To truly live off the grid, you need a home battery. A home battery acts as a bridge between your house and the power grid, so when there is a power shortage it will act as a backup electrical system. While it runs, the home battery stores power from the grid or your solar panels which it deploys throughout your home.
How a battery connects to your home:
1. The Grid – A network of powerplants across the world that delivers power to individuals like yourself.
2. Main Distribution Panel – Circuits that run from the grid into your home appliances and rooms.
3. Home Battery System – Advanced energy storage, which can function independent of the grid.
4. Critical Loads Panel – A backup of the main distribution panel, which is powered by the home battery.
Home batteries range in power and size, from 6 kWh to 20+ kWh, the average battery having enough power to keep an LCD TV on for 50 hours. That’s at least 20 movies.
Promising companies like Swell Energy are providing state-of-the-art “smart” home batteries that are lightweight and cloud-connected for monitoring purposes.
Since PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric Company) in February 2016 had announced the Self-Generation Incentive Program now has never been a better time for off the grid living.
