Home backup batteries are clutch when the power goes out, but unless you’re keeping them fully turned off until you need them, they’re always drawing a bit of power to run themselves. Anker has announced a new battery, the $3,600 Solix S5000, that should minimize this by only pulling as few as 8.8W to drive its own components while not under load.

This is quite low compared to other, similar backup batteries like the $3,500 Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus. That battery consumes a steady 50W in standby mode, according to Jackery’s specs—divide its 5,040Wh capacity by that number, and you’ve got around four days of idle time. On the other hand, Anker says its own battery is good for up to 21 days on standby. Add backup batteries to the equation—the S5000 is expandable up to 30kWh—and you can expect much longer still.

Put in perspective, Anker says the Solix S5000 “powered a refrigerator alone for up to 86 hours” during in-house testing. That may be underselling it—Anker advertises that the smaller Solix S2000 I recently reviewed will run a fridge for 35 hours, yet I got 42 hours of fridge time in my own test. As impressive as these efficiency claims are, there is an important trade-off to note here: the Solix S5000 can only steadily output at up to 4,500W, whereas the Explorer 5000 Plus can hold steady at 7,200W.

The trade-off won’t impact everyone; after all, my house pulled a little more than 3,000W at most during my review of the Anker Solix E10 whole home backup system .

Source link