Battery Backup for House

benney50

Hi. I am convinced we will be having multiple power outages this winter due to demand overpowering supply. My wife works from home and is reliant on electricity to earn her living. We have solar panels but they also cut out during an outage. I am hoping for some advice on the best form of "battery backup" that can keep the house basics powered for at least a day (not including fossil fuel generators) or ideally continually charged through wind or solar. The Tessla system and equivalents are beyond our price range. Thanks in advance Patrick 

QrizB

There are lots of options and the cheapest start at around £3-4k.

This is discussed quite regularly on the "Green and Ethical" forum, you might want to read some of the threads there:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/green-ethical-moneysaving

Section62

benney50 said:

Hi. I am convinced we will be having multiple power outages this winter due to demand overpowering supply. My wife works from home and is reliant on electricity to earn her living. We have solar panels but they also cut out during an outage. I am hoping for some advice on the best form of "battery backup" that can keep the house basics powered for at least a day (not including fossil fuel generators) or ideally continually charged through wind or solar. The Tessla system and equivalents are beyond our price range. Thanks in advance Patrick 

You really need to add some definition around "best" and "house basics".

A relatively cheap form of backup to get you through a powercut would be a 12/230V inverter combined with a 12V leisure battery you trickle charge from the mains in advance, although you could use a 12V wind/solar charger in addition.

This couldn't be used to power the normal house wiring, but if you buy one powerful enough could give you 'x' hours of use of (say) a laptop, desklamp, router and phone charger.  The 'x' depends on the load, the battery capacity, and the state of charge immediately before the powercut starts.

Unless you buy one at the more expensive end of the scale you wouldn't be able to boil a kettle, or run anything else involving much electrical heating.

"Best" would probably involve considerably more investment, but it largely depends on what your wife's work involves, and the extent to which you'd want other household equipment (e.g. fridge/freezer) to be powered up as well.

benney50

Hi. Many thanks for your replies. It will only be required to power a desktop PC (including monitor and usual peripherals etc), router and modest amount of lighting for the work area. Just enough to maintain my wife's ability to work. No kettles, fridges, tv's, washing machines etc.

benney50

Was looking at something like this 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/EF-ECOFLOW-Portable-Multiple-Recharge/dp/B091YLDBZS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8&th=1

lohr500

Without looking at specifications, I think a desktop PC, separate monitor, router, printer and say a single LED desk lamp could well draw a combined 200 watts, possibly more. So even the power bank in your Amazon link would only keep the basics going for around 3 1/2 hours. Enough to cover short term power cuts, but not enough to sustain a full day's work.

benney50

Hi. Appreciate that. Thank you. I will keep trying to find an affordable solution (£1000 ish)

tteedd

You can get a small generator for around £350.

benney50

Hi. Trying to avoid fossil fuels if i can

MX5huggy

What’s your car position like? Get an EV with Vehicle to load capability, Kia Hyundai and MG are the 3 that have models with this capability. 

QrizB

benney50 said:

Hi. Appreciate that. Thank you. I will keep trying to find an affordable solution (£1000 ish)

This thread might be of interest:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6360585/portable-power-stations
@JKenH (one of the "Green and Ethical" regulars) bought a portable power station and a single solar panel to fill a similar role.