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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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Pila FAQs

  • The Pila Mesh Home Battery is the world’s first home battery system designed for automatic backup power and energy optimization—no professional installation required. It plugs directly into any standard outlet, storing power from the grid or solar energy and automatically protecting essential appliances during outages.

    Multiple Pila batteries can link together in a mesh network, expanding energy coverage throughout your home. The Pila App provides real-time energy insights, monitoring power use, appliance performance, and battery status.

  • Pila started with a simple question: why does reliable power still feel expensive, complicated, and out of reach for so many homes?

    We’re a team of former product leaders and engineers from Tesla, SPAN, Amazon, and beyond, building on decades of experience designing hardware and software that people rely on every day — and rethinking energy from the appliance up to make it simpler, more accessible, and more resilient.

    The mission is also personal: our founder grew up in New Orleans and lived through Hurricane Katrina, an experience that shaped Pila’s focus on practical, everyday resilience — which he writes about here on our blog.

  • Traditional home batteries are built as large, permanent installations — powerful, but expensive, invasive, and tied to a single electrical panel.

    Portable power stations sit at the other extreme: designed for occasional use, manually managed, and not intended to live in your home or run critical appliances every day.

    Pila sits in between and does something different — it’s a persistent, plug-in home battery designed to live with your appliances, automatically provide backup during outages, and intelligently manage energy day to day. There’s no rewiring and no “drag it out of the closet when something goes wrong.” The result is a modern, always-on energy system that feels built into your home, not bolted on or packed away.

    In short, Pila is:

    • Smart – Pila provides year-round appliance monitoring and energy optimization.

    • Plug-and-Play – No rewiring—just plug it in.

    • Modular – Start with one battery and expand over time.

    • Integrated but movable – Unlike portable systems Pila is always ready to provide automatic backup, whether you’re home or away. And, when you move, Pila moves with you.

  • Perhaps our most asked question! The Pila Mesh Home Network performs two primary functions:

    1. It allows you to seamlessly connect Pila batteries to one another at the touch of a button. This allows you to add more batteries over time as your needs and family grow.

    2. Most importantly, the Mesh Network allows multiple Pila batteries to talk to one another. This provides a unified view of your home’s energy in the Pila App, and allows multiple batteries to work together to seamlessly and automatically optimize your home’s energy.

    The Pila Mesh Home Network is exclusive to you and your home. It is a secure and encrypted network keeping your home's energy data secure and private.

  • Early Access Reservations are currently available for customers in the United States. We are working on international models to meet regional electrical standards in the future — Stay tuned!

Using Pila

  • A single Pila battery will keep an average refrigerator powered for 32 to 64 hours and can run a home office for days—providing 6 to 10 times more backup time than a traditional desktop UPS with a 3x longer lifespan. During an outage, Pila supplies power to devices connected directly to its onboard AC outlets and USB ports.

    Backup time depends on usage and appliances being powered. Get real-time backup estimates in the Pila App and on the onboard screen, so you always know how long power will last. Pila’s integrated smart outlets let you extend backup time by prioritizing essential devices and reducing unnecessary energy use.

    For longer backup, you can add additional Pila batteries across your home, or use the Pila Expansion Pack (coming soon!) to double your backup time for a specific room or appliance. When paired with a plug-in solar panel, Pila can be recharged daily during an outage, providing effectively unlimited backup power.

  • If it can plug into an outlet, Pila can power it.

    Pila is designed to support essential appliances like refrigerators, plug-in air conditioners, sump pumps, Wi-Fi routers, device charging, lights, and more!

    Pila Mesh Home Batteries offer a scalable capacity of 1.6 – 3.2 kWh, for the unique energy needs of each room. Each Pila Battery delivers 2400W of continuous AC power and can support multiple appliances simultaneously through its smart outlets. Pila can deliver 7800W peak output (500 ms), ensuring reliable performance for high-demand appliances like sump pumps and window air conditioners.

    Explore a more comprehensive list of appliances, and their estimated backup durations by visiting our Tech Specs page.

  • Pila is designed to be versatile and works with multiple energy sources to keep your home powered:

    • Standard Utility Power: Pila charges from the grid via your power outlet, and is optimized for time-of-use (TOU) rates, storing energy when it's cheapest and using it during peak pricing.

    • Rooftop Solar: If you have existing rooftop solar panels, Pila can coordinate to charge from solar, via your power outlet, without the need for additional metering hardware. Pila intelligently stores excess solar energy during the day, timing charging to match solar production, and making that energy available for use during outages or peak pricing periods—ensuring you get the most out of your solar investment.

    • Direct Solar Charging: Pila supports DC solar input, allowing direct connection with plug-in solar panels (coming soon!), perfect for renters or homes without rooftop solar setups.

    When power goes out, Pila will continue recharging from Plug-In Solar Panels. However, Pila will not charge from rooftop solar during a power outage (unless you also have a separate whole-home battery system).

  • Today, Pila is designed to power the most important 120V appliances and circuits in your home — things like refrigerators, internet equipment, medical devices, lighting, and other everyday loads where reliability matters most.

    Most 240V appliances (like central HVAC, electric ranges, or EV chargers) require much higher power levels and permanent electrical integration, which runs counter to Pila’s plug-in, renter-friendly design. Our approach is intentional: by focusing on critical 120V loads, Pila delivers meaningful backup power and energy control without rewiring, permits, or electricians.

    As we expand the platform over time, we’re actively exploring additional form factors and capabilities — but Pila’s core value is making resilient power simple, accessible, and practical for real homes today.

Set-up

  • Pila is intentionally designed to be the easiest home battery to set-up.

    Installing Pila is simple and takes just a few minutes. Place the battery near the appliance you want to support, plug it into a standard 120V wall outlet, then plug your appliances into Pila — no rewiring needed. From there, the Pila App guides you through setup and automatically configures backup and energy management in the background.

  • Pila is designed to live wherever power matters most in your home — right alongside the appliances you rely on every day. Above your fridge, on your media console, under your desk, next to your bedside table, even inside of your cabinets and storage spaces.

    Pila was designed to take home battery backup out of the garage and into your home. With 4 color options available, and a beautiful display screen showcasing time, status of your home’s energy, backup duration in an outage, and smart energy controls, Pila is designed to blend in to your spaces as an intentional piece of home technology.

    Pila Dimensions:
    15.0 × 26.5 × 3.3 in (D x W x H)
    380 × 675 × 85 mm

  • Pila can be installed in a number of orientations using our accessories:

    • The Pila Vertical Stand allows you to install your Pila unit vertically. Perfect for next to a bedside table, or under your desk.

    • The Pila Wall Mount provides the ability to hide your Pila battery behind your appliances, like your fridge, or to have it proudly on display in a more integrated fashion

    For Reservations, when your Pila unit(s) are about to ship to you we’ll get in touch to confirm if you need any accessories for your system.

  • Pila does not require internet to provide backup power, monitoring, or smart energy management features. The Pila Battery Mesh Network keeps all batteries working together, even when your home Internet goes out. The Pila App includes a Local Connection Mode for reliable battery control and monitoring without internet.

    For reliable Remote Monitoring, all Pila batteries are equipped with a cellular 4G LTE radio for backup communication when home Wi-Fi fails.

    However, we highly recommend keeping Pila batteries connected to Wi-Fi to receive the latest software updates and unlock new features, enhancements, and performance improvements—ensuring your system gets smarter and more capable over time.

  • No! Pila works with or without solar power.

    It can charge directly from your home’s standard utility power supply and provide backup during outages.

    If you have rooftop solar, Pila can store excess solar energy, ensuring continuous power when the sun isn’t shining or during peak rate periods.

  • Nope! Pila is designed to be modular, so you can build your system based on your needs.

    A single Pila battery is great for essentials like your fridge, phones, and kitchen appliances. Need more backup power? Simply add more Pila batteries to extend coverage and support additional appliances throughout your home.

Pila App
& API

  • The Pila App provides a holistic view of your Pila battery right in the palm of your hand. It allows you to control your Pila battery from anywhere in the world and shows your home’s energy data in an easy to understand format.

  • Yes and no. The Pila App is required to finish installing your Pila battery. During everyday use, you can control your Pila battery from anywhere in the world, as well as label what appliances are plugged in to your Pila battery. The Pila App also provides more granular data of your home energy and usage over time.

    However, LCD screen on your Pila battery will allow you to turn circuits on/off, as well as see estimated backup durations before and during an outage without using the Pila App.

  • No — The Pila App is free to use.

  • Item description

Design
& Safety

  • Yes! Pila meets rigorous UL safety standards and has additional advanced protections, including:

    • Surge protection

    • Over-voltage monitoring

    • Temperature regulation

    We are using the safest, currently available battery chemistry, Lithiated Iron Phosphate (LFP) - this is the same battery chemistry used in EV’s, and power tools. We're designing our internal components with the most experienced, premium battery suppliers.

    Our team has firsthand experience advancing new UL and NEC standards while bringing innovative energy products to market through work on home batteries like Tesla Powerwall and smart panels like SPAN. Pila provides safe and reliable operation in any home.

  • Check out our blog on this topic! Built to Outlast: Designing Products for the Long Haul

    Pila is designed to deliver long-term energy security, ensuring your system stays functional even without an internet connection or cloud services. Key features include:

    We strongly recommend keeping Pila connected to the internet — free over-the-air updates keeps your system up to date with new features and improvements.

  • Pila devices are designed to meet the industry’s strictest product standards (UL and FCC) and come standard with an industry-leading 5-year limited warranty.

    Pila Battery Limited Warranty (USA)

  • By default, no, Pila will not export any power back into the outlet. However, Pila’s advanced power electronics platform is built for future flexibility. Just like the latest EVs with bidirectional capability, Pila can support real-time power exchange with the grid in addition to powering plug-in loads directly. And similar to EVs and solar today, unlocking this additional value comes with the next, natural evolution of product standards.

    Our team has firsthand experience advancing new UL and NEC standards while bringing innovative energy products to market—through work on home batteries like Powerwall and smart panels like SPAN. We’re optimistic about the opportunity ahead, especially as more states join in passing legislation to drive forward the domestic Balcony Solar movement, expanding access to plug-in energy systems for renters and homeowners alike.

    As balcony solar and plug-and-power products gain momentum, we welcome collaboration with AHJs and utilities to help responsibly shape the future of home energy. If you're interested in partnering with Pila, reach out!