I ditched individual UPS backups for a whole-house battery, and my power problems disappeared

Published Aug 11, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT Richard is the PC Hardware Lead at XDA and has been covering the technology industry for almost two decades. He's been building PCs since young, and when not creating content, you can often find him inside a chassis somewhere. Whether it's the router, network switch, network-attached storage, desktop PC, home server, or a simple smart light bulb, everything needs power, and when outages cause drops in supply, local backups need to take on the load. That's where an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) comes in. The most common version is essentially a power strip attached to a lead acid battery, the same type of power storage used inside your vehicle. If the power goes, it automatically switches supply to ensure everything keeps running. But instead of buying a bunch of UPSs to install around the home, I decided to incorporate this protection in the solar PV array we had installed to help reduce electricity costs. The result is a complete setup that not only allows us to harvest natural power sources and store them for peak time loads, but it also provides a stable and reliable backup switchover for when the grid disconnects for whatever reason. It's instant, works incredibly well, and isn't limited to what a standard UPS can provide. Your first UPS is a serious upgrade But it only offers local power backup I first bought a UPS for the home in 2019 because our networking needs expanded and I moved from using a standard ISP-provided router to a custom firewall running alongside an access point and switch. These devices needed to all stay online to keep our connection alive. With both my spouse and I now predominantly working from home like many other households, our loads through the day increased, and so did the expectation of a reliable supply. My desktop system and my wife's laptop all needed coverage. That's where the Eaton UPS came into play. It offered a few ports to protect the devices we needed to remain online. I bought two, allowing for two monitors, a PC, a laptop, a NAS, a server, and network gear to all be protected and covered by the two internal battery packs. When the power drops, these kick in to deliver an instantaneous switchover that's not felt anywhere upstream. It worked brilliantly. That was until we eventually bought our first home and I decided to kit it out with as much smart home tech as possible. We now have a home office in an external building, as well as tech running inside a detached garage. Two UPS devices won't cover everything, and I don't want to have more running around the property. They're not exactly inconspicuous and are much larger than your typical standard power strip. My spouse wanted a solar array installed to aid with the cost of heating an old English cottage through the winter, and that's when I decided to go for it but with the addition of localized storage with an inverter and batteries. Amazon sells its own branded UPS with enough capacity to keep some devices going through smaller power outages. I highly recommend picking at least one up for sensitive hardware like a PC or networking equipment that can maintain internet connectivity. Amazon Basics UPS 600VA Brand Amazon Basics Load 600 VA / 360 W Battery SLA Outlets 8 (4 connected to battery) Display No Warranty 3 Years The Amazon Basics UPS 600VA is a basic UPS with 8 available sockets, 4 of which are connected to the battery. There's no display, nor are there any ports, but this is a budget-friendly option for those with a few devices to protect. Dimensions 272 x 155 x 80 mm Weight 2.99 kg We fully transitioned to local supply Hitting 90% self-sufficiency during one of the sunniest days of the year Our household is completely electric. There's no gas or oil line to the property. It's simply water and electricity. It's a double-edged sword in that it costs much more to heat the home with electric radiators, but it also means we can cover this with renewable power sources and transition to a cleaner supply. Even our two vehicles are battery electric vehicles (BEVs), so we really are the best case study for some solar PV panels, batteries, and some smart tech to ensure we're fully utilizing our hardware to maximize savings. Our setup comprises 16 Aiko Neostar 2S 450 W panels on two strings, connects to a single 5 kW EcoFlow PowerOcean hybrid inverter, and two EcoFlow PowerOcean 5.1 kWh battery packs, providing 10 kWh of local storage for the entire house. We can use anywhere between 20 kWh and 50 kWh depending on time of year, house loads, and whether we're charging the vehicles or not. Transitioning as much to off-peak times as possible helps to take the bulk of the demand, while the batteries and solar array can keep up with daytime load. It works seriously well and is something I would suggest any homeowner consider. Getting as much power from non-grid sources is a great way to not only save money but also provide some degree of independence, just in case anything goes wrong outside of your control. And it's not just local loads and peak times for offsetting costs; the batteries can prove their weight in gold. We reside in the countryside, which can sometimes be problematic when expecting a stable power supply for a 24/7 running home lab. With the 10 kWh available, we can have the batteries charge nightly when expected solar generation is lower or take solar alone to provide a backup supply if the house becomes isolated. We often have microstutters with delivery, which cause breakers to trip or devices to power down, only for power to be restored moments later. These are all covered by the battery supply. As soon as the grid is detected to be offline or providing power outside of safe operational ranges, the gateway can cut the connection and instantaneously move the entire house to the inverter and batteries. Integration with Home Assistant is perfect I love looking at graphs and data and this satisfies that need There's something about having all this technology integrated in Home Assistant, the same platform I rely on for the rest of the smart home. With an unofficial EcoFlow integration that brings down data from the cloud to my local installation, I no longer have to rely on checking the EcoFlow app every so often. These renewable setup apps are mediocre at the best of times, and Home Assistant is just that much better, taking all the data provided by the inverter and creating a history view for everything. I can see precisely how much solar power we generated on July 10, check what the total household draw was on June 7, and see how high our self-sufficiency score is for August 11, today. With smart plugs strategically connected to various appliances and devices, I'm also able to break down the demand by room, area, and entity. Having this data is invaluable when it comes to seeing just how efficient the home is, as well as all the running devices inside. Home Assistant OS Windows, macOS, Linux iOS compatible Yes Android compatible Yes It's like having a giant UPS Instead of having multiple UPS devices in each room where required, we can simply rely on the single UPS that covers the entire home. Be it the electric shower, EVs on charge, or the firewall pulling just 15 watts from the wall, our home battery setup can help cover us through power outages. Better still, without any heavy loads and just the home lab running with appliances, we could hold out for around 20 hours with the batteries fully charged. Summer has been brilliant. Not for the garden, but definitely so for power generation. Having battery storage alone can have a huge impact on energy bills, especially if your provider offers off-peak pricing for when they can be charged up and used during peak time. It's something I feel most accomplished for adding to the home, by a country mile.