For a few homes, batteries saved the day during the Christmas storm blackout

Robert Holt’s reaction after his neighborhood lost power in the recent storm was different than mine.“This is, like, perfect! This is how it’s supposed to go!” he said, looking back at how his home performed.Holt was happy because his home is one of the few in New Hampshire that uses batteries and solar panels rather than generators to provide its own electricity when the grid goes down. He says he hardly noticed a thing during the two days that power was out.There’s no data about how many of these battery-backup homes exist in the state but queries from the Monitor, the Granite Geek newsletter and on the tech-happy site Reddit seeking examples drew just a couple of responses. Since such folks love to talk about their systems, I’m going to assume they are as rare as hen’s teeth – certainly rarer than in Vermont, where regulators and the utility support them.Holt’s…

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