I like to keep my home at a cool and comfortable 68 degrees year-round. This preference would be fine if I lived near the Pacific Ocean, or in a small home, or in a newer home that’s insulated with modern mineral wool instead of tissue paper and horsehair.

I, however, live in a 2,000-plus-square-foot home built in 1906. It's in Kansas City, which has a brutal, humid continental climate. Missouri winters are frigidly cold with ice storms that frequently cripple the city's roads and burst pipes all over town. Summers are famously hot and humid with near-daily thunderstorms, as fronts crossing the continent collide in its pancake-flat center. Spring and fall are nice, but they last six to eight weeks combined, meaning we get a solid 20 days of open-window weather.

I moved into this house last August. It’s twice the size and 40 years older than my previous home. I knew my power bills will likely go up significantly. In September, my first full month in my new place, I decided to throw caution to the wind and set the thermostat to my preferred temperature and see what would happen. I ended up with a $372 electric bill. After considering the sale of some of my excess plasma, I spent the cooler winter months finding ways to avoid a hot and sticky summer.

The solution to my power problem, and one that I expect many will embrace in the near future is a smart whole home battery backup.

While whole home battery backups might seem reserved for solar enthusiasts, preppers, or those with specific medical needs, they are quickly becoming an essential appliance for many homeowners. Their value goes far beyond simply keeping the refrigerator running during a power outage.

To see if a whole home batter backup would work for my house, I tested the Anker Solix E10 system. The $7,200 setup, which includes two batteries and a power dock, is far cheaper than my alternative solution: moving to San Diego, though that path nets better burritos. While there are many variables, I estimate the system will pay for itself in about five years, though Anker states it will last for up to ten.

Company Time

Even though the weather in Kansas City offers as few comfortable days as pretty much anywhere in the United States, its power company capitalizes on my need to be in a climate-controlled home with an extremely aggressive time-of-use billing option. This is becoming more common, as utilities try to incentivize time-shifting to prevent stress on their grid and build out their infrastructure to offer favorable rates to preferred industrial customers and power-hungry data centers.

Along with Missouri's two major metro areas, cities like Denver, Phoenix, and those across California also offer aggressive time-of-use discounts.

Time-of-use rates vary significantly depending on when you use electricity. My power company, Evergy, uses a “penalty-based TOU structure.” Under the Nights & Weekends Max Plan, overnight winter rates drop as low as 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, but summer afternoon rates can spike up to 36 cents. For comparison, a standard plan with no time-based bonuses or penalties costs 14 cents per kilowatt hour all summer. (Predictably, they're trying to jack these rates up to invest in infrastructure for the new data centers.)

Combined with how much ambient temperatures vary and my usage patterns—my thermostat settings are dependent on how my energy plan is structured, how often I take vacations, and when I choose to do laundry (my Speed Queen electric dryer is the only appliance that draws nearly as much power as the AC)—it’s impossible to get a perfect calculation of how much money I saved on my plan compared for the same comfort and convenience. But if I had used the same amount of power in May on a standard summer rate plan, I would have paid $185 instead of $102.

Moreover, I'm no longer sweating over my power use. Evergy tells me that I am using 15% more electricity than similar homes. That's fine. For June, my bill is projected at $156. Last June—in my old house that has half the square footage—I paid $231. You could say I’m saving about $75 this month. Or you could consider the square footage and project my bill at more than $350, as it was in September 2025, meaning I’m saving $200. The best thing about the Solix E10 is that I no longer have to worry about the cost of my energy usage.

Set It And Forget It

Anker is best known for its power banks—a category the Solix naturally expands upon—but the company also makes everything from flashlights and speakers to 3D printers. The Solix E10 is a configurable system ranging from $4,000 for the basic version up to $19,200 for a fully loaded setup, which includes maximum battery capacity and a smart switch for instant grid transitions. You can research the options on Anker's website or contact their customer service for guidance. If you call, be ready to share some stats from your electrical box and a photo of your air conditioner so they can determine your power needs.

The system I have will store up to 12 kilowatt-hours. Last month I used an average of 37.4 kilowatt-hours per day. According to the breakdown on my bill, I used 440 kilowatt-hours of super-off-peak power (charging the battery) and only 21 kilowatt-hours of peak rate power (the battery ran out or storm mode came on—more on that in a second).

The Solix E10 uses lithium iron phosphate batteries—the same technology found in many EVs from Tesla and BYD—rather than the more common NMC chemistry. This provides a longer lifespan and a lower risk of catching fire. The system is rated to operate safely from -3 to 130 degrees, making my limestone basement, which stays between 50 and 70 degrees year-round, an ideal location (there are some benefits to older homes!).

This system requires professional installation. A local electrician installed my battery, control unit, smart switch (which clicks over from the grid to the battery when the grid is out), and two solar panels. Even though this was his first time installing this type of system, the process took only about four hours, and his team encountered very few issues.

For my setup, I have the solar panels leaning against my house. They only generate about 25 kilowatt-hours per month, which is less than a quarter of their potential. Most of that power comes in the peak period, meaning they save me just shy of $7 per month. The set of two 440-watt panels costs $999, so this is only something I'd recommend if you plan to mount them properly on your roof in an optimal location instead of leaning them on a fence.

Once you enter your utility rates and schedule—including up to four daily periods and seasonal variations—the intuitive Anker app handles the rest. It runs automatically in the background while providing helpful insights into your power consumption.

Storm Guard mode is a great feature for most people, as it automatically recharges the battery when severe weather is forecasted for your area. However, I had to disable it. Because Kansas City gets frequent summer storms, the feature was activating almost weekly, causing my battery to charge during peak hours at 27 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Electric Nights

Obviously, $7,200 plus a half-day of work for an electrician is an investment, but I'm happy to see that the Solix E10 should still have 80% of its current capacity in 2037. There is currently 0% financing available on Anker’s site. The most basic setup would be $167 per month for two years, which means that in an extreme use case you could theoretically pay it off just in your monthly energy savings.

The person who appreciates the Solix most is probably my 11-year-old daughter, who no longer has to worry about me nagging her to turn off the lights. As for me, I can finally enjoy my home without stressing over the electric bill. Whether it's leaving random lights turned on, running a portable AC at 63 degrees while I sleep under a thick Bavarian down comforter, or playing music throughout the house even in rooms I’m not in, I can relax knowing my power costs just two or three cents per kilowatt-hour—far cheaper than the average cost of electricity for my entire lifetime.