how does a battery backup work

Whole house battery backup means having access to all circuits in the house and being able to determine which devices to power in the event of a grid outage. These decisions can be based on many factors, including lifestyle needs, time of year, amount of solar power, battery size, and battery state of charge.

Although it sounds simple, energy transfer is a complex process and is heavily regulated for safety requirements. When electricity enters the home from the main switchboard, it passes through circuits that manage the flow of electricity to appliances, phones, computers, and anything else that consumes energy. It is no easy task to introduce a battery into the mix that can resume where the grid stopped to keep everything from refrigerators to Wi-Fi running smoothly.

Determining the size of battery needed to provide the necessary power is the next critical step. In addition to the type of battery you end up purchasing, this metric will have a significant impact on the cost of your emergency battery backup power supply.

A survey of the various batteries available today reveals that they vary in chemistry. To name a few examples, lithium ion, lithium iron phosphate, lead acid, and even brine batteries are among the popular options today, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

how does a battery backup work

Home batteries must be installed only by a qualified electrician and connected directly to the home's power distribution system. Batteries are recharged by obtaining power from the grid or, more commonly, from a photovoltaic system and storing it for use during a power outage or when the photovoltaic system begins to shut down at night.

If the battery is programmed as an emergency backup and the grid fails, the battery can power the house for about 24 hours, depending on its size and the amount of stored energy used during the outage.

However, if the outage is prolonged, the battery will eventually be completely depleted, which is why most home batteries are paired with solar power. The solar + energy storage combination is a powerful energy recovery strategy. This is because when the grid is off, batteries can be continuously recharged to draw power from the sun.