Allison interviews Rachel Stotts from Jackery about their home backup power solutions.
Rachel shows Jackery’s Explorer 5000 Plus system which provides 5,040 kWh of stored energy to your home from the base unit. This home backup power source can be used on a standalone basis – it has wheels so it can be moved to various locations within the home.
The Explorer 5000 Plus can be extended to provide up to 60 kWh of energy to the entire home with additional Jackery Battery Packs and a connection to the home’s power grid through Jackery’s Smart Transfer Switch.
Rachel then shows Jackery’s new XBC Curved Solar Tiles that were debuted at CES this year. These tiles come in terracotta or obsidian colors and are the first curved solar panels in the U.S. to mimic the look of terracotta roof tiles. They blend form and function to provide the home with solar power while maintaining the look of a Spanish-style roof.
The XBC Curved Solar Tiles provide 170W of power per square meter of installed tile. They have been installed on a few homes as part of a pilot program and will be available in 2025.
Jackery provides a full suite of home backup power equipment, including solar panels, battery packs, inverters, and a smart hub. All Jackery home backup power devices can be monitored and controlled through Jackery’s mobile app.
The interview setting is the Everything Tech Conference show floor at Caesars Palace.
Learn more at https://jackery.com/
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Transcript of Interview:
Allison: Many years ago I bought a Jackery battery that would actually power my MacBook Pro over AC from a battery pack. I was all the rage at Mac stock when I had it there and since then we’ve been so enamored with Jackery that we bought our son-in-law a Jackery battery for going camping and being able to charge up his power tools out in his big old yard and everything. So we’re a big fan of the product line. I want to talk about solar panels with Rachel Stotts but first, I’m going to let her tell us about another battery that she has next to her. This is audio as a podcast as well as a video so describe what you’re talking about.
Rachel Stotts: Amazing yeah hi everybody. So this is our 5000 Plus and it’s a very newly released solar generator. It’s on wheels, it’s a 5kWh system and the best thing about it is that you can connect it to your home’s grid through a smart transfer switch. It also comes with battery extension packs and you can build out this entire ecosystem to equal 60kWh of power.
Allison: Holy cow yeah that’s almost as much as my Tesla.
Rachel Stotts: Yeah it’s a lot of power and one unit that you can still wheel out and have as a portable you know.
Allison: Let me describe it. This thing is about maybe two and a half three feet tall, it’s a rolling thing it probably weighs a lot because it’s a big.
Rachel Stotts: 120 pounds yeah okay yeah so I’m not gonna try to roll it.
Allison: Wheels nicely yeah. So you said the smart transfer switch is that something that Jackery sells?
Rachel Stotts: Yeah it’s our proprietary smart transfer switch.
Allison: That would allow you to flip over if you lost power from the grid?
Rachel Stotts: Exactly yeah and it’s available on the Jackery app as well so you can control things there but yeah it’s a really nice easy system. It’s a really good starter for home backup.
Allison: Very good so the five thousand plus what does that cost?
Rachel Stotts: The kit costs anything between like four thousand and maybe if you get all the bells and whistles like with like installation maybe twenty thousand.
Allison: Okay. So what do you what do you have to have installed when the connection is sold?
Rachel Stotts: The smart transfer switch — we recommend that a licensed electrician install it.
Allison: Yeah, they could they cost a lot.
Rachel Stotts: Yeah, exactly, but you could just buy this portable unit too and buy the extension packs and just have you know a rolling essential backup device in your home as well.
Allison: Right the picture here shows this happy couple. They’ve got their Jackery in the middle of the kitchen and they’ve got the refrigerator there. He’s got a bottle of wine, she’s running a food processor, and they’re just happy as anything. All their neighbors are dying over there because their meats are in the fridge.
All right, let’s move along. We’ve got some solar panels here and we were really attracted to these because we have a terracotta roof. People who live in other parts of the country than California — we have clay tiles that are Spanish tiles because they’re better for fire safety. But when we had solar panels put on we had to pay to have those pulled off and then they tarred the roof and actually put shingles down then they put solar panels on top of it and then they built back up with more terracotta tiles around it. But it looks like could replace all of that with just these solar panels.
Rachel Stotts: That’s right we wanted form and function something that looked gorgeous but was really efficient and amazing for homeowners. They get to keep the look of their home, but they got all the benefits of solar. These are the U.S.’s first and only curved solar tiles we’re debuting them at CES. This is our soft launch and they’re going to be available in 2025. We’re rolling out our pilot program. Now it’s installed on a couple of houses, and we’re running all our tests, and working together. All our tech specs and stuff. We offer them in two colors — terracotta and obsidian. For now, they look really great on you know Spanish-style homes, but we really wanted to give people a different option and an alternative that’s beautiful and compared to traditional solar systems.
Allison: I like how solar panels look but a lot of people don’t. They’re like, I don’t want that in the front of my house I don’t want it to look that way but this is going to look like a terracotta roof.
Rachel Stotts: And HOAs you know this is going to be a way to potentially get around HOA requirements and get solar.
Allison: So does this work with traditional inverters from any company or do you sell the inverters?
Rachel Stotts: We have an inverter for a home power system. That’s a battery stack with an inverter and a smart hub that can connect to your home. You run all your devices and control everything that you want to power. We really want people to build this out as part of their Jackery home backup ecosystem so we’ll be releasing more information on that. These have about a 25% efficiency and I think I believe they pull 170 watts per square meter.
Allison: Okay I’m going to look at Steve to see if there are any questions I should be asking because he’s the one that knows all these kinds of numbers. The product isn’t out yet but you’re expecting it in 2025?
Rachel Stotts: Yeah.
Allison: I got to tell you, having solar panels, having a battery and this control system like what she’s talking about, (we didn’t buy it from you because it wasn’t out yet) but it is really transformative of the way you look at your house. I can be independent of the grid when I need to be when there’s a power outage. I can actually pump energy into the grid. We actually send energy back to the grid during high-heat events. For example, when they’re going to have to turn on peaker power plants because of everybody needing air conditioning because it’s so hot out. We can actually provide energy back to the grid and we can get paid for it. It feels really good and we’re saving money already actually from what we’ve done. So having them be pretty — that’s awesome this is a great product.
Rachel Stotts: It’s a big cherry on top.
Allison: So you’ve gone beyond the MacBook Pro battery and the company is called Jackery j-a-c-k-e-r-y — is it jackery.com?
Rachel Stotts: Exactly, jackery.com.
Allison: Very good thank you for spending time with us today.
Rachel Stotts: Thank you.
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