For Builders, Architects and Electricians Planning Backup Power in a New Custom Home

When should backup power be planned in a new build?

Backup power should be planned during design, while the electrical drawings and mechanical room layout are still moving. Everything after that point costs more and fits worse.

Early planning settles four things at once. The panel layout can be arranged so the protected loads are grouped cleanly. The equipment gets a proper home in the mechanical room instead of a leftover corner. The generator and any solar can be planned to feed the system. And the owner sees power management as its own decision, not a late add to the AV quote.

RoseWater’s guidance for designers names the signs that a home needs a resilience plan: critical refrigeration, wellness spaces, steam or water systems, heavy technology integration, dependence on the network, and sophisticated security. Most high-end custom homes tick several of those boxes.

How much mechanical room space does a whole home system need?

Plan on about 3.5 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 8 feet high for each RoseWater HUB, plus 36 inches of clear space in front for service. The system goes indoors and does not need air conditioning, and a garage or basement mechanical room is ideal.

• HUB20: one cabinet, 84 inches high, 28.1 inches wide and 26.25 inches deep.
• HUB40: two cabinets, each 52 inches high, 28.1 inches wide and 26.25 inches deep, side by side or stacked.
• 3-Phase systems: an electronics cabinet 84 inches high plus a battery cabinet sized to the project, side by side only, in a climate-controlled room.
• Extended battery packs add cabinets, so leave room to grow if the owner may want more run time later.

If the town will not allow batteries indoors, or the mechanical room can’t take it, the HUB40 has an outdoor enclosure about 60 inches high with built-in climate control. RoseWater has not published cabinet weights, so we confirm structural and delivery details for each project directly with RoseWater.

What drawings does the system designer need from the electrician?

We need the electrical single-line diagram, riser diagrams and panel schedules. Those three documents show how power enters the house, how it is distributed and what is on each circuit.

With them, we register the project with RoseWater’s engineering team, map the owner’s priorities onto actual circuits and size the HUB and batteries. We also note where a generator or solar array will connect, since a HUB integrates with one or more generators and takes up to 10 kW of solar through the SBX10. If the home has three-phase service, the single-line diagram is what tells us whether a 3-Phase system or HUBs on two legs of 208 V is the better fit.

Does a licensed electrician still do the install?

A licensed electrician does the electrical installation. The HUB connects at the main electrical panel, and that work belongs to the electrician of record.

Here is how the roles divide:

• Boston Backup Power designs and specifies the system, registers it with RoseWater, coordinates the trades, programs and integrates the HUB with the home’s control and monitoring systems, and supports it after handover.
• The electrician handles feeders, the panel tie-in, and the generator and solar connections, working from our design and RoseWater’s requirements.
• RoseWater’s technicians manage delivery to the exact install location, commissioning and clean-up. Commissioning by RoseWater-trained personnel is required for the three-year warranty.

RoseWater’s team works directly with the electrician on the tie-in, and we stay on the project from design through commissioning.

Which budget line does power management belong in?

Power management belongs in its own budget line. RoseWater recommends treating it as a power foundation item, separate from AV and low voltage.

The reason is scope. A HUB at the panel protects lighting, appliances, HVAC, plumbing and wellness equipment, not just the technology package. When it sits inside the AV budget, it competes with speakers and screens and tends to get cut. When it has its own line, the owner can weigh it against what it protects. We never publish prices, because every system is sized to the house, but we give the project team a number once the Power Plan and drawings are in.

Why builders and integrators care

Many callbacks in high-end homes trace back to power, even when they look like programming or equipment faults. A keypad that resets, a processor that locks up or a fixture that flickers often comes from sags and noise on the line.

RoseWater reports that integrators see up to 95% fewer service calls after installing HUBs. For a builder, that means fewer return visits after the owner moves in. For an architect or designer, it means the house performs the way it was drawn.

What RoseWater does differently

A RoseWater HUB is always online with double conversion, so it conditions power around the clock and has zero transfer time when the grid fails. It combines voltage regulation, noise filtering, surge and lightning protection rated for up to 40 strikes of 140,000 V, and battery storage in one engineered system. Its critical components are hot-swappable from the front, and its cabinet is seismic-rated. The HUB40 won CEDIA’s 2023 Best New Hardware award.

Retrofits work too. More than half of RoseWater’s business is in existing homes, so a renovation is as good a time as a new build.

Working with us on a project

Bring us in at schematic design if you can, and at the latest before construction documents are final. Send the electrical set through our contact page, or have your client start a Power Plan so we know what they want protected. Our trade page covers how we work with builders, architects, electricians and designers across Eastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands, coastal Rhode Island and southern New Hampshire.