Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

When you say it is bidirectional, what does that mean? It sounds like it means backfeeding into the wall outlet, but I dont think that can be right.

I am also missing how this is different from other inline device battery backups that have been around for decades and cost 20% the price. Is it that it has a built in DC charge controller for an optional solar panel?

Overall, This seems like a tough space to carve out a niche. It seems like the product is trying to position between whole house batteries ( powerwall), multi-purpose power stations (ecoflow), and generic outlet battery backups. As an outside observer reading your website, it wasnt immediately obvious how this solution is better than any of those in their respective domain, or how its own domain is different.

Edit: Maybe I misunderstand the solar charging? How does this work? Does it charge from AC outlet during solar production? Is this managed with a timer, or other smart connections to the solar inverter, ect?

On bidirectionality: Yep this would involve backfeeding an outlet - It's new here in the U.S. but not unprecedented. Plug-in "Balcony Solar" systems have taken Germany by storm in recent years, and Utah just passed the first bill in the US (HB340) to allow plug-in solar panels to export to the grid. Pretty cool to see new these options emerge for renters. There's still work to do to take this to mainstream and get all jurisdictions, utilities, and equipment manufacturers aligned on final standards but I'm optimistic.

On solar: You've got 2 options -- Timed charging with a rooftop system just like how "AC-coupled" batteries like Powerwall work. Or, "DC-coupling" by connecting solar PV panels directly to Pila. If Pila is in your kitchen, running a DC-coupled panel wire may only be practical in a multi-day outage, but for a fridge in the garage it's a relatively easy option.

On differentiation: We're up for the challenge :) - With Powerwall and SPAN (or other home devices like Nest) my take is it's the software and integration value that sets them out ahead. That's where we're really excited to create value and carve our niche. But zooming out, it's a big market, and our goal is to give folks more options to fit their needs, and it's totally going to be the case that simpler portable camping batteries are right for some, and big Powerwall-like batteries are right for others.

Portable camping batteries, generally: More options come out every year, but on the hardware side they're not optimal since most use e-mobility battery chemistries, which are great for delivering high power on demand but wear out fast when cycled daily for home energy use. And since they’re meant to be manually deployed, they’re not always charged and ready when you actually need them—unlike a system that’s always on, managing power in the background without you having to think about it.

Great work on the local API first approach. I can't remember the last SmartAppTM device that was local API first and not wholely dependent on some fly-by-night SaaS that requires you to sign-up. Hope we see more of this in the industry. Span is infamous for removing local API control of their panels.