Tag Archives: solar plus storage

Pros and cons of air source heat pumps

Choosing how you want to heat and cool your property is an important decision, especially in regards to energy bills: according to the Department of Energy, heating and cooling make up roughly 48 percent of energy consumption in the average U.S. home. Because these technologies make up such a large portion of energy costs, homeowners are increasingly looking to upgrade to newer, smarter, and more energy-efficient technologies like air source heat pumps (ASHPs). In this article, we’ll dive into some of the most important advantages and disadvantages of ASHPs to keep in mind as you’re evaluating heating and cooling technologies for your property. 

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The Vivint + LG Chem home energy storage system: what you need to know

Nationwide, one-in-three solar shoppers are interested in home energy storage solutions. Within the EnergySage Solar Marketplace, this percentage is even higher: nearly three-quarters of all consumers indicate they are interested in receiving solar quotes that include energy storage. To meet this demand, a few national solar installation companies have partnered with energy storage manufacturing companies to exclusively offer their batteries to solar shoppers. One such example is the partnership between Vivint Solar and LG Chem.

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Highlights from the eighth EnergySage Solar Marketplace Intel Report™

Earlier this month, EnergySage published our eighth Solar Marketplace Intel Report™. The publicly available report provides data on the state of the solar market nationwide and at the state level, the breakdown of equipment packages quoted by solar installation companies, and additional energy interests from solar shoppers. Our key takeaways are outlined below. We welcome your analysis of this data as well!

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Deep cycle batteries overview: what you need to know

You are probably already familiar with a range of batteries–from the AAAs in your TV remote to the larger battery under the hood of your car that you hopefully rarely think about. Just as different types of batteries are most useful for different types of applications in your home, there is one type of battery that is ideal for being paired with solar energy systems: deep cycle batteries.

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Black start: why it matters

The electrical grid is designed with redundancy in mind. In order to avoid any consumers losing power, and especially any prolonged drops in power, utilities and the grid operators have designed backup plans and backups to those backups. Although very rarely, if ever, necessary, the last of those backup plans is perhaps the most important of all: black start resources.

What is black start?

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What are microgrids and how do they work?

As more and more customers express interest in solar plus storage on EnergySage’s Marketplace, many do so with the same intended purpose: resiliency. When the grid goes dark, these solar shoppers want to ensure that they are on an electric “island” to keep their own lights on, self-generating and storing solar electricity that they can then consume. The solution? Microgrids.

Partially in response to major storm events nationwide, this innovative, if not new, approach is being taken throughout the country to maintain greater reliability and to return power quicker at the local level. By taking the notion of an electrical island from a single home to multiple buildings or an entire community, communities, cities, and organizations are creating microgrids.

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