1 July 2024

In the dark about blackout protection? Here's what you need to know

| Dione David
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tradesperson working on wall mounted charger

When setting up your home battery system, you may want to prioritise which appliances are most important. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.

As Canberra charges towards electrification, placing more demand on the grid, you might be looking to join a growing number of Australians installing home batteries to achieve energy independence.

If your key motivation is to stay ahead of a potential increase in blackouts, there are a few things you should be aware of before diving in, according to one expert.

Huglo director Justin Riggs says while most people know that batteries come with differing capabilities, many people don’t realise it’s rare for an installer to default to full home backup power unless specifically asked.

“A lot of people who are sold a battery are sold a pipe dream. They have a picture of what blackout protection looks like: the power on their block goes out and aside from a potential flicker of the lights, their entire home is completely unaffected. They assume the battery they’re installing is capable of that,” he says.

“But battery capabilities are vastly different and can range from a single outlet to complete full home backup. It depends on the rated output power of the inverter, which is measured in kilowatts.”

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It’s certainly possible to achieve a reality where blackouts go unnoticed. A Latham home where Huglo recently installed a 9.6 kW battery discovered they had had a four-hour power outage they were completely unaffected by.

But according to Justin, many people when they think about it, may not have the storage capacity or even the desire for full home backup. In this case, he recommends taking an inventory of outlets and appliances and prioritising before booking an installation.

“Consider which appliances matter most in a blackout – things like your fridge, for example, or perhaps your work computer and Wi-Fi router – and ensure you know which outlets power those appliances; ideally without the inconvenience of extension cords,” he says.

“Make sure you’re ready with a list of questions for your supplier to ensure what you’re signing up for meets your expectations. If your system is properly designed, it can power whatever you need for an extended period, including your whole home.”

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When selecting the battery and system that’s right for you, it’s worth doing a bit of research. Most modern batteries use lithium-ion technology, but the latest sub-type is lithium iron phosphate.

Justin says in performance, safety and economics, this battery is widely regarded as the best option and the battery most commonly installed today.

“You hear a lot of horror stories about runaway fires that burn for days. The lithium iron phosphate technology have higher thermal stability, making them resistant to thermal runaway even under extreme conditions, so is intrinsically lower risk,” he says.

“It also has a lifespan about five times longer than traditional lithium-ion batteries.”

Justin also recommends taking into account measures to future-proof your purchase.

“You want a battery that’s easily extendable so it can grow with your energy usage. You also want one with a good warranty, one that’ll outlast the payback period. Make sure you get that information from your supplier,” he says.

There is some quick and dirty math to give you a rough idea of your inverter power needs during a blackout. You can measure the inverter’s power output in kilowatts, then divide by 230 to find the number of amps, with the amps you can get a rough idea on how many circuits you can power by comparing it with your circuit breakers.

Or, you can ask your trusted supplier – and you definitely should.

“Batteries are not cheap, but they’re a great investment for a number of reasons. Just ensure you find an installer you can count on to advise you. That can really take that pressure off,” Justin says.

For more information, contact Huglo.

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Nah I’ll just stick with a petrol generator.

One of my main concerns is how easily the batteries can catch fire -wasn’t our recycling facility at Hume burnt down because of a battery in the recycling materials -and every day almost, a house burnt down!

@Kalo Arepo
What? So will you be getting rid of your mobile phone – or at last taking the battery out of it?

What is the article talking about: “If your key motivation is to stay ahead of a potential increase in blackouts…” – both the Federal Government and our local ACT council keep telling us all that ‘renewables’ (solar & wind power) are reliable – so where are these increased blackouts coming from?!

You realise this article is an ad from a company selling home based energy solutions right?

Hmmm, what possible reason could they have to talk up risks of external electricity supply from the grid…..

Burn some fossil fuels. Contrary to the oft-repeated mantra that today’s CO2 concentration is unprecedentedly high, our current geologic period, the Quaternary, has seen the lowest average levels of carbon dioxide since the Precambrian. Though CO2 concentrations briefly peaked 320,000 years ago at 300 ppm, the average for the past 800,000 years was 230 ppm (Luthi 2008). The average CO2 concentration in the preceding 600 million years was more than 2,600 ppm, nearly seven times our current amount and 2.5 times the worst case predicted by the IPCC for 2100. Our current geologic period (Quaternary) has the lowest average CO2 concentration in more than 600 million years.” CO2 coalition 

I can’t believe how easy it was to sell the “carbon is bad and we need to get rid of it” mantra to carbon-based beings.

I don’t know, is it?

Although I’m assuming if you are worried about this “risk”, you would be extra cautious about kitchen cooking appliances, electrical wiring & devices, wood fireplaces, candles & other heaters that are all far more prevalent in starting house fires in Australia.

I mean, I know you only care about the “risks” and don’t have an irrational fear of change that might cause you to be biased.

Because no product ever, of any form or shape, has ever had issues along the way.

Bit like your belief that the junk that spews out into the air from coal power generation is harmless to communities and people.

Delusional.

@Capital Retro
Better get rid of your mobile phone then, CR – or at least don’t charge it. After all is it worth the risk of a house fire.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-18/lithium-battery-fire-phone-charger-students-building-carlton/103740394 … and there are many other reports of the issues that can arise from mobile phone chargers

Capital Retro9:01 pm 02 Jul 24

You have a home battery, chewy?

Capital Retro9:03 pm 02 Jul 24

You have a home battery, JS?

Capital Retro9:04 pm 02 Jul 24

You have a home battery, Delusional (sorry, I meant JS9)?

Capital Retro,
Relevance?

You’re talking about the risk of fire caused by home batteries.

I’m pointing out that many other things in your home are a far greater risk than those batteries.

Strange that you seem to only care about fire risk when it involves anything new.

I get it, change is hard for older folk. When automobiles replaced the horse and carriage, some had no trust for these newfangled machines either.

Nah the batteries are the greatest fire risk. They apparently burst into flames regularly with no warning.

Capital Retro9:19 am 03 Jul 24

Relevence? The article is about home batteries not unicorns, chewy.

And go easy on the ageism please.

Completely irrelevant as always CR, but I do not. But if I lived in a property where I could, and the business case stacked up, I’d have zero hesitation in having one.

Do you have a mobile phone? Or anything with a battery in it? Or the multitude of other items that have a statistically far greater risk of causing a fire?

Better go feed your horse in case you want to go to town.

@Ken M
So you will be getting rid of your mobile phone and any other Li-ion battery charged devices then?

No because there is no record of them ever blowing up or being a fire hazard. That problem is unique to EVs and batteries for houses.

Yes CR,
What is the relevance of whether any individual has a battery installed at their house when discussing the overall risk of home storage batteries?

Do you have a unicorn at your house?

@Ken M
“No because there is no record of them ever blowing up or being a fire hazard.”
I know you are struggle with the concept of facts – as you have proven that on many occasions. Now, I’m struggling to understand if you actually believe your own tripe or just someone who likes to take the p*ss.

No record? Do you truly expect to get away with that?
https://www.9news.com.au/national/adelaide-house-fire-faulty-phone-charger/ff474060-7fba-4e6b-a72f-6bb72aebdf0e … “The Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) suspects the fire was likely started by a faulty phone charger that overheated.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-18/lithium-battery-fire-phone-charger-students-building-carlton/103740394 … “Two students were awoken after a lithium-ion battery powered mobile phone bank exploded …”

9 news and the ABC are not reliable sources. They get caught making things up all the time.

Bahahaha,
Now I know Ken is trolling.

Long running statistics showing thousands of house fires in Australia each year (both currently and prior to Batterys/EVs existing) and he thinks EVs and home batteries are “risky”, despite all safety data showing they are far lower risk both in total and proportionally compared to other causes.

I’d ask Ken to provide any evidence to support his assertions but we all know he doesn’t like backing his statements up with evidence.

There were no EV fires in the statistics before EVs existed, so your statistics, which I notice you haven’t provided, are not valid.

Everybody knows approximately 97.3% of statistics are made up in any case.

In which Ken M displays how little he understands of statistical analysis, or simply of proportions as taught in primary school.

Ken,
Thanks for making my point, the thousands of fires each year prior to EVs or batteries show they couldn’t have caused them.

Yet you claimed that Batteries and later EVs were the greatest risk, yet there has been no great increase in fires either overall or proportionally caused by batteries or EVs since their introduction.

I’d love to see you provide any information to back up your claims.

Also funny that you’ve mentioned using a petrol generator above, when they are known to cause numerous deaths each year, mostly from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Fire safety regulations on other things have made them cause less fires. That leaves EVs and house batteries making up the numbers. Pretty obvious.

@Ken M
“Fire safety regulations on other things have made them cause less fires.”
If it’s “pretty obvious” that EVs and house batteries are making up the numbers, you won’t have any trouble providing a link to the statistics which support your outlandishly flippant assertion.

Given you have never once been able to provide anything remotely resembling a fact when challenged in the past, I won’t expect a fact laden response anytime soon.

Ken M
Again, a baseless claim from you straight from Trump’s fake news playbook. At least you have learnt from the best when it comes to bold face lying.

Oh, unless, of course, you have factual evidence, to prove that these two articles were made up by 9 news and the ABC respectively?

What does Donald Trump have to do with this, and why are you obsessed with him? Seems a very odd thing to bring up in a discussion about batteries.

Our entire recycling plant was destroyed by a battery fire. It’s clear they are dangerous. Why would I strap a fire hazard to my house?

“Pretty obvious”

Is it? Then clearly you can provide some backing and links for the claims?

Tick tock.

I have provided as many sources for my claims as you have for yours. 🙂

@Ken M
“Our entire recycling plant was destroyed by a battery fire.”
I’m glad you brought that up …
“Incorrect disposal of batteries in household recycling is believed to have caused the fire which destroyed Canberra’s recycling plant on Boxing Day last year, according to an investigation conducted by ACT Fire & Rescue”
https://www.cmtedd.act.gov.au/open_government/inform/act_government_media_releases/chris-steel-mla-media-releases/2023/investigation-released-into-fire-at-hume-recycling-facility

How many EVs or home batteries do you think have been discovered in household recycling, genius?

A fire that big could only be caused by a large EV battery.

@Ken M
Oh so now you are an “expert” on fire forensics are you?
I think I’ll take the expertise of ACT Fire & Rescue over a salesman.
You can read the report of their investigation into the fire here – https://www.cityservices.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/2202892/Fire-Investigation-Report-Hume-Recycling-Facility-INC-018769-26122022_Redacted.pdf.
I particularly draw your attention to page 33, which has an interesting photo “Image 41 – Batteries retrieved from waste chute/compactor area”. Interestingly, not a single EV battery to be seen.

You are the embodiment of the quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln – though others credit it to Mark Twain:
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt”.
I suggest you let this one go.

Has Ken M just declared that you cannot start a fire with little matches?

Wouldn’t it be really embarrassing if you had just spent a day and a half rage replying to obvious satire?

Not that this whole battery thing is an unhinged cult or anything. LOL

@Ken M
Obvious satire? Yeah … nah. It would be really embarrassing if I, and others, actually believed that were the case, rather than a truly pathetic attempt, by you, to wriggle out of a situation in which you have been found to be embarrasingly wanting.

Wouldn’t it be really embarrassing if you had spent yesterday responding to obvious trolling of your original ridiculous comments.

Perhaps you should read my comment from midday yesterday again?

“A lot of people who are sold a battery are sold a pipe dream”

Agreed, the biggest lies usually told are:
1) You’ll make your money back over the years – batteries still make zero financial sense as their payback is longer than the guaranteed life of the battery.
2) You’ll have plenty of energy to last through the night – nope, they drain very quickly, especially if you use heating or cooling.
3) You can back up your whole house – unlikely, depends on the number of circuits you have.

It’s a fun toy to look at usage but empties far too quickly and costs far too much. The only real business cases that I can see for batteries currently is critical home medical equipment that absolutely cannot have a power outage or people running a home business.

Capital Retro7:39 am 02 Jul 24

The best “blackout protection” is to vote out the current federal government.

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