While problems with the power grid aren’t new, electric whole-home backup systems are. Having emergency power on hand is a great idea, but power banks are also expensive, hard to move, and get in the way. Biolite, a new backup power brand on the market, has created a less expensive, easier, renter friendly solution that they'll be demoing at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Jan. 7-10th.
In the past few years we’ve seen releases of giant power generators from Anker Solix, Ecoflow, and others called “Whole Home Backups.” These hefty, barely portable devices don’t require solar input (although they’re compatible); they can charge by plugging into your wall. When you need them, you haul them out to the most advantageous spot in your home or office, and they act as a battery backup for multiple appliances in your home, from your fridge to your microwave. They have terrific power capacity and output, but they are chonkers, weighing around 80 pounds, and they take up a lot of space. If you’ve ever used a backup generator, you’ll know it also means extension cords snaking all over your house.
One solution has been to tie these backup generators directly into your circuit breaker box, so that if the power goes off, the whole house automatically flips over to your backup generator, acting like a giant UPS (uninterruptible power supply). While this is ideal since it doesn’t require you to move things around or plug and unplug them, you can’t actually directly plug into your breaker box—you need a subpanel to do so. That installation is expensive, so now you’ve spent money on the backup generator, the hardware for the subpanel, and the installation of all of it.
Biolite removes the middleman entirely. Although their generators carry the same power output as traditional whole-home generators, they’re flattened (under three inches thick) and lighter. Instead of being stored away in a closet, you mount them where you’ll use them, and the installation is DIY. The flat profile allows you to stow them in all sorts of places, and Biolite can be stored or installed in almost any orientation, so they’re going to fit most spaces. The battery is encased in such a way—with a corrugated aluminum heat sink—that it maintains temperature and keeps dust out without much airflow.
You're meant to keep Biolite plugged into the wall, and your appliances plugged into the Biolite. As soon as there’s a power interruption, Biolite acts like a UPS, shifting power so quickly, representatives insist that most devices won’t go offline or lose power. It’s not simply for your fridge, either— the base Biolite unit has a power strip that you can stick to your any magnetized surface, and plug in other appliances.
What Biolite has in common with other backup generators is that you can daisy-chain the batteries together for more kilowatt hours. Each Biolite has about 1.5kW, but you string them together for up to 10kW. You don’t have to keep them in the kitchen, either: You can add Biolites around the house, tucking them into small spaces near the items you need powered, waiting for when they need to spring into action. An app helps you manage all your Biolites, and informs you when they’re being used or not, so even if you’re not home, you know if there’s been a power interruption. Because there's no permanent installation, this is a way for renters to obtain backup power throughout the house that they can then take with them when they move.
An additional benefit of backup power is that you can use them to “game the grid.” Many people have “time of use” plans with their power company, so power is more expensive during parts of the day or specific weather events. During those times, you can elect to switch to your Biolite backup, subverting the power grid and using your battery backup instead, which should save you money.
Biolite batteries will be released this summer. The core battery alone will run $2100, and the core battery plus an extra Biolite will run $3000, but because they count as an “installed solution” they qualify for a 30% tax credit.
