Franklin Home Power Solution
In a world of increasingly destabilized utility grids and severe weather events, FranklinWH aspires to provide a sense of calm, support, and energy independence.
One accessory that people don't always get at original install but add later (sometimes after a long outage in particular) is our Smart Circuit that allows individual control of up to 3 circuits/loads via our app. The manual load control process described below during long outages is part of what inspired the smart circuit accessory design, to make this process less stressful during times of emergency. To learn more: What are Smart Circuits? | FranklinWH and FranklinWH Smart Circuits Module Datasheet .
Prepare ahead of time with a go Off-Grid test:
Perform this right in your phone in our FranklinWH app, in the left-hand menu there is a button titled Off-Grid. Ensure you disconnect your home Wifi and connect to the FHP hotspot in your phone to watch how fast your system drains your battery with normal or modified home usage. This function allows you to prepare for a longer outage ahead of time, but also note our app will provide some estimates on how long your battery(s) will last via notifications.
Many customers purchased our product with the sole intended purpose of ensuring their home and family are safe during such times. Some of our customers purchased our product primarily to save money, with the added benefit of outage support. Some of our customers designed their home systems to function off-grid fulltime.
For those of our customers who did not design a home energy system with off-grid living as the main purpose, here are a few important tips during a long utility outage to maximize your investment and make the most out of what you have.
Time Electrical Usage for when your Solar is Producing:
During a long utility outage, try to schedule household activities such as cooking, laundry, and climate control (heating and cooling) when your solar is producing the most and then keep some reserves in your battery(s) for night-time use. If you look at your FranklinWH App, you can see when your solar system produced the most the previous day to get a rough idea, (assuming weather is similar) of when to schedule electrical use.
My System is drained to 0 and I do not have a Generator, what can I do?
Before calling support, be aware your system will attempt an automatic black start (turning itself back on) at 10am, noon, and 2pm. It is important to keep your home usage as low as possible if not 0 during this time. If your system is trying to black start and you have a lot of things turned on (AC, plug in appliances outside of refrigerators ect.), the initial demand may overwhelm the available solar production (which typically takes 5 minutes to start up).
Ensuring your breakers for unnecessary loads are off during that process will increase odds for success. If you have ensured your breakers are off (house is not trying to draw power), and the available solar production charges the battery sufficiently, the system will support household demand at that point and you should be able to see your system in your app, assuming internet availability.
Mindful Electrical Consumption:
It is important to remember your system was NOT designed with Off-Grid as its primary purpose. While off-grid living requires a lot of careful calculation and close usage monitoring, most of our on-grid customers are not used to having to think this way. An emergency such as a long utility outage is the time to focus on loved ones and safety, not how much energy is left.
The simplest way to prevent non-essential loads from draining your battery too swiftly is to manually control your loads. This process involves turning off breakers by hand in your main service panel as you need to eliminate unnecessary loads to ensure the battery provides power for the things you need during the outage (like internet and refrigerator). A good starting point would be turning off any 30 Amp and larger (the breakers have Amps listed on them in small print) for a single battery, 50 Amp and larger for 2 batteries, then eliminate rooms outside of the kitchen and/or specific bedrooms whose outlets you want to keep active (assuming your main service panel was labeled accurately).
Reflect on what YOUR system was designed to do:
How long your system can run off-grid is a vital thing to be aware of during longer outages. If you have never been through one, it can take some re-thinking. If you only have one battery, a modest amount of solar, and originally designed your system to save money, then a long utility outage will require being aware of many factors.
Variables like inadequate sunshine on cloudy/ overcast days, high constant load usage from things you may be used to leaving on and availability of other infrastructure like internet can cause challenges. You may experience your system simply running out of any available power depending on your usage during a long outage if no adjustments are made. Never hesitate to give us a call if you want help with any of this process, we are here to support you.
