Can you introduce yourself?

I’m Nikki, and I live in Pflugerville, Texas with my husband Mike and our dog. I work in the utility industry, and when I’m not working, I spend time on my freshwater fish hobby. Mike has a tarantula hobby....so yeah, there’s a lot of life in our house. When the power goes out, it affects all of us.

What pushed you to look into backup power?

The big one was Winter Storm Mara in 2023. We lost power for three and a half days. Inside the house, it dropped to 42 degrees. We were wearing coats indoors, sleeping on the couch, doing whatever we could to stay warm.

Then last summer, there was another outage. It was the middle of June, over 100 degrees outside. We came home from work and the house was hot. Our dog was panting, and the fish tanks were too warm...it was definitely life threatening for the animals we care for. That’s when we knew: we needed a better solution.

What options did you consider?

We already had solar, but that doesn’t help if the grid goes down.

We looked into batteries even back when we first got solar, but the quotes were $15,000 or more. That just wasn’t realistic. We thought about a generator too, but didn’t want to deal with the noise, fuel, or maintenance.

How did you come across Base?

We were changing electricity providers when I found Base. I started digging in. I liked that the battery was included and that you didn’t have to own it or pay a huge amount upfront.

The solar buyback was better than what we had with our last provider. And generally, the whole setup just made sense.

What’s changed since then?

It’s just a different mindset now.

We’re not checking the weather every hour. We’re not wondering if we’ll come home to a hot or cold house, or be stressed about the dog, the fish, or the tarantulas. The system kicks in when the power goes out, simple as that.

I actually look forward to when the neighbors call to ask if our power is out too, and I get to say, “Nope", and then coordinate to see how many of them need to come over.

What would you say to someone considering Base?

If you have solar, it makes total sense. But even if you don’t, having backup power that just works is a big deal.

I work in this industry, and I know how long it can take to get power restored safely. Plus, batteries like this take pressure off the grid and help the whole community. It gives the linemen a bit more time to properly fix things where the issue is on the transmission side. It’s certainly made a big difference for us.