Retiree Prepares for Outages While Saving Money Year-Round

More than five months after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the Oquendo home in rural Juncos, Puerto Rico, remained without power. With a large extended family living in the household, including several seniors and young children, family members from outside of Puerto Rico wanted to make sure that their loved ones would never be without power again.

They turned to Energy Solutions Puerto Rico, UMA Solar and our battery storage solutions to design a grid-tied solar+storage system to provide both net metering benefits and backup power during grid outages.

The family first worked hard to lower their consumption. As a result, the solar+storage system is able to power an entirely energy-efficient home -- including a refrigerator, three split-unit air conditioners and a washing machine. The water heater and stove are powered by natural gas. The family is projected to save $150/month on their electricity bills.

The PV system generates 5.3kW to power the home and 4 PHI 3.5 48V batteries. The balance of the system includes a Schneider Conext 6848 inverter and two 60a/150v Schneider Electric charge controllers.

Because the family is growing, our modularity offering was a big selling point. As the children get older and consume more energy, they plan to expand their storage as necessary.

“Our growing family now has a secure source of electricity, even when the power company is not working or hurricanes affect our electrical grid in the future,” said homeowner Jose Oquendo.