Who’s Got Your Backup?
The Evolution to
Personal Power
Bracing for a big power grid
attack: ‘One is too many’
BY RICHARD A. FLOREY
Marketing Director
EcoVantage Energy, inc.
www./ecovantageenergy.com
“…A widespread outage lasting even a few days could disable devices ranging from ATMs to cellphones to traffic lights, and
could threaten lives if heating, air conditioning and health care systems exhaust their backup power supplies.
“It’s one of those things: One is too many, so that’s why we have to pay attention,” said Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Chairman Cheryl LaFleur. “The threats continue to evolve, and we have to continue to evolve as well.”
- Steve Reilly, USA TODAY, March 24, 2015
T
Nissan, Mercedes and others, will be providing their
versions of battery backup, at hopefully lower prices.
Though these systems are aesthetically pleasing, they
generally do not hold as much power as a typical AGM
based system, and are made to be daisy-chained up
to nine units to meet your essential needs. That sort of
takes away the cost savings. But they do look great,
and maybe that’s an incentive to you.
hese are certainly exciting times, changes of every
kind are happening all around us. Now, change
is one of two things; either it’s something to dread, or
something to embrace as positive.
Last month, I wrote about how technology and
innovation overcome the bothersome little nuisances
of life, my point being; that there could be no greater
nuisance than going without electric power for extended
periods of time, if not indefinitely. Without electricity,
we’ll be relegated to the 1800’s within hours. In order to
avoid that ugly scenario, having personal power is the
only viable option.
Something to Think About
Electric utilities all around the world are building solar
and wind power plants because they see the future
of lower maintenance, high efficiency and reduced
vulnerability as huge pluses for themselves. We say; so
should you.
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
Success Favors the Prepared
In the next few years, a host of companies like Tesla,
SEPTEMBER 2016
Batteries ARE the Ke y
You can have all the solar in the world, but when the
sun goes down, then what? Well, during the day, storing
your excess power into a battery bank for future use
has become more and more popular among solar
owners, including utilities. For the most part, your
excess production just goes back into the grid. However,
when the grid is down, your inverter will instantly begin
using the stored power from the batteries to power
essential systems until grid power is restored. How long
this service period lasts is completely up to how much
storage capacity you have installed. The typical system
has a bank of twelve batteries that can last up to eight
hours, depending on how many items you have on your
essential systems list.
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