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What to run first when you are on stored power

Not every load is equal. A ranked plan stops the house burning through storage on a heated towel rail while the freezer waits its turn.

Tier one: safety and information

First on the list is anything that keeps people safe or informed. That means medical equipment on a clinician's plan, the modem and router for emergency alerts, phone charging, and enough lighting to move around safely at night. These loads are small. A modem and a few LED lights barely register against 15 kW of output, so there is no reason to ever switch them off while storage lasts.

What it would keep running

  • Medical devices and modem first
  • Water pressure pump and fridge
  • Freezer and septic pump
  • One heat pump in bursts
  • Slow cooker instead of the oven

Tier two: water and food

Next come the loads that protect water and food. The pressure pump for drinking water and toilets, the fridge, then the freezer. These cycle on and off, so their real energy use is modest even though the compressor or pump draws a burst of power on start. The system's battery and inverter handle those start surges instantly, which is where cheap backup setups often trip.

If you have a septic system with a pump or an aerated wastewater treatment plant, it belongs in this tier too. A treatment plant that stops aerating for days soon becomes a smell and a health problem, and it draws little power compared with what it protects.

How it works →
The H2OME loop: an electrolyser splits water into hydrogen, the hydrogen is stored in a tank for weeks, a fuel cell turns it into electricity for your home, and the water returns to the loop.

Tier three: comfort, in bursts

Heating, cooling, cooking and hot water are the big users. Run them deliberately rather than leaving them on. Heat or cool one room, boil only the water you need, use a slow cooker rather than the oven, and heat the hot water cylinder in short bursts. Clothes dryers, spa pools, pool pumps and heated towel rails should stay off. Every kilowatt hour you save stretches the store further.

Questions

Do I need to switch circuits off manually?

The inverter carries whatever is switched on, up to 15 kW. It will not choose for you, so turning off the dryer, spa and heated rails at the wall is your job. An electrician can set up a dedicated backup circuit board so only essentials run during an outage.

Why does the freezer come after the fridge?

A full, closed freezer keeps food frozen for a good while without power, while a fridge warms up faster. So the fridge is more urgent minute to minute. In a long outage both should run, but the fridge earns the first slot.

Is the hot water cylinder worth running?

In bursts, yes, especially in winter. A full reheat uses a lot of stored energy, so heat it for a short window before showers rather than leaving the element on all day. Turn the cylinder off at the switchboard the rest of the time.

More in outages, weather and how it works

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