I've been seeing advertising for Base Power. Has anyone signed up and have any experiences to share about the service?

For those unaware, it's an electricity provider that also furnishes a whole home back up battery so that when you have a power outage, you still have electricity. They claim their batteries can cover 97% of outages.

Since our grid seems to be pretty ****ty of late, I'm seriously considering it.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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They say they sell the juice from your battery to the grid at peak demand. Well, wouldn't peak demand be the same time we might see a brown out? I would be pissed if my battery was not full when they shut my power down.

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so the charge the batteries overnight and sell that power back during the day?

schmendeler said:

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I've been seeing advertising for Base Power. Has anyone signed up and have any experiences to share about the service?

For those unaware, it's an electricity provider that also furnishes a whole home back up battery so that when you have a power outage, you still have electricity. They claim their batteries can cover 97% of outages.

Since our grid seems to be pretty ****ty of late, I'm seriously considering it.

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The 97% of cases would be power outage for less then 2 hours. Which isnt that important. You want an at home generator or nothing.

(Guessing duration length. These batteries arent that big)

What's holding me back…

I have a 4,500 sq foot house with two AC units.

From what I understand, I'd only get a few hours of "backup power" from the battery units in the event if an outage.

Ragoo said:

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Milwaukees Best Light said:

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They say they sell the juice from your battery to the grid at peak demand. Well, wouldn't peak demand be the same time we might see a brown out? I would be pissed if my battery was not full when they shut my power down.

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so the charge the batteries overnight and sell that power back during the day?

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Yes. I am guessing you pay to charge them too, but I don't know.

High school friend sells Generac generators and his good friend is the Generac certified installer. Good guys and in the Houston area. I think the 26 kw natural gas we got in 2024 is now +/- 17k depending on the length of gas line/ dig needed.
So glad we have one and just wish we had done it years ago.

I bit the bullet and signed up. Getting the option with a generator hookup to recharge the batteries when there's longer outages since I have a portable. Someone in our neigbhorhood got it and said it's worked great and held up through the storms a few weeks back. I know it's not perfect, but seems to fit what I was looking for and I'm not out a ton if I drop the service.

That's a great idea

I mean, the real answer is only run one ac if you lose power for more than an hour or so.

It's a terrible idea.

If you ask they can offer you a lower rate.

The batteries are 25kwh each, so two would power a house with two AC's and a pool in the summer for 12 hours, but really, the home owner should start turning things off to extend that time.

The switch over is near instant so there is no felt power loss.

In a Beryl situation, if the homeowner sees the writing on the walls and dials back usage, the batteries could last 2 days where on the 3rd day a generator could be hooked up to recharge or run the house.

I have been running the numbers because there will be a small window when batteries become cheap enough to build this system yourself to take advantage of time of use power plans and have the system pay for itself in 3 years before the power companies do away with time of use plans.

How big of a generator are we talking here? It would have to be bigger than the demand, so why not just skip the battery altogether and just use the genny?

It my power goes out again after this post, I will probably take it as a sign and see about signing up.

Depends on your need, but if you could get 7.2kw with whatever fuel you should be able to get ahead of the draw when consumption is low. Base paying upfront for the batteries and you buying the charging port and genny might be less than a whole home generator.

If you really think about power outages, they happen randomly and not for more than a few hours. I am sure a lot of people with interlock switches avoid pulling out the generator till the center point text telling them 6 hours only for it to pop back on. This is a stop gap but probably covers most of the outages.

But you never own the batteries, correct? So even if you complete your 3 year contract you have to pay them to take the batteries if you don't renew your plan…

Here's the generator info they give: https://help.basepowercompany.com/en/articles/11914967-how-do-i-use-the-generator-recharge-port

As I said, I know it's not perfect, but seems to fit well with what I was looking for. We've had quite a few of those short outages and it's a pain when working from home. My house has a 6 circuit transfer switch that I can hook my portable to, but that's not running my home ACs. Base includes AC soft starts as well. I'm at the point of life where I've got more money than time to research things to death, so felt like giving it a shot rather than drop 10K+ on a whole house generator. If it flops, I'm not out a ton of money and have a lesson learned.

The other point to consider is the "cleanliness" of the power. Some generators are noisy and can damage compressors: fridge, freezer, home, as well as computers.

So running a battery can be cleaner and prevent damage to "stuff". If you're running for long periods.

~egon

OnlyForNow said:

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I mean, the real answer is only run one ac if you lose power for more than an hour or so.

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Ok. But I'd still run out pretty quick.

My portable 12,000 watt generator with a transfer switch installed and 3 days worth of gasoline on-hand gets me…well…three days.

Ya. I get ya. I don't think this is a real viable solution besides a few hours of power during "typical" outages.

It's like the Tesla Power Wall, same concept, power the batteries when energy is cheap, use it when you need it or when power is expensive.

Holds enough to get you by after a bad t-storm rolls through and a power line or two get taken out.

For those in the major affected area of that derecho this doesn't do much at all.

So...

I went down the rabbit hole on this. Seems interesting, as I'm paying 11.2 cents per kWh (vs. their 8.5). They do mention they guarantee you to have a minimum amount of power in the batteries, but it isn't 100%.

One thing that is in beta testing is this:
https://help.basepowercompany.com/en/articles/11914967-how-do-i-use-the-generator-recharge-port

Essentially, you have the batteries and an ATS to power the house (exactly like a backup generator, but batteries instead). BUT they also have a plug on the side to hook up a generator. So during the day, you could run a larger generator, fill up batteries AND run the house, then disconnect generator at night and run house on batteries till the morning. Technically, the generator could be any power source: panels OR genset. So you can stretch your gas storage (potentially) because the generator is running at 100% to run house and fill batteries then turn it 'off' when batteries are full.


Something else to consider is this brand (again, rabbit hole).

https://us.ecoflow.com/products/delta-pro-ultra-x?variant=54714781171785

This is essentially a back-up battery for the house (same as above), but you treat it like a generator. Can plug into a breaker interlock or wire it in to an ATS and power your house. This brand (ecoflow) has several things that manage the power usage in your house as well merge a breaker interlock or sub panel into the main panel. Pricier, but the advantage is that you aren't dealing with gasoline or generators. Nor selling to the grid.

But with the Eco, you can use a generator or panels to charge batteries during the day (or genset at night) and still use the batteries other times.

I've emailed to ask about using the link I put above as a genset on a breaker interlock. So if I lose power, I flip a couple of breakers, plug the rack in (4-5 batteries) and my house has power again. I can charge batteries with solar or genset at the same time, but I'm not getting a permit or telling Centerpoint I have an ATS.

edit: I don't own anything nor rep any company. Just some examples I found online.

~egon

How in the world are you paying 11.2 cents? That's a terrible plan. Unless you're adding delivery charges in yours. Which they aren't in that 8.5.

The 8.5 doesn't include delivery and yours probably does. But like I said, if you call they will offer you a lower rate for 3 years which is pretty good.

Mine is 10.687, sorry. Delivery is 6.8??

Both per kWh.

~egon

htxag09 said:

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How in the world are you paying 11.2 cents? That's a terrible plan. Unless you're adding delivery charges in yours. Which they aren't in that 8.5.

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I only have access to Entergy and I'm paying 14/kwh

Most of the plans on power to choose are over 12 so 11.2 isn't crazy

At least they have a choice

schmendeler said:

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Most of the plans on power to choose are over 12 so 11.2 isn't crazy

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I am up for renewal in February and have been checking the site frequently. It's wild to see that the best rates are all in the 11's and for only 3 months. I typically like to lock in for at least a year, but those all jump into the 13's. Wild times.