Home Battery Backup Systems

A Battery Energy Storage System can provide continuous power during blackouts, and reduce energy costs in some places.

A home Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) can provide peace of mind by supplying ready backup power during outages, and lasts for decades. In places where utilities use time-of-use metering, battery backups can even lower your electric bill by letting you draw power when rates are lowest for use later.

Cromwell’s certified, licensed electricians can install a battery energy storage system for your home, where it can be paired with solar panels, or simply powered by the grid. Either way, homeowners opting for a BESS get peace of mind during blackouts, as well as potential utility savings that could help the system pay for itself over time.

While at Cromwell we definitely still install stand-alone, off-grid solar panel and battery systems, we have seen a huge upswing in customers staying connected to a utility (on the grid) and using their battery systems to lower electric bills and provide reliable power during outages.

Cromwell Solar: Backed Up By Battery Systems

Due to aging infrastructure coupled with the strains of more extreme weather conditions, power outages are occurring more than twice as often as they used to. A great example of using a backup battery system for continuous power can be found at our own Cromwell Solar headquarters in Lawrence, Kansas. Our office and warehouse use three Tesla Powerwalls to provide a steady backup in case of outages. When our power goes out, the lights barely flicker and our computers stay on — saving what we’re working on — while the bank next door has to shut down until the power is restored.

The installation of Tesla Powerwalls in 2019 at the Cromwell Solar headquarters was one of the first commercial Powerwall installations in the world. Long known for innovation, Cromwell Solar also had the distinction of installing the very first Tesla Powerwall residential system outside of California in 2018. Today we still install Powerwalls and other battery brands — but our preferred battery is FranklinWH for its power, relaibility, compatibility with solar and generators, and its ability to scale up with future needs.

Whole-Home Battery Backup Advantages

1. Backup Power & Home Resilience

A BESS keeps your home running when the grid goes down.

• Powers essentials like lights, fridge, Wi‑Fi, medical devices, sump pumps.

• Avoids the noise, fumes, and maintenance of gas generators.

• Instant, automatic switchover during outages—no manual start and no delay.

Due to Midwestern storms and our aging grid infrastructure (maxed out with data centers) Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska see frequent outages. This is often the #1 reason homeowners invest in batteries.

2. Lower Energy Bills

A BESS can strategically charge and discharge to reduce costs:

• Time‑of‑use savings: A pricing strategy that charges more for power during peak times, like during the day, and less during slower periods, like overnight. Home batteries allow you to charge overnight when power is cheap and use it during the day, avoiding buying power at peak times.

• Solar optimization: If you don’t have net-metering, you can store excess solar instead of sending it to the grid at low credit rates.

3. Environmental Benefits

A BESS helps reduce carbon footprint:

• Off-peak power is not just cheaper, it’s the cleanest power from the utility.

• Reduces reliance on fossil‑fuel peaker plants.

• Supports a cleaner, more stable grid.

A Battery Energy Storage System automatically detects a grid outage, responding so fast that you likely will have no idea you’ve switched over to battery power. Cromwell has years of experience integrating BESS with solar and generators, and even if you’re not ready for the full trifecta (solar/battery/generator) today our expert installation allows for it in the future.

Top Battery Energy Storage System Suppliers

FranklinWH

FranklinWH is our first choice for installing a BESS for homes. This California company is highly regarded in the industry for their home battery energy storage system because they combine whole-home backup capability with intelligent energy management that helps maximize savings and energy independence.

Perfect with or without solar and/or generator integration. FranklinWH offers an industry-leading 15-year warranty made for Midwestern weather, and is highly reliable. Their high power output allows homeowners to run large loads, including HVAC systems, without sacrificing performance during outages and the modular design makes it easy to expand storage capacity as energy needs grow, providing greater flexibility than many competing systems. FranklinWH also integrates perfectly with nearly all solar inverter and generator brands. In fact, Cromwell Electrical owners Aron and Sarah Cromwell have a FranklinWH backing up their own home.

Generac PWRcell

The Generac PWRcell battery features a modular design with capacities ranging from 9 kWh to 18 kWh per cabinet, allowing for scalability up to 36 kWh when multiple units are connected. The system delivers up to 9 kW of continuous power, making it one of the most powerful options available. Generac offers an expanded PWRcell system including solar panels and inverters, giving you the option to integrate seamlessly into a solar panel system.

Enphase IQ

Unlike many competing battery systems, Enphase IQ Batteries use a distributed microinverter architecture that improves reliability by eliminating a single point of failure and allowing individual battery modules to operate independently. Enphase batteries work well with solar panel installations that use Enphase solar microinverters, but their batteries don’t play well with other inverter brands.

Tesla Powerwall

Compared with many competing home battery brands, the Tesla Powerwall 3 offers a higher continuous power output in a single unit, allowing it to run more household appliances simultaneously without requiring multiple batteries. Its seamless integration with the Tesla ecosystem makes it a good choice for those with Tesla EVs.

Your Home Solar and Battery Backup Power Specialists

Installing a battery system increases the functionality of your solar energy installation, but the combination of solar and batteries (or solar and generators) is something that is beyond the technical scope of most solar installers.

To maximize the functionality of your home solar power or home battery system, utilize an experienced energy professional like Cromwell Solar. A battery system can be added to any solar installation either at the time of initial installation or down the road if you want to add functionality to your existing solar project. Cromwell Solar is happy to add battery backup functionality to any existing solar project (sometimes requiring some modifications), whether we initially installed it or not. Additionally, batteries can be added to any solar panel installation, no matter whether we installed it or not.

Today’s home battery systems can even be controlled and monitored with an app that integrates with solar panels and car chargers, showing you exactly what’s going on with your power use and storage. App control can give you (or Cromwell Solar) the ability to program a battery system to charge itself from the grid at night when power is often less expensive, a practice called net metering, and discharge it during the day.

Today, with greater functionality and lower cost a battery backup system is now highly encouraged for all our residential customers.