The Home Backup

Commission possible from Jackery, BLUETTI, and Anker SOLIX links. Same price to you. Disclosure

Silo 2 · Home batteries

A home battery on this desk is a cabinet you can grow, not a wall pack tied to a roof.

If an installer already quoted a Tesla Powerwall with a solar contract, you are on the wrong site. Here the overlap is an Anker SOLIX F3800 on casters, plus two ~2 kWh 120 V cores that take extra batteries.

Updated August 26, 2026 · The Home Backup · thehomebackup.com

Charcoal wall-mounted home battery cabinet in a basement utility room, between a water heater and an open electrical panel.
Basement utility scene, not a product shot. Named SKUs below use official manufacturer photographs. Tesla Powerwall is out of scope.

Most “home battery” search results mix three products: a roof-tied energy-storage system, an automatic standby generator, and a large portable station that can feed an inlet box. This silo is the third one. The cabinet in the photo is mood. The machines we name are the ones we can show with a manufacturer photograph and a dated spec sheet. A 132.3 lb F3800 on casters is still heavy, still wants a legal house hook if you energize circuits, and still runs out of kilowatt-hours. It does not need a roof or a pad. It also does not impersonate the grid for a week of ice.

What this silo actually sells

We feature three kits. The Anker SOLIX F3800 is the split-phase SKU: 3,840 Wh, 6,000 W continuous, 9,000 W surge, 120/240 V, LFP, street price $2,199.98 on the manufacturer page we checked August 26, 2026. Expandable: yes. We do not invent the extra-module SKU name because the catalog line is only “Yes.”

The other two are 120 V cores. The BLUETTI AC200L is 2,048 Wh, 2,400 W, 62.4 lb, expandable up to 8,192 Wh, $899. The Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus is 2,042.8 Wh, 3,000 W, 61.5 lb, LiFePO4, extra capacity via Battery Pack 2000 Plus, $899 with a $2,199 compare-at price that day. We left surge blank on both 120 V cores because manufacturer pages conflicted or were unclear. Do not treat a blank cell as zero, and do not treat it as a hidden 6,000 W.

None of those 120 V boxes become a well-pump inverter because you stacked batteries. Extra watt-hours stretch runtime. They do not change voltage. If the load is 240 V, you need the F3800 class or you need a standby generator.

Official Anker SOLIX studio photo of the F3800 portable power station, tall gray wheeled cabinet with casters, front display, and side AC panel.

Anker SOLIX

F3800

Split-phase home hook. Heavy. Not a pad generator.

Capacity
3,840 Wh
Output
6,000 W
Surge / peak
9,000 W
Voltage
120 / 240 V

$2,199.98

Street price on the manufacturer page, August 26, 2026. Sales move.

See F3800 price
Official BLUETTI studio photo of the AC200L portable power station, charcoal case with ribbed lower panel, LCD at 100 percent, AC outlets on the right.

BLUETTI

AC200L

Same ~2 kWh job as the Jackery, with a modular extra-battery path.

Capacity
2,048 Wh
Output
2,400 W
Voltage
120 V
Weight
62.4 lb

$899

Street price on the manufacturer page, August 26, 2026. Sales move.

See BLUETTI price
Official Jackery studio photo of the Explorer 2000 Plus portable power station, dark gray wheeled case with orange handle and feet, front display at 100 percent.

Jackery

Explorer 2000 Plus

Fridge and essentials on 120 V. Extra packs if the outage lasts.

Capacity
2,042.8 Wh
Output
3,000 W
Voltage
120 V
Weight
61.5 lb

$899 $2,199

Street price on the manufacturer page, August 26, 2026. Sales move.

See Jackery price

F3800 is the 120/240 V cabinet. AC200L and Explorer 2000 Plus are 120 V cores that grow. Photos are official manufacturer shots. Specs dated August 26, 2026.

Featured carts only: Anker SOLIX, BLUETTI, Jackery. Same price to you. Method and cookie rules: how we review. Disclosure.

Who this silo is for

  • You want kilowatt-hours you can add later, usually LiFePO4 / LFP, without a solar-sales visit.
  • You will size 120 V versus 240 V from a circuit list, not from a brochure headline.
  • You can pay an electrician for an inlet and interlock or a listed transfer switch if the box will touch house wiring.
  • Silence and no exhaust matter more than unlimited runtime.

Who should skip it

  • You need automatic HVAC for days. Start at whole-house generators.
  • You already have rooftop solar and were told to buy a Powerwall. Different desk, out of scope.
  • You only need a fridge overnight. A smaller power station is the product.

How a basement kit actually gets used

The useful installation is boring: dry floor, labeled cables, an electrician’s interlock if you use an inlet, a fridge-start test in daylight, and a pre-decided off list (range, dryer, most of the air conditioner).

Recharge is the second product. Wall AC recovers between flickers. Portable panels recover in sun, slowly. A 3.84 kWh pack on a space heater is an evening. Extra modules help multi-day events. They do not repeal physics.

  1. Write the circuit list before you open a cart.
  2. Treat 240 V as a hard filter, not a software setting.
  3. Plan recharge the same week you plan capacity.
  4. Do not use a dryer-outlet cheat cord.

Honest caveats

We have not personally cycled every cabinet through a winter. Rankings follow jobs, manufacturer electrical ratings dated August 26, 2026, and documented failure modes (surge, voltage, illegal interconnects). EcoFlow makes competing kits; we do not feature them while the cookie is a 7-day risk. We will not mint a Generac click ID to dress this silo up as a pad-generator store.

Pages in this silo

If the job is a countertop fridge and a modem, leave this silo for power stations for home backup. If the job is an automatic plant on a pad, leave for what a standby generator actually costs.