How a Home Power Backup System Works
There are good reasons to have a home power backup system in place, either for off-grid daily use or emergency energy use. In the event of a prolonged power outage for example, one of our first concerns is how to keep food in the refrigerator cold. If the outage occurs during the summer, we are counting the hours, if not the minutes.
However, it can be comforting to know you have home backup energy available, for a day, or for however long you have setup. No need to worry about when the power might come back on. But how does a home power backup system work; and how do you set it up?
In our example we are using a a portable power station as the main source of energy. Power stations are store energy, and require no gas to operate. There are two primary ways make use of this stored, off-grid, energy.
The first is direct use. Here you simply plug your devices directly into the power station outlets provided. The unit can usually be moved around to wherever is most convenient in the event of power failure, and used from there. Once the grid-power comes back on, the power station can be recharged. Or, the power station can be recharged via solar panels.
The second method of accessing the stored energy is home integration. Here, in the event of power failure, pre-selected electrical circuits in the house would automatically be switched over to the power station energy; and thus, remain ‘on’.
Setting up your home power backup is not too complicated. The main parts needed are:
- Power Station (Inverter & Battery)
- Method to recharge (AC, Solar, EV station)
- Power station home sub-panel (if integrating with house electrical)
The overall main three steps in setting up your home system are:
Step 1
Calculate how much Watt hours (Wh) of energy you will need or will want to have. For example, if you need emergency home power for 24 hours of time, then 6,000Wh of energy capacity can be sufficient to get you thru whole day of no grid energy (See Home Backup Power diagram below).
This sample energy use chart can be a good starting point for evaluating your emergency energy needs. If you have additional items that need to be powered during an emergency 24-hour period, simply add those watts multiplied by the hours of use needed.
You might also be interested in having power for uses beyond just emergencies. This could mean having enough energy to live as normal, for days or weeks +, depending on your goals.
Step 2
Select a flexible system that can adapt to your energy needs for now and the future. For our example, EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra system is a system that designed specifically for home integration. The start kit, which includes a Delta Pro Ultra Inverter and a Delta Pro Ultra Battery, provides 6,000 Wh of energy storage capacity.
Additionally, the Delta Pro Ultra is able to expand to 30,000 Wh of storage capacity by stacking up to 5 batteries, per 1 Delta Pro Ultra Inverter. To expand further, 3 stacks can be combined by incorporate the EcoFlow Smart Home Panel 2, allowing you to reach huge 90,000 Wh of energy storage capacity.
Step 3
Install your whole-home power backup system. With most power station brands, the general setup can be as illustrated below (see diagram). The EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra fits into this diagrammed system.
In this diagram, the home is connected to local power, as normal. In the event of a power outage, the power backup system will come on and power the selected home circuits.
The basic setup for home integration involves amassing the needed amount of battery storage/ power stations. In the diagram above, these are labeled as “power station”.
Next, in order for your home to be able access this stored energy, you will need to install a power station home sub-panel. This allows you power stations to connect it’s power to the pre-selected home circuits.
The sub panel should be installed by a local electrician. Once this is installed, expanding your energy storage, monitoring, programming, etc. is something you can do on your own.
Summary
The main parts needed to set up a whole-home power backup system includes the following: Power Station stored energy (battery and inverter combo.); and a power station home panel (sub panel), used to integrated the stored energy with the home’s existing circuits.