Imagine this: a weather alert chimes from your phone. A severe lightning storm is predicted to impact your area this afternoon. Given that your area is prone to blackouts, you know exactly what you're in for. A power outage is imminent.
Thankfully, you have a Sigenergy battery installed at your home to circumvent situations exactly like this one.
But, did you know that there are ways to prolong the battery life of your Sigenergy battery before and during a power outage?
In this blog, we'll explain how you can prepare your Sigenergy battery before the storm hits to maximise your stored power using the mySigen app and a few tweaks in your settings.
Read more: How to monitor your Sigenergy battery with the mySigen app
Why do you need to change settings before a storm?
In short, you don't have to adjust your settings before a storm. Your Sigenergy battery will back up your circuits in a power outage, regardless of whether or not you take the following advice.
However, there are a few tricks you can do to:
- Ensure your battery is fully charged before the storm arrives, and
- Prolong your battery life as long as possible
Following this strategy will be particularly impactful if you are faced with an extensive blackout.
Before a storm hits, you can maximise your stored power by:
- Make sure your battery is fully charged before the weather turns
- Prioritise charging your battery
If you lose power from the grid, your Sigenergy battery will be ready to step in as backup, fully charged to support you through the blackout.
Operating modes
Right now, your Sigenergy battery is likely operating in one of these three modes:
- Sigen AI mode
- Self-consumption mode
- Time-based control mode
Sigen AI mode and time-based control are smart modes that will utilise power produced from your solar or cheap off-peak grid power to charge your battery (there's a bit more to it, but we'll cover that in another blog).
Self-consumption mode will prioritise charging your battery from solar. In self-consumption mode, you can set instant manual control charging.
Read more: Sigenergy Home Energy Review
Instant manual control charging
Instant manual control is a way to prioritise charging to your battery for a specified period of time. It's your way of saying, "Drop everything else. Charge the battery".
In instant manual control, you can set an action (i.e., charging) to occur for a period of time, from 30 minutes up to 120 minutes.
This function will charge your battery as fast as it can from all available means, including pulling power from the grid.
The aim of using this control is to charge the battery as much as possible and as fast as possible so that you have (hopefully) a full battery before the storm hits.
Keep in mind that your Sigenergy will only be able to pull in as much power as your inverter will allow, so charging speed is dependent on the size of your inverter.
Reserve backup capacity
To prevent your battery from discharging before the storm, we recommend temporarily adjusting the reserve backup capacity.
The "Reserve Energy for Grid Outage" setting can be found under "Backup Reserve" in the settings of the mySigen app.
Before a storm, make sure that your reserve energy is set to 100% backup. This will prevent your battery from discharging, and it will retain 100% of your stored power until a grid outage occurs.
This is another surefire way to ensure you have a full battery before the storm hits. Remember to switch it back to normal after the storm passes or you'll start to wonder why your battery hasn't been discharging.
Read more: A guide to charging your EV with solar energy
Storm Watch
Sigenergy has a Storm Watch function which can read data from your local weather agency (for example, the BOM in Australia) to determine whether weather events are imminent.
If you switch this on, Sigenergy will enable backup up to 3 hours before you are predicted to be impacted by the event. This is a good option if you prefer automatic control of these features as opposed to manual control. Although we all know that weather agencies can miss the mark sometimes...
This isn't a must-do. It's just an additional failsafe if you like the sound of some automatic storm control.
What to do if a blackout occurs
The storm finally arrives, and as predicted, you lose grid power. Thanks to all your preparation, your battery is charged to 100% and you are ready to ride out the blackout until either the sun rises to recharge with solar or the grid is reconnected.
Here are some tips to prolong your battery life in the midst of the blackout:
- Don't use big power consumers, like washers and dryers. If you can, avoid using temperature control devices like air conditioners.
- If you must use an air conditioner, turn the fan speed to low and set the temperature to a mild 24 degrees. Or, you can even try using dry mode, which uses significantly less power than cooling mode and will pull the humidity out of the air.
- Confirm that your pool pump, EV charger, and other secondary power consumers are turned off if they are on your backup circuit.
- Turn off any other unnecessary devices at the wall.
- The priority is to ensure that your battery can continue to power your essentials, like the fridge and internet.
Read more: Top 10 energy-saving habits to lower your electricity bill
With Sigenergy, you can ride out power outages with no problem. We hope that these quick tips helped you understand how to prepare your battery for a potential blackout.
Springers Solar | Queensland's Most Experienced Solar and Battery Installer
Springers Solar provides quality components with proven performance, backed by industry-leading warranties and dedicated after-sales support. Thousands of satisfied customers over 24 years of operation make Springers Solar one of the most established and experienced solar companies in Australia.
Springers Solar have received multiple awards for design and installation and is a certified/preferred installer for a large range of solar panel, inverter, and solar battery manufacturers, including Sungrow, Tesla, Sigenergy, and SolarEdge.
Our dedicated in-house team of electrical engineers, project managers, solar PV designers, solar installers, and electricians work closely with you before, during, and long after your project is completed. Springers Solar offers an industry-leading 10-year workmanship warranty, which is a testament to our qualified staff and offers you outstanding peace of mind.
Prepare Sigenergy for Blackouts by Changing These App Settings