Eco-Friendly Approaches To Keep Your Environmental Control Working During Power Outages
One of the most dangerous aspects of a power outage is that it can take your environmental control mechanisms offline. Your heat will go out during a blizzard outage, or your air conditioning might go out during a hurricane. Traditional methods for keeping these systems online aren't always eco-friendly, but there are some new approaches that are better for the environment.
The Problem with Traditional Backup Generators
Backup generators that click into place as soon as the power goes out are often noisy, and they often use fossil fuels. This is bad for the environment on both fronts. In some cases, it could actually be illegal to run a gas generator indoors, and it's certainly sometimes a safety concern depending on what you do with the fumes.
Fossil fuels were often used historically because electric batteries were so poor at holding onto a charge. Fortunately, this technology is improving to the point where you now have some better options.
Improved Electric Backups
Instead of relying on gas to provide energy in an emergency, you can use stored up electricity instead. There are various new solutions these days that are showing major improvements in storage capacity and retention. Some of these can store up to 10 kWh. That way, when the power goes out, the backup electric battery can automatically take over the environmental control.
The result is that your home stays warm, cool, or at whatever temperature you need even when the grid is offline. According to some sources, only 3% of homes have standby generators, which means that most homes could benefit from installing one.
Efficient Generators
In cases where using a standby generator that runs on gas is still preferable, it helps to go with options that are more efficient. Devices that help maintain this efficiency includes those that can prioritize high-wattage and important devices like environmental control systems automatically.
Monitoring devices can shut down electricity flow to devices that aren't needed as much during emergencies automatically. This means that standby generators that do use fossil fuels like propane will only be using as much as necessary to keep the priority systems in your house online.
Many of these systems can also minimize noise and improve airflow around the generator in order to make sure that it's as safe and energy efficient as possible. Transitioning off of fossil fuel generators is a good idea in the long run, but in the short run, these efficient systems will help to keep everything running smoothly.
For more information, contact Original Donnelly Heating Cooling & Electric or a similar company.