, including Channelview, Crosby, Highlands, and the lower San Jacinto River communities.

ChannelviewCrosbybattery backupSan Jacinto Rivereast Harris Countymanufactured homeshome battery