Battery Backup Systems for Homes

A battery backup can provide continuous power during blackouts, and reduce energy costs in some places.

A home battery backup system 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.

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 has been installing battery backup systems on homes, farms, and commercial and industrial sites for most of our 40+ years. In the last decade, both the advancements in functionality and the lowering of costs for battery backup systems have been quite dramatic. Much of this massive surge in battery technology has been driven by the demand for better batteries for electric cars (EV). The batteries in EVs are often the exact same as those used for home or business battery backup systems and are normally lithium-ion. 

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 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 perfered 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

The advantages of a battery backup system over a backup generator (which we also install) include the fact that a generator is loud, needs regular oil changes, and has limited functionality. By contrast, a battery backup system operates silently, requires no regular maintenance, and can be controlled from an app on your phone.

Cromwell Solar can install a battery backup system with or without solar. When combined with solar, a backup battery system at a home can store clean solar energy produced during the day for use onsite later without depending on the utility company for net-metering. Without a battery system, a solar-powered home will still lose power whenever the utility grid is down.

Most residential battery systems can power a home for at least a full day, though that varies depending on energy usage. And most can be fully charged within just a few hours. When paired with solar panels on your home, a battery backup system may provide days of power even if the grid goes down for longer periods.

Battery Brands Offered

FranklinWH

FranklinWH is widely regarded as a top-tier home battery energy storage system because it combines 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 notoriously reliable. Its high-power output allows homeowners to run large loads, including HVAC systems, without sacrificing performance during outages. The modular design makes it easy to expand storage capacity as energy needs grow, providing greater flexibility than many competing systems. FranklinWH also is amongst the best choice for its ability to integrate perfectly with almost all solar inverter and generator 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.

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

Compared to 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 do not integrate with solar projects unless they use Enphase solar inverters.

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.