The Home Power Owner's Manual
A plain-English manual for home backup power — batteries, generators, solar, and your electric bill. What every spec actually means, who really makes these machines, and what to pay. Written so no one can sell you the wrong box again.
Not anti-solar. Not doom-prepping. Just the facts the box won't print — sourced, and on your side.
What you get
It reads like a friendly expert at your kitchen table — calm, specific, and squarely on your side. Here's everything inside the file.
30 chapters across 10 parts — fundamentals, the teardown, sizing, medical backup, solar, generators, surge, the money chapters, and your rights.
EcoFlow, Bluetti, Jackery, Anker SOLIX, Goal Zero, DJI, Oupes, Pecron, Fossibot — plus a marketplace-caution card and a generator-brand table.
Meter-test dispute, refund demand, warranty claim, and credit-card chargeback — fill in the brackets and send.
Load list, sizing, runtime, a tiered outage plan, and a "should I buy this?" worksheet for big decisions.
Running and surge watts for fridges, CPAPs, sump pumps, furnaces, and more — the reference you'll keep open while you shop.
The non-negotiables — lithium storage, carbon-monoxide rules, backfeeding, surge — on a single page you can pin up.
The read-back
The whole book in miniature: every confident number on the box has a quieter truth underneath. A few you'll learn to decode on sight.
The math
The aisle is expensive to get wrong. These are the typical real-world ranges the book is built to help you avoid — set against what the book itself costs.
Avoid a single wrong call and it pays for itself dozens of times over — and the safety chapters don't have a price.
Figures are typical real-world ranges drawn from the book's own chapters — illustrative, not a guarantee. Your actual numbers depend on your home, your climate, and the choices you make.
Inside the book
A straight path from "what's a watt-hour" to "here's the letter that gets your refund." Read it cover to cover, or jump to the part you need tonight.
The five numbers that actually matter, rated vs. usable capacity, chemistry without the lecture, and a one-page cheat sheet.
Why rival brands share the same cells, how to read an FCC ID yourself, and verifying a UL / ETL / CSA mark in under a minute.
Build your load list, the sizing formula and worksheet, runtime math, and soft-start kits for hard-to-start appliances.
CPAP and BiPAP done right, oxygen and refrigerated meds, and a tiered outage plan for the people who can't lose power.
Why a 200-watt panel rarely gives 200 watts, wiring panels to your unit, and realistic recharge by region and season.
Transfer switch vs. interlock, generator watt ratings and carbon-monoxide safety, and hardwired vs. NEMA 14-50.
Clamping voltage (the only number that matters) and whole-home surge protection that actually does the job.
Electric-bill forensics, meter-accuracy tests and refunds, solar lease and PPA traps, and the retirement-cost lens.
Test it the day it arrives, and how to win a warranty fight — with the letters that get results.
Brand reference cards for the names you'll actually shop, and when, where, and how to buy the real thing at the right price.
Straight talk on the brands
Who they are, what they make, the chemistry and certification pattern, the warranty, who they fit, and what to watch — facts in plain rows, with opinion clearly labeled as opinion.
Is this for you?
From the author
I started Watt Exposed after watching too many good people — retirees especially, and families caring for someone who depends on power — get talked into the wrong battery, an oversized generator, or a solar contract they couldn't get out of. The aisle is built to confuse, and the specs are written to flatter.
So I wrote the manual I wish they'd had: every term in plain English, the real story of who makes these machines, and the exact numbers and letters you need to buy well and defend yourself afterward. Every fact is sourced. Every opinion is labeled as opinion. The goal is simple — to leave you harder to fool than the day before you read it.
Get the manual
Before you buy
It's an illustrated PDF. After checkout you download it instantly and read it on your phone, tablet, or computer — or print it like a real manual. Nothing to install, no app required.
No. It's written for someone who has never read a spec sheet. Every term is explained in plain language the first time it appears, and there's a one-page cheat sheet in Part One.
No. It teaches you to evaluate any unit, and includes reference cards for the brands most people actually shop — so it stays useful no matter what's on sale this month.
Yes, as of this edition — and the book is explicit about which facts are time-sensitive (warranties, prices, incentives) and shows you how to verify the current number yourself before you rely on it.
No. It's educational, and it says so plainly. For decisions about your health, your money, or your home's wiring, it points you to the right licensed professional — and gives you the questions to ask them.
Checkout is handled securely by Gumroad. The download is available immediately on the confirmation screen and is also emailed to you, so you'll always have the link.
Last thing
How it works, what the specs mean, who makes it, what it should cost, and how to defend your money and your safety — for less than the price of one bad guess in the power aisle.
Buy & download — $29.99
The full manual is $29.99 during launch, then $69.99. One wrong call in the power aisle costs far more — this is the cheap way to avoid it.
Get the manual — $29.99