A: When your solar panels generate energy, your home only uses the electricity you need at that moment. The surplus of solar energy is injected into the electricity network at that moment. At times when you need more electricity than you produce, you take so-called 'grey power' from the grid again. By using a home battery you can store your surplus of generated renewable energy and use it at times when the sun is not shining enough. Your energy consumption is optimized, you become less dependent on external factors such as price increases for electricity and you turn your home into a green living environment.

A: A practical example: A 1,000 Watt microwave oven running for one hour at maximum power will consume 1 kWh. The same is true for a 10 Watt LED bulb when lit for 100 hours. So a fully charged AlphaESS SMILE 5 energy storage system of 11.4 kWh will be able to run the above mentioned microwave oven for 11.4 hours and the LED bulb will be able to burn for 1140 hours.

A: In the event of a power outage, the Alpha energy storage systems will serve as an emergency power supply thanks to its built-in UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply). When a power outage occurs, the home battery can take over in less than 20 milliseconds and you might not even notice the light flickering. You can choose to connect a number of critical consumers in your home to the backup output of the home battery. This avoids problems with fridges, freezers, computers, etc. In some cases, it is even possible to power your entire house with the exceeded solar energy stored in the battery earlier.

A: AlphaESS was founded in China in 2012. With strong, patented German technologies and its own smart energy management system, AlphaESS has the vision to make the use of green energy accessible to everyone. It is now a truly global leader in energy storage systems, with operations in more than 75 countries across South Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas. 

A: This depends very much on your specific situation. Factors that can strongly influence this are: Do you already have solar panels? What VAT rate can you have installed? 6% or 21%? What do you currently pay for your electricity? Are you entitled to subsidies and would you like to make use of them? The difficulty of installing a home battery at your place The quality of your home battery … We have not only made numerous simulations with specialized software, but we also regularly study the results that are actually achieved in practice with the AlphaESS home batteries. We generally see payback periods of 7 to 9 years. However, a home battery offers many more personal benefits, so just looking at payback time is not enough: With a home battery you will be much less exposed to future increases in electricity prices. Not insignificant when you consider that electricity prices have been rising at an average rate of 6% per year for the past ten years! You are doing your bit to reduce CO2 emissions and thus global warming. You become part of the solution. Experience has taught us that the AlphaCloud monitoring platform gives people a very good insight into their energy consumption and allows them to take many small measures to reduce and optimize their energy use. The cheapest kWh is the one you don't use. With an AlphaESS home battery you are prepared for a future where our energy will be green, produced decentrally, and shared.

A: A battery system from AlphaESS is a total package. You don't have to buy any additional components (such as a separate battery inverter). This not only reduces the complexity of installation and use, but you will also have only one point of contact in the event of problems.

A: We'd like to explain this using our battery cycles. One cycle is the complete charging and discharging of a battery. In the AlphaCloud monitoring platform you can see graphically how much your battery has been charged or discharged on a given day. You'll see that you rarely get to a full cycle per day. Studies have shown that in our climate and with a battery system that is properly adapted to your situation, about 280 cycles per year are needed. So in 20 years time you will need about 5,600 cycles. AlphaESS assures us that after 10,000 cycles the storage capacity of the home batteries will only drop by a maximum of 20%. If in the future you were to use your home battery for other applications besides optimizing your own consumption (e.g. virtual power plants), the number of cycles you consume per year will increase slightly.

A: Energy storage is needed on an industrial or grid scale for three main reasons. The first is to “balance load” – to shift energy consumption into the future, often by several hours – so that more existing generating capacity is used efficiently. The second reason is to “bridge” power – in other words, to ensure there is no break in service during the seconds-to-minutes required to switch from one power generation source to another. Finally, power quality management – the control of voltage and frequency to avoid damaging sensitive equipment – is an increasing concern that storage can alleviate whenever needed, for a few seconds or less, many times each day. 

A: Battery storage enables greater self-consumption of renewable energy from sources that are variable, such as solar power. Businesses that face difficulties in the reliability or capacity of their electricity supply can reap benefits from battery storage. Battery storage can also save on power costs by reducing the need to purchase electricity at times when it is most expensive.

A: Battery storage enables greater self-consumption of renewable energy from sources that are variable, such as solar power. Businesses that face difficulties in the reliability or capacity of their electricity supply can reap benefits from battery storage. Battery storage can also save on power costs by reducing the need to purchase electricity at times when it is most expensive.

A: Yes, storage can contribute to local energy security and energy resilience, especially when the batteries are paired with local power source on a community microgrid. A microgrid is a small network of customers with a local source of electricity that can be disconnected from the grid and operated independently. During and after natural disasters and extreme weather events, all of which are becoming more frequent with climate change, battery storage can help keep essential services running and protect the most vulnerable populations as part of a community-driven climate resilience plan. When thinking about community resilience, it can be advantageous for critical infrastructure—such as police and fire stations, hospitals, cooling centers, and emergency shelters—to have rooftop solar panels and battery storage systems on site to keep the power on during an emergency.

A: AlphaESS only uses Lithium Iron Phosphate cells because these are much safer than the lithium batteries used in cars, for example. The chemical composition of the battery cells makes overheating due to so-called thermal runaway virtually impossible. This makes the cells safe and non-flammable even in extreme conditions. Lithium Iron Phosphate cells also have a very good life span. They are slightly heavier and less compact, but this is usually not a problem in a domestic situation. An additional advantage is that the Lithium Iron Phosphate cells do not contain any cobalt.

A: Please note that the total output power of BlackBee 1000 is 1000W, which means it can power any device under 1000W.

A: Yes, BlackBee 1000 supports pass-through charging which allows you to charge it during using it.

A: No, the BlackBee 1000 can’t be used as UPS. You need to press the power button to turn on the AC/USB /DC output, and it can't be turned on and off automatically.

A: Working time =1036Wh* 0.9 / operating power of the device you are using.

A: All AlphaESS energy storage systems have built-in MPPT controllers including BlackBee 1000.

A: You need to check if the LCD Battery Display showing the input power (watts). If so, this means your BlackBee 1000 is charging.