Battery backup vs standby generators: Keep your power on during the next outage
There is much to consider when choosing which kind of backup power you need during a power outage or when you use off-grid backup power. To determine if a backup power generator system, uninterruptible power supply, or a battery is right for your home, you need to know the pros and cons of emergency generators or home battery backup systems for your home or office to maintain power supply until utility power is restored.
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You’ll also need to consider whether you want to buy a gas generator, diesel generator, air or liquid-cooled, fixed standby generator, or a portable generator. Do you want a seamless switch to emergency battery power, fed by solar, or will a portable air-cooled generator fulfill all of your needs?
Comparing the differences between a generator and a battery backup for your home power supply can be less of an onerous task if you have first carried out a detailed energy audit so that you know how much power you will need during a power failure.
How much power does your home need?
To work out how powerful your battery backup system, standby power system, or home backup generator needs to be, carry out an energy audit by calculating how much power your appliances use. Once you have the details from your energy audit, you can decide to choose which system will be best for your home or office and whether you prefer a battery backup system or a generator.
Performing an energy audit
For my energy audit, I used a spreadsheet to calculate the power requirements in my home and office to determine how large my backup system needs to be. In this example, I have taken an average wattage for a standard type of appliance, and have used 110v to calculate power requirements that might be needed in the US. To calculate amps I divided the watts for the appliance by the voltage required in the US (110v). Then I estimated how many hours per day that the appliance might be in use. The final column indicates the total amp-hours (Ah) for each appliance. You can get a professional energy audit to assess your home’s energy usage.
My home-grown table looks like this:
|
Appliance |
Volts |
Watts |
Amps W/V |
Daily use (hours) |
Total amp-hours |
|
TV |
110 |
38 |
0.345455 |
8 |
2.763636364 |
|
Fridge |
110 |
725 |
6.590909091 |
18 |
118.6363636 |
|
Vacuum |
110 |
335 |
3.045454545 |
1 |
3.045454545 |
|
Laptop |
110 |
70 |
0.636363636 |
6 |
3.818181818 |
|
Desktop PC |
110 |
150 |
1.363636364 |
10 |
13.63636364 |
|
Broadband router |
110 |
10 |
0.090909091 |
24 |
2.181818182 |
|
PC Display screen |
110 |
30 |
0.272727273 |
10 |
2.727272727 |
|
Microwave |
110 |
1300 |
11.81818182 |
0.5 |
5.909090909 |
|
Coffee machine |
110 |
1000 |
9.090909091 |
1 |
9.090909091 |
|
Cooker |
110 |
3000 |
27.27272727 |
2 |
54.54545455 |
|
Radio |
110 |
5 |
0.045454545 |
5 |
0.227272727 |
|
Sump pump |
110 |
1200 |
10.90909091 |
2 |
21.81818182 |
|
Hairdryer |
110 |
1500 |
13.63636364 |
0.5 |
6.818181818 |
|
CPAP machine |
110 |
90 |
0.818181818 |
10 |
8.181818182 |
|
3 x spotlights |
110 |
120 |
1.090909091 |
6 |
6.545454545 |
|
Air Conditioning |
110 … |
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