A young family with three kids moved out of city immediately after the pandemic started in the spring of 2020. Their house was still in construction, and they were still in the process of buying additional household appliances; only a pump, a septic tank, and a boiler were installed in the house. The owners were visiting the site quite often to check on the construction state. But as soon as March 2020 arrived, all of their plans had to change. The whole family immediately moved into the dacha.
While the first days seemed to be just fine, during the second week of their stay, the house’s electricity was cut off. It lasted less than an hour, but it was very unpleasant. The house gradually began to cool down, the toilet stopped working, they could not prepare hot food or access to the internet.
The second time a power outage occurred, it was on their child’s birthday, and it lasted almost half a day. That was precisely the moment they started feeling unsecured. What if a power outage happens again? What if everything turns off during the winter? The house will not just become cold, and all electrical appliances will stop working, but the worst part of all this is that pipes and water will freeze due to the water pump and heater shutdowns.
These are some of the most critical problems and concerns our customers turned to us to solve with an uninterrupted power supply solution at home.
What was the main problem?
All the house systems, including lighting, heating, septic tank, water supply, depend on electricity supply. In the case of a power outage, the house becomes uninhabitable, especially during the winter.
How did we solve the problem?
We had to determine the load characteristics and the consumption schedule.
Initially, we installed four Watts Battery modules. They backed up the main loads, except for the electric boiler. When there was a power outage, the house continued to have lighting, hot water (not heating), a working septic tank, and cold water. After the installation, the owners experienced many more outages without even noticing it.
As a result, the system proved reliable, providing backup power to the house for more than 8 hours.
What other issues had to be solved?
Initially, we understood that without a reserve electric boiler, especially in winter, the house can freeze for 12–20 hours. In addition to the uncomfortable low temperature inside the home, this could lead to irreversible consequences to the house plumping system as water could freeze in the pipes.
The second stage of our work was the electric boiler’s connection to the modules, despite its high power (27 kW). The electric boiler was supposed to provide a temperature that would not allow the house to freeze for up to 3 days.
And then, we came up with the following solution. We understood that with a power outage, safety becomes higher than comfort and that we do not need a temperature of 27 degrees, especially if there is no one at home. If we change the boiler’s operating mode and set the temperature to 10 degrees, we will not need to keep the boiler running for 8–10 hours. Thus, we could backup the boiler system by reducing its load.
After 12 hours, the boiler systematically starts heating the heating circuit. But for this, it does not require much power, since the temperature is maintained not only by the boiler itself, but also by the mode that does not overload the Watts Battery modules (while it retains the temperature of the set load).
The house is fully autonomous
It is well-known that heating an electric boiler is more expensive than using a solid or liquid fuel boiler. And in winter, homeowners spend much money on the maintenance of the house.
When can we save on electricity? Mostly on sunny days! In the spring and summer periods, you can save on total electricity consumption by installing solar panels. For more than half a year, we can practically not use any grid electricity.
We decided to install 3 kW of solar panels on the roof of the house for this purpose. In the past November and February 2021, they showed savings of 8–10% compared to last year.
This summer, we hope to increase the result compared to last year in the summer period by 90–100%. This will allow the customer to reduce the cost of operating the electric boiler.
What is the know-how here?
Our know-how is that our system users can forget about the issues that periodic power outages can lead to. The installed system automatically distributes energy optimally thanks to the online monitoring provided by the Watts Battery systems. At the same time, no actions are required from the user at all.
One of the most important advantages of the Watts Battery system in this case, is the opportunities and comfort that it gives to homeowners and their families. They can safely live at a remote distance from the city. They don’t have to worry about frequent power outages; they don’t have to carry any fuel for a generator.
Thus, we have solved the most critical problem — the reservation of a powerful boiler. Usually, customers think they will need at least 6 modules for one electric boiler, which is a significant investment at the initial stage. We managed to optimize the system in such a way as to feed the 27 kW boiler with a 9 kW system. Thus, our approach addresses the energy consumption of the boiler, optimizing it to extend the life of the boiler without the mains electricity.
With this case, we want to emphasize that our specialists can help provide a solution to any project by developing the most suitable system for you.
In this installation, we were able to optimize the power consumption in such a way as to preserve the systems at home and allow a comfortable stay away from the city, and not to think about power outages.
The system we installed can provide power for the house for up to 3 days and it consists of 6 modules and three sets of solar panels.
For more information about our system please write to hello@wattsbattery.com