Home energy storage systems continue to add capacity and power while reducing installation complexity. A good example is Mango Power M – an all-in-one home backup power system that the company says can be installed and commissioned in four hours or less.
The Mango Power M serves as an all-in-one home backup power storage solution. It includes 200A ATS, RSD Transmitter & AFCI, Auto Generator Start, 2x 200A breaker, and 2m 400A Battery connection cables, supporting whole-home backup without extra boxes. We took a closer look on this episode of The Pitch, with Chris Cashen, head of technical support for Mango Power.
Watch the full episode above or read through part of the transcript below:
Crowell: Mango seems to be one of the only manufacturers really promoting its use of CATL LFP battery cells, which seems like a good selling point to me. Could you explain what you like about the CATL batteries?
Cashen: I like the concept of standing on the shoulders of giants. CATL is the world’s largest. They make a third of the market share of batteries for EV production and have been around for over a decade just as a battery manufacturer. So, being able to leverage that technology, especially as a newer entrant in the market, really gives us a competitive edge, and something to stand on that backs the quality of the product. Energy storage as a whole is still an emerging market, and a lot of new entrance into it, so it’s great to be able to have that brand alongside our brand to back what could be a 15 year or 20 year investment for customers.
Crowell: Let’s walk through the specs a little bit more. The Mango Power M can provide 12 kW of continuous power and 24 kW peak power output. Explain why both of those numbers are important.
Cashen: As the push for electrification as a whole moves across the nation, everything is going to be powered by the electricity in your house. So, the ability to start an air conditioner or a heat pump, which is becoming more common now, requires a very high inrush current on an inverter. Having those values really allows the customer to back up the whole house and still be able to use the things in their house that they want to — relatively conservative — if the power goes out.
Along with that, it has a 200 amp bypass in it so that the inverter can just go into bypass mode if it needs to while still connected to the grid, allowing their house to run like normal.
And then, on installing new solar, you can add up to 18 kW of direct dc-coupled PV. It’ll accept both ac coupled and dc coupled — and not just one or the other, you can technically have both.
Crowell: I noticed the minimum battery storage capacity is 15 kWh. Can that be expanded if I want to add more down the road?
Cashen: One things that’s kind of a blessing for the installer and then also for the consumer as well, is the battery cabinet is a modular design. Our battery packs are 5 kWh. The BMS, the storage, and everything is built into it, and they slide into the cabinet on like a racking style system. Up to 20 kWh in a single cabinet, and then the cabinets can be paralleled to a single inverter up to 80 kWh.
Crowell: I’m having a lot of these conversations and going over similar specs. What makes the Mango power M stand out in this field to you?
Cashen: Definitely the longevity or the quality of the batteries. It is 6,000 cycles at a 70% retention. So what that works out to … less technically, is it’s going to be about 20 years of a charge and discharge pattern every day. Aside from that, the power of the inverter to actually be able to run the house rather than having to combine multiple systems.
Now, you can parallel multiples of our inverters. They are able to be combined into a number of other configurations – you can parallel technically up to 10 inverters, and you can do like a three-phase power configuration. Or there’s still some customers out there that have 208 volts as well, which is one of the other standout features, the ability to support a 120 / 208 voltage alongside 120 240.
Crowell: The hook I mentioned up top is the Mango Power M can be installed and commissioned in under four hours with two people. Could you explain some of the design decisions that went into making that a possibility?
Cashen: The main premise behind it is a modular approach to design rather than all-in-one system architecture.
That allows it to be lighter weight, reducing the number of staff needed to install. The heaviest component is just under 120 pound … rather than having a cabinet say that weighs over 200 over 300 pounds, and it becomes a struggle point to lift. Then that modular design is similar to, if you imagine factory or assembly work. Everything is modular and broken down into segments, it allows the process to speed up and to finalize the project faster.
Crowell: What about on the commissioning side?
Cashen: The system is designed basically to operate in three modes. A backup mode where the customer is just really looking to prioritize allowing the system to charge from the sun or from power whenever it’s available. Then they have a self-consumption mode, where the system connected to solar is going to prioritize solar and then battery and then lastly the grid to make up any shortfalls. And then time of use mode, something that’s becoming more prevalent across consumers’ bills whether they know or not.
Pick up the conversation right there:
- 7:10 – Is the home battery + solar sales approach changing?
- 8:48 – Overview of portable Mango Power E
- 10:06 – What does Mango offer for C&I energy storage?
- 10:43 – Where and how to order?
— Solar Builder magazine
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