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Backup disappointment is almost always an expectations failure, set at sale or at handover. This page is the honest version — tell it like this.

What the Backup port can and cannot run — figure KNB-SVG-18

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What backup does

  • In an outage, the inverter carries the essential circuits from battery (plus PV in daylight) — sized so lights, fans, router, TV and phone charging ride through the evening.
  • Well-configured, the changeover is brief enough that those loads keep running — prove it with the black-start test at commissioning rather than promising numbers.

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What backup can carry — per platform

Kent M1 Hybrid Inverter — backup capacity by model:
Pending Kent validation — no motor-start promises on Kent M1. [KNB-VAL-02] The source manual publishes no surge/motor-start figure for backup. Until Kent publishes one: size Kent M1 backup to rated (running) power only — no headroom promises for compressor or pump starts.
Kent G3 Hybrid Inverter — the backup port carries rated power with a manual-anchored overload capability of 2× rated power for 10 seconds, and a switch time under 10 ms. With unbalanced output enabled, each phase carries at most 50 % of the rated total — a three-phase machine is not a single-phase monster. [KNB-VAL-06 — quote no per-phase figure beyond 100 % of the phase rating until Kent confirms]
Pending Kent validation. [KNB-VAL-03] The Kent M1 transfer-time figure is under bench confirmation. Until published here: promise “essential loads ride through” — demonstrated by the black-start test — not milliseconds.

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What stays off backup

The heavy list lives grid-side, always: air conditioners and geysers, large motors and pumps beyond the design, ovens/induction, EV charging. The full sorting guide with the figure is Essential Loads.

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Say it to the customer like this

  • “Backup runs the essentials — lights, fans, internet, TV — for hours. It is not the whole house.”
  • “If backup ever trips, something too big was switched on. Switch it off and backup returns.”
  • “Adding backup circuits later is a Kent job, not a local electrician’s shortcut.”

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Common mistakes

  • Selling “whole-house backup” on a system sized for essentials.
  • Quoting a milliseconds figure on Kent M1. [KNB-VAL-03]
  • Letting an AC “just this once” onto backup during handover demo — that becomes the habit.
  • Forgetting the Kent G3 per-phase reality on three-phase homes with lopsided wiring.

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When to escalate