This startup pays NYC residents to run air conditioners on free batteries

My family has spent four summers participating in demand response programs whereby utility companies pay customers to reduce energy use on the hottest summer days. Most summers have involved carefully precooling our New York City apartment before switching off the air conditioners and sweating it out during the designated demand response periods.

But this year, we kept our window air conditioners running throughout a heat dome event that drove daytime temperatures into the triple digits and made the nights oppressively hot. The difference was that we powered the air conditioners through two household batteries tucked away unobtrusively in the corners of our living room and bedroom.

We were among about 1,000 New York City households that took part in a free and growing program offered by the local startup Every Electric. The company’s proposition is simple: Get one or more batteries delivered to your home, plug the batteries into a standard wall electrical outlet, and then plug your window air conditioners into the batteries. Households can keep running air conditioners as usual during peak demand periods while also earning money through the local demand response program with the utility company Con Edison.

“Being able to make air conditioners drop off the grid without actually impacting the comfort of residents was really awesome to see,” said Andrew Wang, co-founder and CEO of Every Electric, in an interview with Ars.

Wang and cofounder Richard May first met while working together as postdoctoral researchers at the Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center at Columbia University in New York City. In 2023, they launched the startup under the name Standard Potential Co., with a focus on developing sodium-ion battery chemistry for commercialization.

But they soon pivoted to a very different business plan—deploying residential batteries across New York City households to create a network of energy storage resources acting as a virtual power plant. The company officially rebranded as Every Electric in 2026.

Many companies have established virtual power plant programs to offer utility companies greater flexibility and resources for managing electricity demand on the grid. Every Electric stands out for piloting a free power bank program that loans batteries to apartment renters and other households in exchange for a temporary deposit, which the company has reduced from $50 to $30 per battery.

The deposit is returned when a household decides to send the batteries back. Customers can also purchase the batteries outright for $650 each.

The battery delivery and setup process is straightforward. When the drop-shipped batteries arrived in their boxes, I plugged them into the appropriate wall sockets and followed a simple process to register the battery serial numbers with Every Electric and connect the batteries to my home Wi-Fi network.

Once connected to a local household’s Wi-Fi, the batteries act as power banks that automatically charge during low-demand periods at night and discharge their energy storage when air conditioners are running during peak demand periods. Every Electric automatically manages the battery cycles remotely.

Customers eventually get paid through Every Electric online accounts linked with Con Edison’s Smart Usage Rewards program. Every Electric gets paid directly by Con Edison as a program partner and, in turn, generally promises residents can earn $150 each year per air conditioner.

“There’s a business model innovation here where you make [household batteries] as easy and as accessible as possible, you get them as far and wide as possible, and then you essentially share in the value that you provide in the grid,” Wang told Ars. “We split the earnings so that households can see tangible benefits, and then we pay off the assets and grow the program as it goes along.”