What types of electrical devices will the battery back up? Will it back up my A/C during an outage?

Our Base batteries provide whole-home backup to most homes, ensuring all appliances on your main panel — including your A/C — stay powered during an outage.

However, keep in mind that higher energy usage shortens the duration of your backup and if you’re pulling a lot of power at once, it can overwhelm the system.

Managing your energy usage during an outage can help maximize your battery's performance and duration.

The US Energy Information Administration gives us some rough percentages that are helpful for understanding where your electricity is going:

• Air conditioning and heating: 54% of your total energy use

• Appliances and electronics : 23% of your total energy use

• Water heating: 16% of your total energy use

• Refrigeration: 4% of your total energy use

• Lighting: 4% of your total energy use
  

Turning off non-critical devices such as appliances and electronics, as well as reducing use of A/C and heating can meaningfully extend the duration of your battery backup.

If your battery does not automatically kick-in as it should, this usually means high-energy appliances are using too much power. Your home must be using 11 kW or less for the battery to turn on. If high-draw devices like electric heaters push usage higher, you'll need to reduce usage before the battery can turn on. The system will automatically try to restart three times.

If it still doesn’t work after 3 automatic restarts, you'll need to cut energy use further. Once you've reduced usage, you can restart the battery using the Base Power mobile app.

If you have 2 batteries, once you decrease usage under 11 kW and the battery turns on, wait 5 minutes and then you can increase usage to 22 kW at that time. That said, we don't recommend using 22 kW as it will drain your battery more quickly.