Battery storage

Home and business battery storage in Edmonton: backup power design, critical loads panels, solar integration, safe siting and permits.

What batteries can do

A battery system stores electricity for later. With solar, it lets you use more of your own production in the evening. Without solar, it can charge from the grid and act as quiet, automatic backup power. The main reasons Edmonton customers ask about batteries are winter outages, sump pumps, home offices and medical equipment.

Grid-tied solar alone shuts off in an outage. A battery with the right inverter and transfer equipment keeps chosen circuits running and lets solar keep charging during a long daytime outage.

Batteries are also useful for businesses with equipment that cannot tolerate even short interruptions, although for computer and network loads a dedicated UPS system is often the better tool. We help you pick the right one for the job.

Sizing: power and energy

Two numbers matter. Power (kW) is how much the battery can supply at once; it must cover everything running together, plus motor starting surges from things like well pumps and furnace blowers. Energy (kWh) is how long it can keep going.

Backing up a whole house, especially one with electric heat or an electric range, takes a lot of capacity. Most homes are better served by a critical loads panel with the circuits that matter: furnace fan and controls, fridge and freezer, sump pump, some lights and receptacles, and internet.

A simple exercise helps: list what you would actually turn on during a winter outage, and for how long. That list becomes the critical loads panel and the battery size. It is usually shorter than people expect.

Safe installation

Batteries store a lot of energy. The Canadian Electrical Code, the manufacturer's instructions and building and fire codes set where they can go, required clearances, and protection. Common locations include garages and utility rooms; some locations, like sleeping areas, are restricted. Edmonton garages also get cold, and many batteries have temperature limits for charging, so location affects performance too.

A permit is required. We also notify the utility where the battery connects to a grid-tied system, as part of the micro-generation process.

Batteries and generators together

For acreages and longer outages, a battery is often paired with a standby generator. The battery handles short outages silently, and the generator takes over and recharges it when an outage drags on. This needs careful design of the transfer switch and controls so the sources do not fight each other.

If you already have solar, we check whether your inverter supports adding storage or whether an AC-coupled battery with its own inverter is the better fit.

What drives cost

We do not post prices. Cost depends on battery capacity and power rating, inverter type, whether you need a critical loads panel or whole-home transfer equipment, the distance between components, location upgrades such as a dedicated room or protection, and any panel or service changes. Knowing exactly which circuits you want backed up is the best way to keep the system the right size.

Batteries also have a usable life measured in years and charge cycles. Ask about the manufacturer's warranty terms and what happens to the battery at end of life before you decide. We will explain how each option we propose handles cold temperatures, since that is a real factor in Edmonton garages.

Questions we hear