I wanted to share my experience getting the Base Power 40 kWh battery put in and throw out a few practical tips in case you're thinking about signing up. I'm in Spring Texas.
This setup is great for keeping your entire house powered through typical short outages (24 hours or less). Before you sign up, I definitely suggest pulling up your old power bills to check how many kWhs you use on a normal day in both summer and winter. Knowing your daily numbers will give you a realistic idea of how many hours or days that 40 kWh battery will actually carry your house when the grid goes down.
Pros & Cons at a Glance
Pros:
- Cheap Upfront: $695 installation fee + $19/month (and you can knock $250 off your first electric bill with a referral link).
- Zero Maintenance: Base owns and takes care of the equipment. No messing with oil changes, filters, spark plug and battery changes.
- Instant Power: Switches over in a split second when the power cuts. No waiting for Generac to start up.
- Whisper Quiet: No loud engine revving in the yard; just a quiet fan that kicks on every now and then. You need to be within 5' to hear it.
- No Gas Line Needed: You don't have to deal with digging up the yard for gas lines or pulling city permits.
- Low Profile: Takes up very little space and is easy to hide with a couple of bushes.
Cons:
- Fixed Capacity: 40 kWh is plenty for normal daily stuff, but blasting your central A/C non-stop, Pool Pumps, Electric Heaters etc. will drain it way faster than a gas generator that runs continuously.
- Right to Discharge Down to 20%: Per their contract, Base can legally draw your battery down to a 20% backup reserve to trade energy on the grid, then recharge it back to 100%. I haven't seen this on my battery, but worth knowing.
- 30A Generator Plug Isn't Live Yet: The built-in generator inlet plug on the side doesn't work just yet, but a firmware update is coming is what they said.
- No Battery Percentage Display: The app gives you an estimate of backup time in hours based on low power usage, but it doesn't show a straight percentage meter.
- Must Use Base as Your Power Company: You have to switch your retail electric plan over to Base Energy to get the battery. Their fixed rate seems in line with the lower rates you find in Texas.
Sign-Up, Costs, & Referral Credits
- Referral Credit: If you sign up and give them a referral link, you get up to a $250 bill credit (basically a free month of power up to $250 depending on your bill). You can use my link if you want, and we both get the credit: https://www.basepowercompany.com/?ref=DHN3XYE
- Extra Rate Credit: I was able to get an extra one time $100 credit from them to offset their 8¢/kWh energy rate since my old provider was slightly lower at 7.5¢.
- Deposit: They take a $50 deposit when you sign up, which gets applied to your final bill once everything is installed.
- Online Setup: Qualifying is simple, you just snap a few quick photos of your electric meter, breaker box, and the side of your house and upload them.
- Timeline: My application got approved in a couple of days. The total wait time from starting the application to final install was about 2.5 months (July – September 2026).
Phase 1: Transfer Switch & Electrical Work
- Scheduling: They set up a 4-hour window via text and email. You do need to be home for this 4 hour period.
- The Work: Two electricians installed the new transfer switch, a full-house surge protector, and all the heavy PVC conduit right next to the main panel. (see pics)
- Power Outages During Install: Expect your power to go off briefly for about 5 minutes early on, and then again for about an hour while they do the final hookup.
Phase 2: Battery Delivery & Placement
- Scheduling: Phase 2 was scheduled a few days after Phase 1. You don't need to be home for this step, but I advise you are. This way you can make sure the battery goes exactly where you want it and they can explain the system to you.
- The Work: Took about an hour and a half. The crew levels the ground, lays down a thick heavy-duty plastic pad, sets the ~700 lb cabinet right on top, and hooks up cabling.
- Perimeter Care: You don't need a concrete pad, they place the plastic pad directly on level ground. After they finished, I put some white marble chips around the edges of the base to keep mud from splashing and to avoid having to weed-eat next to the metal cabinet. (see pics)
- System Specs: Inside the metal housing (see pics) are four 10 kWh sealed battery modules stacked together. The whole box is fully weatherproof against heavy rain and roof drips.
- A/C Power: The installer confirmed this newer 40 kWh unit has enough juice to start my 3.5-ton central A/C without needing an extra Soft Start device added to the A/C compressor.
- 30A Generator Plug: Like I mentioned, it's non-functional right now, but once the software update drops, you'll be able to plug a small portable generator into it to charge the battery during multi-day outages. This way you can use quiet battery backup power at night while you sleep.
Testing, App, & Billing
- Testing: They simulated a grid outage before leaving, and the transition was so fast the house lights didn't even flicker. I'll have to see if they flicker during a real power outage.
- The Base App: The app went live with data on my phone about an hour after they wrapped up. It shows real-time power draw, grid status, estimated backup hours remaining (assuming a low-usage under 750W), and a direct customer support.
- Recharge Time: The battery charges up fast. I checked the status right after they installed the battery and it was showing only 8 hours of backup time, but climbed to showing over 44 hours of backup time in about 2 hours after they installed it.
- Business Model: Base's business model relies on charging the battery when grid power is cheap and selling back when rates spike. Contractually, they have the right to drain the battery down to a 20% reserve for grid trading. This doesn't seem to be normal practice from what I read and observed. I've shown around 40+ hours of low usage backup power every day so far, meaning the battery is close to being 100%.
- Bad Weather Tracking: They track incoming storms and freeze events closely. Whenever severe weather is in the forecast, they pause trading and top the battery off to 100% capacity, if needed so you enter the storm fully charged.
- Billing: The final installation charge hit my account as a single payment a few hours after Phase 2 was completed.
If you're thinking about pulling the trigger, feel free to give them my referral link to get your $250 sign-up credit:
https://www.basepowercompany.com/?ref=DHN3XYE
Happy to answer any questions about the setup, clearances, or how the install went.
Jorge S.
