Jackery HomePower 2000 Ultra balcony power plant: my hands-on review

A few weeks ago I set up my balcony power plant, the Jackery HomePower 2000 Ultra. Now here is my hands-on review: what did it bring, and can you really save money with it?

My setup

I installed the HomePower 2000 Ultra with solar panels and an additional Battery Pack. The HomePower itself has 2 kWh of base storage, and the Battery Pack adds another 2 kWh. With up to three Battery Packs, the system can be expanded to a total of 8 kWh. The panels hang on the outside of my south-facing balcony, where the sun hits them in summer from midday until about 5 p.m.

The unit sits fairly unprotected on the balcony, but it is IP65 certified, meaning it is protected against dust and splashing water. After connecting the panels, you plug it into a normal outlet, and you are already generating your own electricity.

• Feed-in: 800 watts are now permitted in Germany.
• Registration: There is a simplified procedure. Registering in the Marktstammdatenregister (Market Master Data Register) of the Federal Network Agency is enough. The link is in the video description.
• Output: The HomePower supports up to 2,000 watts through the PV input and an additional 800 watts through an external micro inverter, meaning existing PV systems. In total, 2,800 watts are possible in principle.
• Shelly: The system is compatible with Shelly. With Shelly smart plugs you can see how much electricity you actually use. The HomePower cannot show that itself, which I consider relevant information.

Safety and fire protection

As a first-time user, I thought about safety and fire protection. The HomePower has a three-level safety concept. Integrated early hazard detection uses sensors to monitor the battery and electronics around the clock, detects open flames, abnormal currents, for example in the grid, and overheating, and also reacts to weather warnings from the German Weather Service. If there is danger, the app warns you immediately. There is also automatic fire suppression: within one second, the system releases an aerosol extinguishing agent that stays active even when the unit is switched off, in the main unit as well as in the additional batteries. That was extremely important to me personally.

The app

On the home page of the Jackery Home app you see all the important parameters. At the top it shows how many kilowatt hours the HomePower has generated. For me it was 11.35 kWh in the few weeks, plus 9 kg of CO2 saved. You can also see live how much the individual PV panels produce and where the electricity flows. Under Trend you can view by days, weeks or months what the PV systems generated, what was fed into the home grid and what was delivered by the battery. At the top right are account settings, the user manual and updates.

The operating modes

1. Battery priority: For use as a battery in the garden or when camping. The PV system and the power grid charge the battery and Battery Pack as quickly as possible.
2. Self-consumption: Everything the PV systems generate and the battery has stored is fed into the home grid continuously to minimize grid electricity consumption.
3. Time-based use: You set schedules. For example, the battery charges during the day between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. when electricity is cheapest and feeds into the home grid in the afternoon through the evening when it is most expensive. That saves you money, theoretically even in winter when the sun does not shine every day.
4. Smart mode: The same principle, only more precise, for users of a dynamic electricity tariff. You choose your provider from a long list, see the electricity price hour by hour and define what counts as a high, normal and low price for you. At a low price the battery charges from the grid and PV, and when the price rises you automatically use the cheap stored electricity. I do not have a dynamic tariff myself, but this is the key feature of the HomePower 2000 Ultra.

Feed-in to the home grid is limited to 800 watts in Germany. You can reduce it further to 600, 100 or 50 watts so you do not feed in more than you currently need. That requires knowing your own consumption, and that is exactly what the Shelly smart plugs are for.

Verdict: can you save money with it?

So far I have generated and been able to use 11.35 kWh of solar power, mind you, in midsummer. With more panels you can get more, depending on space. The electricity you use yourself saves money all on its own. On top of that comes the option of storing cheap electricity and using it at expensive times of day. I cannot project it exactly because I do not know my actual consumption. But if you look at the price spread between expensive evening electricity and cheap daytime electricity, you can save another 35% of the electricity price on average. Try projecting that over a year based on your electricity bill. And you are doing something good for the environment.