One spring morning in 2024, Matt Stockdale flew to China to see GeePower's factory for himself — the people, the manufacturing process, the product behind Terra A. He wanted to know what he was building a partnership around before committing to it.
This year, the direction reversed.
Three members of the GeePower team travelled to the UK — not to close a deal, but to see how Terra A was actually performing inside real British homes. Not on a test bench. Not in a showroom. In garages and utility rooms where the battery had been running alongside EV chargers, household appliances and existing electrical systems for weeks.
That's a different kind of evidence. And it was the point of the trip.
The Partnership Behind the Visit
The 22:23 Community Interest Company isn't a typical energy distributor.
As a UK CIC, it operates on a community-focused, not-for-profit model — making home battery storage genuinely accessible by supplying systems close to cost, rather than through a conventional retail margin structure. People First. Not Profit.
GeePower's approach to the partnership has matched that intent from the start. The relationship didn't begin when a shipment left the factory. It began when Matt came to China to evaluate the product and the company before a single Terra A had been installed in a UK home. Since then, both sides have been working through what it actually takes to bring residential energy storage into real British households.
First Stop: Matt's Home
A residential battery doesn't spend its life in a factory.
It operates in garages with existing consumer units, runs alongside EV chargers, and manages demand that changes hour by hour. That's the environment that matters — not a controlled test cell.
The first visit was to Matt's own home, where a Terra A system had been installed in the garage. The GeePower team worked through the system with Matt and the core 22:23 team: how it operates, how it's configured, how it interacts with the grid. They checked system behaviour under real household conditions and walked through monitoring, demand tracking and backup configuration.
What came out of that session wasn't just a checklist tick. It was a detailed picture of how a product designed in a factory translates into actual daily use — in a British home, with British electrical infrastructure, and a homeowner who's been tracking the data closely.
Training That Happens Beside a Running System
For a distributor, receiving the hardware is only the beginning.
The people selling, installing and supporting the product need to understand how it works — and the most effective way to build that understanding is beside a running system, not from a product manual.
During the visit, GeePower provided hands-on explanations of Terra A's operating logic, energy management functions, grid interaction, remote monitoring and backup setup. The 22:23 team could ask questions and test their understanding directly, with the system in front of them.
Afterwards, Matt described the relationship publicly:
"They understand what we're trying to do… Their support for what we are building has been incredible."
A distributor that genuinely understands the product is far better placed to explain it to customers, handle installation questions and manage after-sales conversations. That's the kind of relationship GeePower is trying to build — not a supply chain, but a working partnership.
Second Stop: A Customer's Home
The visit didn't end at Matt's property.
The GeePower team also visited Shane, a customer of The 22:23 who had a Terra A system installed and running. This was a different kind of visit — not a partner reviewing his own product, but a customer who bought the system for his household and has been using it.
Seeing Terra A in Shane's home showed that the product had already moved past evaluation and into real deployment. The team reviewed the installation layout, how the battery had been integrated into the existing electrical setup, and how it was operating under that household's specific demand pattern.
Every home is different. Cable routes, existing equipment, consumer unit configurations, household priorities — they all vary. The more real installations a manufacturer can observe directly, the better it understands what distributors and installers actually need in the field.
Backup Power: What It Actually Requires
One of the most practically useful conversations during the visit concerned backup operation — and a misunderstanding that comes up regularly in residential storage discussions.
Installing a battery does not automatically mean the home stays powered during a grid outage.
Backup operation depends on how the system is installed and configured. Terra A is designed with backup capability — a separate AC output that can supply selected essential circuits when the grid goes down. But this requires the right switching and isolation equipment to be in place, including the dual-lock switching device used in the installations the team reviewed.
What's useful here is the flexibility the setup creates. If a homeowner doesn't need backup from day one, the system can be installed for normal energy management first. The backup connection can be added later once the appropriate wiring is completed. That works well for projects where installation scope or priorities shift over time.
What the Visit Actually Showed
Seeing two real installations rather than relying on factory data alone clarified a few things that are easy to miss from a specification sheet.
Installation architecture matters beyond the headline specs. At Matt's property, the Terra A unit sits in a garage at some distance from the house, with the main AC connection running alongside the existing EV charger cable. Clean electrical layout and straightforward cable routing reduced installation complexity — which has a direct effect on the installer's workload and the homeowner's experience.
Backup design is a planning conversation, not an afterthought. Getting it right means deciding upfront which circuits need to stay live during an outage and building the switching arrangement around that. It belongs in the electrical design, not added at the end of the job.
Remote monitoring changes the shape of after-sales support. A dedicated communication module lets the system be observed remotely — by the homeowner tracking consumption, and by technical support identifying anything that needs attention. For a distributor managing multiple installations, that visibility is practically valuable.
Homes with EVs are a different kind of project. When an EV charger is part of the picture, battery strategy, tariff timing and charging schedule need to work together rather than be treated as separate systems. The coordination takes more planning — but when it's done well, it creates more value.
What Comes Next
The UK visit gave both teams time to discuss the next stage: future cooperation, product applications, and how residential storage can be made more accessible and easier to explain to the households that will use it.
Matt has also been publicly documenting Terra A's real-world performance using EDF billing data — household consumption, air-conditioning use and EV charging included. What makes his results particularly interesting is that his home doesn't rely on rooftop solar. Terra A charges during lower-cost tariff periods and supports the home when electricity costs are higher.
In a separate piece, we look at one full week of that data, an EDF-adjusted electricity cost of £15.06 for 24–30 August 2026, and how the battery, grid tariff and EV charging strategy worked together.
→ Read next: Can a Home Battery Save Money Without Solar? Real UK Data from Terra A
FAQ
Yes. Systems are currently operating in real UK residential settings, including Matt's home and a second customer installation visited by the GeePower team during the UK trip.
Yes. When the required backup wiring, isolation and switching equipment are in place, selected essential circuits can continue receiving battery power during an outage. Backup can also be added after initial installation once the appropriate wiring is completed.
No. The system can charge from the grid during lower-cost tariff periods and supply the home during higher-tariff periods. Matt's installation demonstrates this without any rooftop solar.
What support does GeePow
Depending on the market and partnership scope: product training, configuration support, technical documentation, commissioning guidance, remote assistance and on-site support where required.
GeePower works with potential partners to assess product fit, technical requirements, certification needs and local market context before expanding the relationship.
Looking for a Residential ESS Partner?
GeePower works with distributors, installers and energy storage partners on residential battery deployment — product configuration, technical documentation, training, remote support and market-specific requirements.
→ [Explore the Terra A Residential Energy Storage System]