Whether you’re looking for a home battery backup to store your solar energy storage system’s surplus electricity or you simply need a UL grid-tied solution to keep your home powered in the event of natural disasters or blackouts, there are a lot of details to sift through. The process of selecting a home battery backup system can seem quite onerous.
This short guide should help with some of those details, at least from a high level.
What to Look for in Home Battery Backup Systems
The following are just a few of the specifications and other miscellaneous features and general items to consider in home battery backup systems for the purposes of comparing and contrasting their differences.
- Power and efficiency
Obviously, power and energy efficiency are the most important elements of any home battery backup system. Most battery systems are rated by kWh and Ah, or kilowatt-hours and amp-hours. The higher the kWh, the more energy the system can deliver, and the higher the Ah rating, the more current the system can deliver over a unit of time (in both cases, an hour). Higher figures for each indicate a larger overall discharge potential for longer, more intense continuous use.
- Scalability
Many home battery backup systems can be installed in parallel, so if one single pack cannot deliver enough energy for your home, if they can be connected you can create a more powerful backup solution that can deliver more energy for longer.
- Built-in protections and thermal management
Many modern lithium home battery energy storage solutions are manufactured with advanced thermal management protections to safeguard against overheating, along with battery management systems (BMS) that monitor each battery’s cell levels to ensure an even, balanced charge, consistent discharge depth, and which protect the battery’s longevity.
- General durability and vibration resistance
Some home battery backup systems are rated for outdoor installation; others are resistant to vibration which makes them suitable for installation in areas where they will be subjected to vibratory stress, which can be damaging to battery packs.
- Live monitoring capabilities
There are home battery energy storage solutions that are compatible with mobile apps that enable at-a-glance tracking of the system charge level, current output, overall health and other metrics, facilitating easy system monitoring and control.
- Size and configuration
Some home battery backup systems are huge, which can be problematic for homeowners with limited space. For this reason, batteries that can be installed outside can be particularly valuable. If that is not an option, there are also numerous solutions that are slim and compact, for installation in tight quarters.
- Ease of installation
Many home battery backup systems are arranged to be relatively straightforward and easy to install, which can help keep down not only installation costs, but also shorten t length of time before which the solution can be implemented.
- Warranty coverage
Reputable providers of home battery backup storage solutions warranty their batteries, some of them for more than 10 years, so homeowners can buy with peace of mind that the system will perform as intended and that the investment will repay itself.
Don’t Choose a Home Battery Backup System Alone: Consult the Experts
Trying to choose a home battery backup system on your own can be overwhelming and as a homeowner it can even be hard to determine how much power your home actually needs. A professional versed in backup energy storage solutions, and a typical home’s power consumption, can help ease that burden.
Start your search with a call to the experts at BigBattery, who will help you choose a storage solution that works for your specific use c
