By Joe Piccirilli
When you think of an energy-resilient home, what comes to mind? Many might conjure a home that stays operational during a power outage. Their assumption isn’t wrong; nor is it completely accurate. Webster’s Dictionary defines resilience as the “ability to withstand and correct quickly from difficult situations.” A home equipped with battery back-up can “withstand” power outages but is unable to “correct” the many other inconsistencies associated with electrical power. Consequently, back-up power solves only a very small part of a home’s overall energy-related problems.
Consider this: Power outages affect the average American home for five hours yearly, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s minor compared to the number of spikes, surges and other anomalies experienced. A study by IBM, for example, shows the typical computer is subject to more than 120 power problems per month. Any electronic product that’s plugged in and has a microprocessor is also vulnerable to the damage inflicted by these all-to-frequent fluctuations in voltage.
Although these shifts outside the normal, safe voltage range can be subtle, lasting only nanoseconds, over time the impact on the performance and longevity of a home’s electronic components can be severe. Certainly, high-quality surge protectors help by diverting surges and spikes away from sensitive equipment. However, they can’t protect them from the many electrical disturbances that propagate internally on a home’s electrical wiring. Often called, “dirty electricity,” this erratic form of electromagnetic interference (EMI) is generated by electronic devices as they operate. A power conditioner is purpose-built to clean and condition the electrical current so that all devices receive the appropriate voltage.
It takes a combination of technologies to combat the many types of power quality issues impacting homes with increasing regularity. A surge protector does a great job of diverting voltage spikes and surges away from equipment, a power conditioner cleans dirty electricity, and back-up batteries allow devices to operate during power outages. Each solution serves a very specific purpose; when combined they form the backbone of a truly resilient home.
No matter how antiquated the power grid or severe the storm, no matter how frequently or violently the electrical current swings, and no matter how dirty the power or the number of devices plugged into electrical outlets, an all-inclusive, full-scale, whole-house power management system is the only way to nip every power-related problem in the bud and achieve complete energy resiliency. These do-it-all systems meet the definition of resiliency by enabling a home to both “withstand” and “correct” from difficult situations – in this case, unstable, unclean electrical power.
Joe Piccirilli is the Managing Director at RoseWater Energy. He is an accomplished consultant and strategist with four decades of experience that spans the consumer electronics and energy industries.
