Power outages are becoming more frequent and are lasting longer, according to the U.S. Department of Energy; with power stations facing threats from wind, snow, ice, fire and brownouts (an over-stressed power grid). According to Eaton’s 2014 Blackout Tracker Annual Report, the United States suffered 3,634 power outages in 2014, affecting more than 14 million people. That’s 12 percent higher than 2013, and 285 percent more often than in 1984. The average business and homeowner will experience 3.5 power outages in a two-year period, and even short power outages lasting less than four hours can cost your customers an average of $1,250 (Power Outage Impact Research, B2B International – 2015). That’s nearly $4,500 in spoiled food, hotels and relocation costs, lost wages from businesses and the stress and financial demands it can put on your customers.
Some are turning to solar, however, a solar panel hooked to a battery storage system can be unreliable. When the sun doesn’t shine, or the backup power from the grid goes down, your customers are out of luck. A propane generator offers a fail-safe that can work in tandem with renewable energy systems. That can help meet district energy codes and allow off-grid living.
Propane powered off-grid generators can help resist the damage done by power outages. By connecting a generator to their propane tank and hooking up to their solar-powered energy source, the propane generator acts as the backup for when those fail. When the sun doesn’t shine and their solar panels batteries run out and the grid shuts down, the off-grid propane generator will automatically come on – within 10 seconds of the power going down – and recharge those batteries. It will then automatically shut itself off once the batteries are recharged and repeat that process until the sun shines on their solar panels again.
By creating an opportunity to talk to your customers about the need for a propane backup generator, you could be saving them thousands of dollars, a mountain of stress, and increasing the perception of quality and value of the buildings you construct. With the rebates from Pacific Propane Gas Association, you can help your customers save money and convert to standby propane generators.
Propane Can Do That
