While you may not be able to predict when an outage will occur, it’s important to be prepared when they do with home battery backup. Here are some helpful tips for using your SunVault home battery to keep your lights on even when the grid goes down.
Using Your SunVault™ System
Generally, SunVault Storage requires little to no maintenance and no day-to-day operation on your part. During the day, your SunPower Equinox solar panels power your home with solar energy. Any excess energy produced charges up your SunVault home battery to use at night or when there isn’t enough sunlight for panels to produce all the electricity you need. When your battery is fully charged, excess energy will be sent to the power grid.
By storing energy during the day when solar panels are most productive, your SunVault can power your home at night, during periods of peak energy cost, or on cloudy days. This effectively decreases your use of grid electricity to save you money and reduce your reliance on the grid. You have the ability to set your battery to Cost Savings or Self-Supply mode to maximize your savings.
If you are more interested in ensuring that you have plenty of stored energy to power your home in the event of an unexpected outage, you can now set your system to “extended reserve” mode. This will store 100% of the energy generated until you change the mode. You may prefer to keep your system in Cost Savings or Self Supply mode, with the option to switch to Reserve Mode if there is a planned outage. Regardless of your preferences, you can conveniently make the change with the click of a button on the app.
Storm Tip
During a severe storm, or if your utility sends an alert that it has experienced an outage, use the app to activate Reserve Mode. When activated, all available solar energy will be sent to your home battery backup system instead of powering your home until it is fully charged, which can take up to 24 hours. Your battery will stay fully charged for the number of days you specified in your mySunPower app for Reserve Mode or until an outage occurs.
During an Outage
If a power outage occurs, SunVault Storage will disconnect automatically from the grid and power your home. While you might notice the transition, most of your selected appliances will continue to operate without interruption. In fact, oftentimes homeowners don’t even realize there is an outage with their utility until they check the app or see that the rest of the neighborhood is completely dark.
Your system will provide power to the parts of your home that you and your installer selected. During power outages, be mindful of appliances that are running on backup power in order to avoid draining it unnecessarily. Your SunVault Storage system will use the available stored energy to meet your home’s needs.
If your SunPower Equinox solar panel system produces more clean energy than your home needs during a given day, the excess will be stored in its battery. When grid power is restored to your home, your system will automatically reestablish its connection.
If your home is using too much power and your SunVault home battery can’t supply enough energy to run all of the appliances, you may experience a loss of electricity. Your SunVault battery will automatically try to repower your home twice and will stop if both attempts are unsuccessful. If this does occur, you should turn your home appliances off and use the mySunPower mobile app to do a system reset.
Storage Tip
If your SunVault home battery is fully depleted, turn off as many appliances as possible. To ensure that your SunVault will have enough power to “wake up” and recharge itself as soon as solar energy is available again, a small amount of energy is automatically reserved in your battery. If too many appliances are running at once, your home battery may not charge as quickly. This is especially important during winter conditions.
Plan for Future Power Outages with Solar Technologies Home Battery Backup Solutions
Adding energy storage to your home is a great way to protect yourself against grid outages, blackouts and rising energy costs. As a SunPower SunVault Installer, we can provide the best home battery recommendation based on your current energy usage and needs.
If you’re ready to enjoy peace of mind outage protection and see how much money you could save with a SunVault home battery, contact us today for a free customized quote.