Franklin Home Power Optimizes Energy Use from Every Source

Situation

When forward-thinking homeowners in Northern California decided to add storage to their home energy infrastructure, they turned to Franklin Whole Home to deliver a secure system that could meet their energy needs today and tomorrow.

The family lives in a 4,500-square-foot residence just south of San Francisco. The well-appointed home has an outdoor swimming pool, an irrigation system on a large acreage, multiple water heaters and HVAC systems, a Tesla electric vehicle and other high-demand appliances.

The residence has 400-amp service through Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and a state-of-the-art 15.6-kW, roof-mounted solar system installed in 2018. Now the family was ready to optimize their energy savings and security with efficient, high-volume energy storage.

They called FranklinWH with these main requests:

• To optimize the value of their solar energy production.
• To avoid higher time-of-use rates by pulling less energy from the grid during peak afternoon and evening hours.
• To ensure a constant power supply for critical medical devices needed by a family member.

Special Challenge

The homeowners wanted the storage battery installed in the back of the home more than 90 feet from the solar system’s main panel without sacrificing valuable space in the garage.

Solution

The FranklinWH team designed a system to back up and power one of the home’s two 200-amp breakers. Because the other breaker supplies less-essential functions, the homeowners opted not to install backup at this point.

The Franklin Home Power (FHP) solution comprises two integrated components: aPower, a super-robust, high-capacity AC battery, and aGate, an industry-leading, artificial-intelligence driven circuit that can control energy from every source—grid, solar, battery or generator.

To meet the demands of this specific application, FrankinWH installed three 13.6-kWh aPower units totaling 40.8 kWh of storage capacity, and one aGate system. Unlike other solutions on the market, FHP integrates up to three large loads and optimizes energy use based on the homeowners’ priorities and needs. In this case, the system supplied the home’s entire HVAC, its pool heater, medical devices as well as the main panel to support a variety of key appliances throughout the home.

aGate’s smart circuitry lets the homeowners prioritize power and support their critical medical equipment’s uninterruptible power supply, and other essentials. If their battery drops to 20%, aGate directs power only to the dedicated circuits they’ve identified. Because this capability is built in—there was no need for the homeowners to shoulder the expense of a separate customized backup system. aGate also helps the family automatically optimize their energy use to reduce their expenses. A convenient app lets them monitor and adjust their sources and use in real time.

Because Franklin Home Power is an AC instead of a DC system, it’s flexible and easy to install. It was instantly compatible with the home’s existing solar inverter and with any generator they may install in the future.

Results

The homeowners are thrilled with an efficient, smooth-running system that reduces their energy bill by 10%. Their FHP solution allows them to maximize the energy generated by their solar panels to power their aPower battery, their home as well as their electric vehicle. In addition to supporting many of their home’s critical power needs, the homeowners were able to place the battery where they wanted thanks to the aPower’s excellent IP67 protection.

“We considered a few options for our home-storage system, but none delivered quite like FranklinWH. Other systems needed upgrades to provide additional back-up to our medical devices. But the FranklinHP solution extends the back-up duration, serving as an additional support to this equipment without any expensive customization. We’re able to power our entire HVAC and pool heater—on top of our main panel. We can rest easy knowing our home and health are fully protected.” Daniel Fu, Homeowner

Advantages to the installer were clear:

• No field assembly. The aPower battery is ready out of the box, simply open and hang. Typical installation time is 30 minutes.
• No complex wiring or compatibility issues. FranklinHP’s AC architecture eliminates the need for complex DC wiring and made it easy to accommodate the homeowner’s request to position the battery away from the main panel.
• No programming. The aGate smart control is 90% plug and play with no special programming. The installer simply connected the dedicated circuits.