Compare the Technology

1. Inverters, Converters, Batteries and Chargers:

This is the technology used in Mr. Electricity® and is the heart of any Renewable Energy System that converts  DC Energy (Batteries) to AC Energy (Utility type).

Utility AC Energy, when available, is directly coupled through Mr. Electricity® to the circuits in your home.

It is also "Converted" to DC Energy to charge
Mr. Electricity's batteries.

Upon loss of Utility power, Mr. Electricity® will disconnect from the Utility to avoid backfeeding the grid and will then provide Renewable AC Energy to your home from the batteries.

Renewable: To recreate, restore, to bring back  to an original condition of freshness and vigor.

By installing a Timer/Switch in line with the input circuit providing Utility power to Mr. Electricity® and setting the Timer/Switch to interrupt the flow of Utility power to Mr. Electricity® during the "peak", all of the circuits in your home being powered from Mr. Electricity® will now be powered with Renewable, "off peak" Energy from the batteries during the "peak".

This will raise the Energy Conservation Rating of all your appliances plugged into those protected circuits during the "peak" to 100%.

Protected Circuits: Should a power outage happen at any time, (day or night) this would create the same scenario. Utility power is interrupted and your home would be automatically powered by silent, Renewable Energy.

When Utility power returns Mr. Electricity® will automatically reconnect to the Utility and re-charge the batteries; unless it happens to be during the "peak" time of day and the reconnect feature is being controlled by the Timer/Switch.

If a severe storm is approaching and you would prefer keeping the batteries fully charged and ready until the storm passes, you can place Mr. Electricity® into the backup power and reconnect mode at the flip of a switch. 

During all modes of operation the Timer/Switch will track the actual time of day and will not need to be reset unless the batteries are fully depleted, such as during an extended power outage that never seems to end.

See: We often have extended power outages. Can Mr. Electricity help us? This can be found on our Home Page.

Solar systems are now being installed to offset Energy cost. and to combat Global Warming, and Air Pollution. For many years, enterprising people have used solar power to live completely off the grid.

All Solar Panels convert Sunlight into DC Energy. For AC power these folks added a DC to AC "Inverter" and storage batteries similar to those used by Mr. Electricity®.    

Today a new type of Inverter called a "Grid Tied Inverter" will allow excess Energy generated from Solar Systems to be sold back to the power grid.

However during a power outage you will not have Electricity in your home even if the Sun is out. Because a Grid Tied Inverter needs a Voltage sample from the Utility to synchronize with it, and for safety reasons to prevent your Solar System from powering the transmission lines during repairs.

Without this Voltage sample the Inverter shuts down, and you will be without Electricity just like everyone else, unless you add storage batteries and a DC to AC Inverter function like Mr. Electricity®.

If you already have a Grid Tied Solar System you can add a Mr. Electricity for "off peak" Energy storage savings and automatic, silent backup power.

You can then sell all of the Energy generated during the "peak" from your grid tied Solar System, while running your home during the "peak" on lower cost "off peak" Energy.

The lowest cost approach to Solar is to purchase just the Solar Panels. They will provide DC Energy directly to Mr. Electricity's batteries. This will cut down on the amount of Energy you will need to buy during the "off peak".

This will also provide Energy to recharge your batteries during an extended power outage.

The Utilities do not count on Solar to provide consistent quantities of Energy. So they do not turn down their generators during the hours Solar Energy is reducing the load Demand.

Even though you may be powering your home, the reduction in load demand on the grid from Solar Energy is reflected as just more "surplus" Energy on the grid going to waste.

As such Solar Energy is not really doing anything to reduce CO2, Global Warming, Acid Rain, and Asthma like it could be if used with "off peak" Energy storage to create a consistent "peak" load reduction.

3. Wind Energy:

Small Wind Generators for a home are available. The output is typically a DC voltage for storage in batteries. An Inverter like the type Mr. Electricity® uses needs to be added to power AC appliances.

A Wind Generator can be added anytime to a Mr. Electricity® just like Solar.

Industrial Wind Turbines and Wind Farms can create substantial amounts of Renewable Energy. But only when the Wind is blowing.

Because Wind Energy does not meet the requirement to supply Energy upon demand, the Utilities do not not turn down their generators just because the Wind picked up.

The most consistent that Wind Energy ever gets is from the daily thermal effects created from the Sun heating the Earth in contrast to nearby water.  As any Sailor knows the Wind dies down with the evening Sunset.

Wind combined with Solar Energy are both being reflected on the grid as just more "surplus" Energy going to waste.

4. Fuel Cells

Residential and Industrial systems are now in early production .

But fuel cells are only 45% to 50 % efficient in converting a fuel such as Propane or Natural Gas to electricity.

Heat generated as a by-product of the system could be channeled to a water heater or to heat a home.This could raise the efficiency of the fuel cell to around 80%, but this is not a good solution in the middle of Summer.

Today gas hot water heaters and furnaces are about 99% efficient.

5. Hydro and Geothermal Energy:

This is about as good as it gets, but here again when there is an abundance of Energy being produced such as the Spring snow melt, Hydro Energy could be running 24 hours a day.  If the surplus "off peak" Energy was stored and saved for the following day we could close down many dirty coal power plants and save our Natural Resources, the Health of our children, and our Environment.

6. Nuclear Energy:

Nuclear Energy runs at a constant rate 24 hours a day.

The Pentagon has issued a dire prediction that Global Warming is a much bigger threat to National Security than International Terrorism. And Nuclear Power Plants could be one of their targets.

If we must use this dangerous Energy source we should at least use all of the  Energy being created to close dirty Coal & Oil Power Plants and reduce Global Warming.

The only Renewable or even Non-Renewable Technology available to  accomplish this task is "off peak" Energy Storage!