Plug and Play Expandable battery backup

[svetz]

Here's a crackpot idea for entrepreneurs... imagine a plug-and-play infinitely expandable battery backup that allowed you to mix or match batteries of different ages or chemistries?

Here's how it might work via "AC Batteries":

• First, you mass-produce a single size of AC battery (battery, inverter, charger, brain, communications), having one size reduces manufacturing costs.
• They'd probably be 1 or 2 kWh AC batteries, something not so hefty it couldn't be lugged around.
• For home backup or critical circuits subsystem, you'd also need the "base" unit, essentially an ATS and a "brain".

People could buy them, plug them in like a toaster, and presto, they just scaled up their system with no muss of fuss. Stack them up, plug them into any available outlet. Got too many on a branch circuit? No worries, the breaker will pop telling you to move one.

A single stand-alone unit would only come on if there was no brain detected, no line voltage detected, and sufficient line resistance (e.g., not connected to a grid that had the power go out). If the grid came on, it would go into charge mode. Want to market to people that already invested in DC batteries and want to upgrade their dodgy inverter? Make an AC battery "head" that snaps together for scale and connects to any battery (or battery bank) and you set the chemistry via a switch.

The normal heart of the system would be the ATS (possibly an autotransformer option like Enphase's Enswitch). The brain and communications are built-in, probably ethernet over powerline. The brain would either select one of the AC batteries to be the master and the rest would slave to the frequency, or it would just set the timing or all of them. The brain would also monitor individual battery capacity, health, and temperature, reporting problems.

Since the brain sets the frequency, it could control power inputs (e.g., solar, wind) via UL 1741 frequency shifting. Or, with a combiner box use relays to turn those inputs on/off.

 

[Q-Dog]

Something like this? Though I wonder if they will ever actually ship anything.

Homepage - Orison

Meet Orison

orison.com

 

[svetz]

WOW!

Thanks for posting that!

I like how they made it simple. They don't have the ATS, but are smart enough to not come on unless disconnected from the grid in an outage:

ref

During extended blackouts, you can manually open the breaker of the branch circuit it is connected to. Once Orison energy confirms it is isolated from the grid, it will resume providing high-quality AC electricity to the loads on its circuit.

It might work with a whole house ATS.

I see they say they work with solar/renewable sources, but don't see anything about how they curtail solar power or any guidelines around the PV to battery ratio needed.

 

[svetz]

ref

The energy monitor costs $300 and the battery system costs $2,200 for 1.8 kilowatts/2.2 kilowatt-hours. That translates to a far less favorable system price per kilowatt-hour than Tesla’s Powerwall, which packs 13.5 kilowatt-hours for $6,500.

... I wonder if they will ever actually ship anything.

In the snippet below that should have been July 2020. Possibly held up with Covid or perhaps the trial revealed new flaws? ref

the Wyoming-based startup is preparing to ship its sleek, plug-in home battery panels in July for field tests in Australia, Europe and the U.K., where it has met the safety standards for operation.

 

[Q-Dog]

I like the idea, especially the flat panels. Their first "product" looked sort of like a floor lamp, and would have been difficult to place in some spaces, but that seems to have disappeared from the site.

I had an idea to build entertainment centers and side tables with a UPS inside the furniture. Plug lamps, TVs and stereos into the furniture, plug furniture into the wall. Power goes out ... still have lights and TV. And don't have to install anything.

 

[Q-Dog]

There is a monitor unit that installs into the breaker panel ... ties into individual circuits if I remember correctly ... to monitor output so the units won't send power back to the grid.

 

[svetz]

There is a monitor unit that installs into the breaker panel ... ties into individual circuits if I remember correctly ... to monitor output so the units won't send power back to the grid.

Saw that, wasn't clear to me how it worked.

 

[Q-Dog]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯​