Battery

On Batteries for Whole Home Backup Power

EcoFlow Ultra BasicIn recent weeks I’ve twice given my presentation on an Affordable Strategy for Whole Home Backup Power. The first time was online using Zoom. The second time was live at the July meeting of the Norhill Neighborhood Association. Both went very well. But as ever, the presentation changed a little from one outing to the next. In particular, a Norhill resident had a comment about battery storage.

This inspired me to show a couple of slides I had originally skipped in the interest of time. Simply put, I’m not a fan of whole house battery backup. And I’d like to explain the logic my position.

For the love of sunshine

Our is a modest home. A hundred+ year old Craftsman Cottage built by William Wilson Realty Company. This kind of home has a roof that’s all angles. There’s just not much contiguous space upon which to locate solar panels.

Further, one of the truly great features of our older neighborhood are all the mature trees. The place is just rich with grand old Maples, Pecans, Oaks and Sycamores. Even the occasional Loblolly pine. Our property has a mature Pecan in the center of the back yard.

All these big ‘ole trees tend to shade single-story homes like ours. Those houses that do have solar installations are mostly two-story homes, that manage to peer out beyond the treetops.

Oaks over the east end of Bayland Ave After Hurricane Beryl

So, we don’t have solar panels on the house. Many companies have tried to sell us on the idea, but in the end, it’s just not practical for this house, at this location. That makes this all about batteries, and batteries alone. Not solar+batteries.

Read More

Color Me Intrigued: Base Power Company

I routinely listen to a handful of podcasts. One of the more recent adds to my routine is Doug Lewin’s Energy Capital Podcast. It’s a little on the civilized side for me, but Doug gets some very good guests. The last episode I heard featured Zach Dell, founder of Base Power Company. I must say that I am intrigued by what they are building. Most especially in the wake of last week’s derecho, which left parts of Houston without power for several days.

Base Power on X1 Carbon Gen12

Base Power Company is a retail electrical energy provider with a potentially novel twist. Their service has two aspects; a flat monthly cost for electrical service, and a 20 kWh home backup battery mated to an 11 kW inverter.

The battery is used to cache power from the grid. In the simplest case, providing whole home backup during an outage.

Further, the company uses the battery to arbitrage the spot rate for electricity. It charges the battery during periods when plentiful wind and solar generation pushes the spot rate for power very low. I’ve read that electricity is almost free when wind and solar is really delivering. When the rate climbs the home can draw on the battery to lower the cost of power.

During periods of peak load, when the spot rate is very high, the company can withdraw power from the battery, feeding it back into the grid. It’s basic “buy-low, sell-high” play that optimizes revenue while acting to balance the grid itself.

Read More

Revisiting The Merits Of Battery Backup

According to a FierceTelecom article by Sean Buckley, “Verizon says fewer customers are purchasing battery backup for fiber home voice services.” The article describes how Verizon’s FiOS FTTH customers are tending to rely upon their mobile phones to stay on touch during a power outage.

This assertion comes right as the FCC is concerned about CPE remaining powered during an outage, something that cannot be done over fiber as it was over copper. Since customers were not buying traditional battery backup units Verizon has come up with its own solution called PowerReserve.

Read More

The Belkin Conserve Valet: Dishonorably Discharged?

valet-charge-smartIn recent years the number of devices that we need to charge daily has constantly grown. Initially it was just our two cell phones. Since they each had unique power connectors each had its own AC adapter that lived near the appropriate night stand. Simple enough. Tidy even.

My Blackberry Bold 9700 was the first cell phone I used the featured the newly common micro-USB power connector. Shortly thereafter we added a Barnes & Noble Color Nook. Both of those devices require high-current chargers, where “high-current” means more than the 500 mA that is actually part of the USB standard.

That’s when things started getting more complicated. We may have achieved standardization of connectors, but still required dedicated chargers for some devices.

Read More
Back To Top