This Solar Battery Runs on Gasoline - (Not Clickbait)

Today we find out the answer to the age-old solar   panel question. What happens  when the sun doesn't shine? Apparently, this generator back here can  power your house using solar, gasoline,   propane, or natural gas, making this the  most useful appliance since the invention   of the microwave. It's called the Anker  Solix E10 whole-home backup solution from   my channel sponsor, Anker, and it's the  world's first hybrid whole-home backup. The entire system is plug-and-play just  like the solar panels. We're starting   off with 4,500 watts worth of solar,  which is about half of the 9,000 watts   that the stack of batteries can handle.  So, there's room for expansion later. Installing the panels is actually super  easy. We have the snap-in rack system,   and we should be able to get the panels up in  about half a day. The snap-in rack anchors can   either be rafter-mounted or deck-mounted with  super sticky polyisobutylene on the bottom,   which helps waterproof it after everything's  screwed in tight. If we hit a joist or a rafter   underneath the shingles, we only need to put in  two deck screws. But if we miss the rafter or   one rafter doesn't exist where we need to mount,  then we have to put in four screws. The screws   have rubber washers as well to keep liquid  from penetrating down inside of the shingles. Here in Utah, some years we have to deal  with snow, which means that each of the   anchors can be no more than 48 inches  apart and within one-third the distance   of a panel edge. It'll make more sense as  you see the rails clip down into place. And now we just bring up the panels. I got  this snap-in rack system from a distributor   called Solar Wholesale. Solar Wholesale is  able to take pictures of your roof and attic   space and design whole solar systems custom  to your house with individual plan sets,   which help with permitting if you're building  a grid-tied system. The Anker Solix system   is off-grid since we're plugging the solar  panels directly into the side of the battery,   which makes things a little bit easier. The  same connectors that string each of the panels   together are the same connectors  that plug into the battery: MC4s. The side of the battery has two solar inputs.  Each of them maxes out at about 4,500 watts, but   we're just going to use one of the inputs today.  Brett can add a whole other array and add more   batteries into his stack whenever he feels like  it. Modular systems are the best kinds of systems. It's a little bit cold to be installing solar  panels—it's February right now—but basically,   we have all the panels connected  in one loop, positive to negative,   with their wires running into this junction  box. And instead of penetrating down into the   attic like we normally would, we're using  conduit to skip the roof entirely and go   straight into the exterior wall of the garage  where the batteries and generator are going   to sit. I'm a big fan of how the solar  panels and racking are black on black,   which match his gutters and his roof  shingles. Aesthetically pleasing. The E10 system's battery power modules  are modular. Each of the battery blocks   has 6 kilowatt-hours worth of capacity inside.   And each stack of batteries can include up to five  modules. And you can tie three stacks together for   a whopping 90 kilowatt-hours worth of storage,  about the same amount of energy as an electric   car. And the energy inside the batteries  can be replenished from the sun, the grid,   or our tri-fuel gasoline, propane, and natural  gas generator that we'll try out in a second. This looks clean. Of course, we won't be  running the fossil fuel generator inside of   a closed garage, but I'll show you how that works  later. Now that we have the batteries unboxed,   installing them on the wall is super  easy. Guess I got to do it myself. Anker has included two extremely beefy mounts that  can hold over 600 pounds worth of batteries. We   only have two batteries here today. I'll fasten  the base plate to the arms first and then use   the built-in level to make sure that it's square  on the wall. Of course, Anker offers their own   installation and support to help with setup,  but it's kind of fun to see how it's all done. The brackets themselves can mount to either  16-on-center studs or 24-on-center studs   depending on how they're flipped. Then the  modular batteries can just stack on top of   the shelf. And we can add more batteries  to the stack whenever we feel like it. We have one battery mounted to the  wall behind me. And let me walk you   through this other battery. So, it has 6  kilowatt-hours of power stored inside. So,   it makes it rather heavy—about 130 pounds, give  or take. And then there are two plugs on the top,   or two seats. One is an actual plug that clips  into the battery module above and below it.   And they kind of just daisy chain together all  the way to the top, up to five batteries tall. If the batteries are going to be stacked just on  concrete without one of the footers, then this   little rubber plate needs to stay installed.  But since we are mounting them to the wall,   I'm going to pull this little rubber pad off  so it can click into the base plate just like   a little Lego. This plug connects to the battery  below it. And this plug connects to the battery   above it or the inverter on top, which we  will take to our control panel in a second. I do like how there are so many fins on  the back for heat dissipation. The whole   system can also be ground-mounted,  but to clear up some floor space,   I think it looks a little cleaner on the wall.  And since we have more than two batteries tall,   we're going to stick another bracket right  over top of them to keep everything snugged   up against the wall in case of an emergency.  We are mounting the batteries just high enough   off the floor to leave a parking spot for  the tri-fuel smart generator underneath. The top inverter is much lighter. It  just fits right on top of the stack   like this. We'll get to the power  dock breaker panel in just a second,   but it's cool that we don't need all  of this equipment at the same time. Now that we have the batteries hung, I'm going to  plug in the power strip and see if we can charge   my entire truck. If you just want the extra  battery storage in your garage, you can get   the solar and batteries without the smart inlet  box or power dock, and it'll still work just   fine. Using the power strip to charge electric  vehicles or run things inside of your garage. So, jumping in here to the batteries on  the E10 system. What's really cool is that   the batteries themselves—so these modules  right here—they're discharging at 5.5 kW,   and the solar at 2 kW is doing  a pass-through to charge up my   truck at 7.5 kW. I can now basically drive  for free using just the power of the sun. Now that we know the batteries can output  an incredible amount of power—up to 10   kilowatts—let's see if they can power the  house. To truly get a whole-home backup,   we need to tie into the Anker Solix power  dock, which is a smart home panel for all   of your circuit breakers. And this is where I  recommend hiring a professional electrician. The Anker Solix power dock can handle a 200-amp  main panel connection, meaning it can handle   the electricity of a whole residential home  if you have the battery capacity to match.   Since my friend Brett is starting off with just  a few battery modules, we're just going to offset   the power in his basement, which is conveniently  where he films all of his YouTube videos. If the   batteries in the garage ever run out of juice,  the power dock will instantly switch power   back to the grid in less than 20 milliseconds,  meaning he shouldn't even notice the transition. We previously split apart the power dock  into two parts and left the portion that   has the input plugs in the garage next to the  battery and moved the smart breaker panels   down into the basement next to where the old  dumb panel is so it's easier to install. So,   we are currently in the basement. The electrical  wires come out from the battery—that little   junction box up in the garage. And I'll explain  a little bit more how this works in a second,   but we're taking those same wires coming  all the way over here to the breaker panels. And this is where, you know, a certified  electrician comes in. The wires come in   there through the ceiling. And this  is the box that we saw in the garage   earlier. We'll be moving the breakers  from the existing panel over to the new   panel so it can smartly dictate which  ones are functional in an emergency. Basically, as we move wires over from  the original dumb panel to the Anker   Solix smart panel, we have to extend the  wires using some WAGO connections. And   then the wires get extended down through  the wall up into the bottom of the smart   panel. And it looks a little messy right  now, but it should clean up pretty quick. So, quick overview. The grid power  comes in through these wires here,   down through the electrical panel with all  the breakers we left behind. Then the grid   power comes from this breaker here, out through  the bottom, up into this smart panel here. So,   these breakers can get power from the grid  or from the battery, which these wires were   the ones that we pushed through the ceiling  earlier. They go out to the garage and into   the battery. And now that the electrical  is done, we can put the covers back on. She cleans up pretty nice. The panel was  exactly 15 inches wide from side to side,   so it wouldn't recess completely between the  studs. But that's what it looks like on the   inside with all the breakers we installed.  This spot would be a main panel breaker,   but since we just brought  the power over from here,   this breaker is acting like our main shutoff.  We also forgot to install the current sensors,   which are these "clampy boys." These are what make  the smart panel smart, as you'll see in a second. So, back up here in the garage, this is  what we took off of the electrical panel   earlier. And we can put up to three  stacks of five battery modules here   in the garage. And then the battery obviously  connects to the breaker panel downstairs with   this. We'll get to the generator here in  a second that can handle the propane and   the gasoline. And then over here is where the  solar comes in. And we have an extra two ports   for an extra 4,500 watts worth of solar.  And then this is the emergency shutoff. And down here is where the generator can plug in.  So the generator, this is where we would put in   the gasoline right there, like a normal generator.  And then back here around this side is where the   natural gas or the propane would connect,  which we'll try in a second. This is where   we switch between the natural gas, the regular  gasoline, or the propane. It has outlets on it,   like a regular wall outlet. And then this  is what connects to the battery stack. And then it's an electric start. So it can start  from the app, or it can start from this button,   or in an emergency, we have the pull start. But  being a smart generator, everything should be   able to happen automatically through the app. And  then on the far side of the generator, we have the   exhaust since there will be fumes coming from this  fossil fuel boy. And this long cable is what's   going to allow us to take it outside. And outside  is where we will be able to run the generator. All right, let's head down to the basement  and see what loads we can pull from the   battery system. Okay, so this is where  the magic happens. This is where Brett   films his videos. We're going to put the heat  gun and the heater onto the app. But first,   there are a lot of folding phones back here.  He keeps all of his phones in one piece,   which is nice. That's cool.  All right, back to the video. Brett: All right, here we're  currently at 560 watts. Zack: That's what the power you pull  in your basement is, 500 watts. Brett: Basement, my office, a few other things,  the garage—but that's mainly what we get. Zack: Okay, so let's crank something on.  I'm going to turn this heater on, too. So,   we have two heaters going. The home  load has jumped to 1.7 kW, almost 2 kW. Basically, we're only using 20% of the  total available output of the battery   system. Since the Anker Solix E10 system  has 10,000 watts of available output,   it can power full-on air conditioners and  dryers. We've set up the system to handle   a lot of low continuous loads instead of  a few large high-consumption appliances,   which is just something you have to think  about when you're connecting your batteries.   As we add more batteries into the stack, then  it can power the heavy-use items for longer. Let's see if the generator works. Now that  the breaker box is installed and our solar is   recharging the battery, let's say the grid goes  down like it often does in California or Texas,   and there's a snowstorm covering the panels so  the batteries can't recharge. This is where the   tri-fuel Anker Solix smart generator 5500 comes  in. We currently just parked it underneath the   battery modules since here in Utah the power  doesn't go out all that often, but the tri-fuel   generator is weatherproof enough to be parked  outside and permanently connected to natural gas. Being a smart generator means it can  turn itself on and run when it needs to,   and it has three operating modes: eco, quiet,   and turbo. And just like the batteries, it can  function between -4°F all the way up to 122°F. All right, we're going to try with  gasoline. Switching it down to the   lower. We got the liquid gas port in  the top. Starting it. All right. Smells   kind of like a lawn mower. There's a  reason why these things are outside. How much electricity are we generating? 2.7  kW. The generator's RPMs remain constant,   making it five times more efficient than a  generator that always has to fluctuate with   energy demand. It can charge the batteries at  4,500 watts, which is the same power coming from   the solar panels. It's like a plan B for your  plan B, which I guess would make it a plan C. The generator does its own smart  maintenance and will let you know   if things aren't working right from  the Anker app. Speaking of which,   we can see how much the solar is producing and  how much power Brett's house is consuming. So,   quiet mode is around 2,000 W and turbo mode  is around 4,000 watts. That's a lot of power. So, we're going to try the propane now, which is  connected and turned on. Slide to start. And there   we have it. Now our backups have backups. Whether  we're using solar power, gasoline, natural gas,   or propane, we will have electricity in  this house powering the entire basement. The solar is definitely going to be quieter  than the generator. Since electricity rates   are different all across the country, it's  hard to calculate exactly what the payback   period is going to be for this. But in an  emergency situation like a week-long power   outage in California or Texas, the Anker  Solix E10 hybrid battery backup system is   going to be priceless. I'll leave the current  pricing down in the description if you want to   pick up one of these hybrid systems for  yourself. I, for one, am super excited,   and Brett will keep us updated on his  channel on how it works over time. Brett: Thanks, Anker. Zack: Thanks a ton for watching,  and I'll see you around.