Tesla Powerwall: 5 Pros And 5 Cons Of The Home Energy System – SlashGear

Battery backups are great for a variety of reasons. The peace of mind of having power during an outage is probably the biggest one. Here’s the thing. Backup batteries work best with a solar panel system. The flexibility of such a setup is its biggest asset, especially when dodging TOU rates. However, those without solar panel systems aren’t going to get the most out of their backup batteries since those batteries charge using your house power anyway. For those folks, it might be smarter to go with a whole house generator instead of a battery backup. 

Whole house generators use natural gas, propane tanks, or another fuel source to power your home during an outage. You don’t need a whole solar panel setup to get the most out of one and it’s also vastly less expensive, as they typically cost around $4,000 to $7,000, although you can buy higher capacity generators that cost more. Of course, they do depend on fossil fuels, which is not the most climate-friendly solution. 

However, people on stable electrical grids only suffer power outages a few times a year for a few hours at a time, so most folks simply don’t need a $10,000 battery pack charged up 365 days a year only to use half of one discharge every three or four months. You can get the same peace of mind during a power outage at half the cost if you go with a gas generator.