I wasted $310 on a battery backup setup that a 12 year old panel didn't even need
Two summers back I bought a full battery backup kit for a customer's old 12 zone panel out in Mesa, and I am still mad about it. The salesman at the supply house pushed me hard on the sealed gel cells and the bigger enclosure, so I spent $310 total on parts I did not need. Turns out that panel already had a trickle charge circuit that would have run fine on the $48 battery it came with, and the customer never lost power once in 14 months. I found this out from a guy named Roy who has been pulling wire in Phoenix for 30 years, and he just laughed and asked why I never checked the spec sheet first. So here is my unpopular take, most of these fancy backup add ons are sold to installers, not needed by the job. What is the most money you have burned on gear you never actually had to install?