The lithium battery market has almost exploded in size over the past decade. Suddenly, customers have umpteen options to choose from. And just when we thought there were enough solar battery brands out there, FranklinWh came up in 2019, offering a cutting-edge solar battery with some cool features.
Let us step closer and take a good long look at what the FranklinWh battery has to offer, and if it is able to beat established icons like the Tesla Powerwall.
FranklinWh Specs
Capacity
The ‘aPower’, as FranklinWh calls its battery, comes with an energy storage capacity of 13.6 kWh, which is the same as many other battery options on the market. A typical Kiwi home uses about 22 kWh per day, which makes the battery’s capacity sufficient.
If you have a larger home or need greater capacity for a farm or a small business, you can pair up multiple units together. You can combine up to 15 batteries together, creating a staggering 204 kWh of storage capacity.
Power output
The aPower is rated to supply 5 kW of continuous power, which is somewhat of a letdown, considering the fact that some other batteries can supply 7 kW or more. The only good part about FranklinWh’s power ratings is its peak power of 10 kW. The brand promises that its battery can boot up a 4-ton air conditioner, which certainly commands respect.
Chemistry
FranklinWh ditched the industry-wide common option of nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistry and went with lithium iron phosphate (LFP). As far as home batteries are concerned, LFP chemistry offers safer operation with its high thermal resistance. It also has a longer life, thanks to higher charging and discharging cycles.
This may be one reason why FranklinWh offers a warranty of 12 years compared to the industry standard of 10 years. Speaking of warranty, the makers also promise a total throughput storage of 43 MWh for a single battery, which is certainly not bad.
Efficiency and DoD
An important metric of how good a battery is, its efficiency is the measure of how few losses it has. The FranklinWh battery has an 89% roundtrip efficiency, which is in line with most industry-leading batteries today.
It also comes with a 100% depth of discharge, meaning that all the stored energy in the battery can be extracted, unlike older batteries that always need some charge to be kept inside them for proper operation.
Here are all the key specifications of the FranklinWh aPower battery:
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Performance
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Environmental
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Mechanical
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Certifications IEC / EN62109-1, IEC / EN62109-2, UL1973, IEC / EN62477-1, AS/NZS 4777.2:2020, IEC62040-1, IEC / EN62619 |
Franklinwh Features
The FHP
Instead of marketing just the battery, FranklinWh advertises its ‘FranklinWh Home Power (FHP)’, a trio of the battery, a gateway, and a smartphone app.
The aPower is the battery unit, which also houses an inverter to convert DC power into AC. Speaking of which, being an AC-coupled battery allows you to add the battery to existing solar systems as well, and has an easy installation and setup.
The aGate is similar to the Tesla Gateway. It handles the switchover process from grid power to your battery in the event of a blackout. It is also the ‘gateway’ to your grid power and handles energy management. The aGate also comes with Wi-Fi and 4G connectivity that helps monitor the whole thing remotely.
One cool aspect of the aGate is its ability to manage energy from several sources. You may wonder what’s so new about it, but in the list of energy sources it can manage, FranklinWh mentions ‘EV’. In other words, if you have a compatible car and a bidirectional EV charger, such as the latest one from Enphase, you can use your EV’s battery to power your home appliances. Also known as V2L compatibility (vehicle-to-load), not all options on the market currently offer this.
Lastly, the FranklinWh mobile app offers features such as flexible home energy management, real-time monitoring with history data, and energy statements by day, week, month, and year.
FranklinWh mobile app
Smart Circuits
One of the key features of the FHP is ‘smart circuits’, which allows you to create groups of your appliances to connect to your battery.
FranklinWh Smart Circuits
Take the example image above. Here, the loads are distributed in four different circuits – one is critical loads, which will always have first priority, and then there are three different circuits that you can choose to turn on or off depending on your battery’s state of charge.
This allows you to prioritize some appliances over others, particularly when you expect a longer blackout and need to optimize the energy in your battery to power your home for a longer period.
Design
When it comes to aesthetics, solar batteries in general aren’t winning. Most batteries are just big plain blocks, and the FranklinWh battery is no exception. The aPower comes in a white casing with black sides and two blue LEDs running along the side (for some reason, blue is now the favorite LED colour of all battery makers). On the front, it has ‘Franklin’ printed on one side.
Overall, the design is clean and feels premium, but like we said before, it does not do anything new, and that’s okay. The unit is quite weatherproof and can be placed indoors or outdoors. You can choose to mount it on a wall or just place it on the floor.
Price
Including installation, the Franklin Home Power package could cost you around $20,000. This may seem steep, especially compared to the initial price tag of the Powerwall. However, add in the Tesla gateway and the installation costs and it comes pretty close to the FranklinWh pricing.
About the Brand
In 2019, a number of experienced professionals from the solar battery industry came together in California to create a new battery brand. This was slightly bold, considering the competition in the battery market. But then the demand for solar batteries was (and is) skyrocketing, and it made sense to throw yourself into this line of business.
They named the brand after Benjamin Franklin, the famous American polymath known for his curious and memorable experiments with electricity. FranklinWh claims to have more than 70% of its team in R&D, showing its commitment to innovation. It also promises tier-1, high-quality LFP cells in its products. Overall, despite being young, we think FranklinWh is a reliable brand, especially considering the quality of its products.
Should You Buy the FranklinWh Solar Battery?
To be honest, the Franklin Home Power setup hardly offers anything revolutionary. If you take any standard, reputable solar battery on the market today and compare it with FranklinWh, you’ll notice very few noteworthy differences.
That said, the few differences can sometimes be exactly what you need. For example, if you live in an area with frequent blackouts, the smart circuits is a pretty decent feature to have more control over how your battery energy is spent. More importantly, if you plan on getting an EV with V2L capability, buying the FHP would make sense.
All-in-all, although it is not a game-changing product, FranklinWh does get everything right while offering one or two distinguishing features. And that is often enough in a market that is growing so rapidly. Bottom line – gauge your needs, and if the unique features of the FranklinWh are specifically of use to you, then go for it!