Support CleanTechnica's work througha Substack subscription,on Patreon, oron Stripe. Help us produce all of thehigh-quality, original content we publish week after weekdespite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.I’ve had a BLUETTI FridgePower battery for a few months now, and it’s definitely a special product that could become a household normal in many regions around the world. We are seeing more and more extreme weather as the globe heats up and our climate is disrupted. I’ve gone through such events — extreme hurricanes — including ones that knocked out electricity for hours or even days. There are a few critical things you realize you need powered in such cases —your internet, your air conditioner (here in Florida at least), and your food (refrigerator).
That’s the core of the FridgePower pitch. It’s about backing up your refrigerator in the case of short and long power outages, protecting your food, your medicine, and your ice cream (gasp). However, it offers more than that.
One nice feature that’s basically buried in the settings is the ability to charge and discharge the battery at different times. The key opportunities here are being able to NOT use electricity from the grid at peak times when electricity prices are highest and being able to use electricity from the grid to charge the battery “off peak” when electricity prices are lowest. You have to check with your own utility for details on this. Some utilities don’t even have different electricity rates at different times, but these “time of use” (TOU) electricity pricing systems have gotten more common.
My utility district offers three different rates depending on time of day. Here’s what they are:
- $0.23/kWh on-peak (2:00 PM to 6:00 PM from April to October, 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM from November to March)
- $0.07/kWh super off-peak (12:00 AM to 6:00 AM)
- $0.09/kWh off-peak (all other hours)
So, once I discovered that the BLUETTI FridgePower battery system had this capability, I knew it was something to use and highlight.
First of all, here’s a screenshot of the app showing that the battery is discharging (powering what’s plugged into it) while electricity prices are higher:
Here’s the FridgePower system charging from the grid when electricity prices are super low:
Let’s look at how we set this. First, you go to settings (the wheel in the top right corner of the app), and then you go to “Working Mode” and change “Standard UPS” to “Time Control UPS.” See below. You can also then choose at what percentage you want the battery to recharge no matter what and at what percentage you want it to stop charging itself from the grid, even off-peak.
The key, though, is clicking on “Time Settings” and choosing the “** Off-Peak**” times that you want the FridgePower system to charge itself up and the “** Peak**” times that you want it to definitely not charge up and be sure to discharge to power any appliances or equipment plugged into it.
Simple as that.
Now, in my utility district, that means charging up the BLUETTI FridgePower system when electricity costs $0.07/kWh and using stored battery energy to power the fridge and other connected devices instead of drawing from the grid when electricity costs $0.23/kWh or $0.09/kWh.
Note that FridgePower pricing typically hovers around $900, depending on current promotions. Readers can also try code CLEANTECH at checkout to see whether an additional discount applies.
*Disclosure: BLUETTI supported this article and provided a FridgePower system and BlueCell 200 for testing.
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