Article · 27 Oct 2026

Does a CCTV camera work without electricity?

Short answer: an ordinary wired CCTV camera does not work without electricity. It stops the moment the power goes unless something else feeds it. A camera with its own battery, charged by a solar panel, keeps recording. How long either lasts comes down to simple arithmetic, which we work through below.

The short answer, by type of camera

Why a wired system stops all at once

A wired CCTV system has four parts that need power: the cameras, the recorder that stores the video, the router that sends it to your phone, and the power supply that feeds the cameras through the cable. If any one of them goes off, you lose either the recording or the remote view. When the mains goes, they all go together.

It is also why a cut cable is the oldest trick against CCTV: one snip at the right place and the camera is blind, whether or not the power is on.

Keeping a wired system running: the arithmetic

A UPS or inverter can keep a wired system going. How long depends on two numbers: how many watts the system draws, and how many watt-hours the battery can give. Here is a worked example with typical figures, not a measurement of any particular kit:

• Load: four cameras at about 4 W each, a recorder at 10 W and a router at 6 W, about 32 W in total.
• Battery: a common 12 V 7 Ah UPS battery holds about 84 Wh, of which roughly 80% is usable, about 67 Wh.
• Run time: 67 Wh ÷ 32 W ≈ 2 hours.

Two hours covers a short cut. It does not cover a night, or a whole working day. For that you need a much larger battery, or an inverter with solar charging, sized for the whole load.

How a solar camera keeps going

A solar 4G camera is built to run without mains power at all. It sleeps until motion wakes it, records the clip to its SD card, sends an alert over its own SIM, and goes back to sleep. Because it uses so little, a small panel can keep it running.

In the worked example in our solar panel and battery guide, a camera uses about 8.6 Wh a day. A 7,800 mAh battery holds about 29 Wh, around 23 Wh usable, so it runs about two and a half days with no sun at all. A 5 W panel puts back about 13 Wh on a modest day. Brochure claims of “three months on one charge” are standby with no recording, so do not plan on them.

Two things a solar camera still needs: sun on its panel, and a 4G signal for alerts and live view. It keeps recording to the card without the signal, and you see the clips when it reconnects.

Which to choose

• Inside a building with reliable backup: a wired system on a correctly sized UPS or inverter.
• Outside, at a gate, yard, farm, borehole or shutter: a solar 4G camera, which does not care whether the grid is on.
• Somewhere with no power at all: only a solar camera makes sense.

If you are in Ghana, the Ghana page covers the 4G networks and their bands, and the solar CCTV camera price in Ghana page compares market prices with ours. See also choosing a SIM card.