Home Energy Storage
In a standard solar energy system, homeowners or businesses produce energy from their solar panels during the day, and then draw energy from the grid at night. While this works just fine under normal circumstances and can drastically reduce energy costs, it still doesn’t answer the question of what to do during a power outage.
Whether the result of a powerful thunderstorm or a blizzard, outages can last for several hours and sometimes even days, particularly in rural areas. For homeowners who are trying to transition to clean energy, using a rechargeable battery to provide whole house energy storage is a much better alternative to using a gas-powered generator.
How Does Whole House Energy Storage Work?
With solar systems that are connected to the grid, any excess energy that is produced during the day is sent to the grid to offset the cost of drawing on grid-based electricity at night. With a whole house energy storage system, that extra energy is instead sent to a specialized battery.
The battery is connected directly to your home’s solar system, storing excess electricity as it is generated. Batteries can be programmed to turn on at night when the solar panels are no longer generating energy, or to serve as an emergency backup if the grid goes down.
Today’s whole house batteries typically provide enough energy to last a full 24 hours. However, even during a power outage, the batteries can be recharged during the day as solar panels generate more electricity. This is all done without using harmful fossil fuels.
How Large of a Storage System Do You Need?
The idea of a whole house energy storage system is that you could have access to every circuit in your home during a power outage. Systems can also be configured to provide a partial backup, so that only the most important appliances and systems draw power from the battery during an outage.
Many homeowners find it beneficial to only send power to systems that are absolutely necessary during an outage (such as HVAC and their refrigerator), rather than trying to power everything. This allows for a smaller and less expensive battery to be installed, while also helping keep the battery from running dry.
The average home uses roughly 30kWH of energy per day. However, this can vary based on the needs of your appliances and other electronics in the home. To get an idea of how much energy you would need during an outage, check your utility bill, which should show your average electricity usage.
If you are interested in getting whole house energy storage for your property, contact Sunrise Solar today. Our team can help you determine how much battery storage you need and ensure that you have an energy storage solution that seamlessly integrates with your solar system.
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