Have you been considering buying a battery to cut energy costs and store solar energy at home, or charge your EV? The news is full of legislation and new technology breakthroughs related to renewable energy, and the time has never been better. Today, you have many options for home battery systems. But the technology is relatively new, and it’s hard to know what battery is right for you, depending on how you are going to use it. If you’re thinking about buying a battery for storing home-generated solar power or to charge your EV, here are some things you should know to make the right choice for your situation.

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Home batteries store rooftop solar power

Home batteries can help you store solar power generated from rooftop solar panels and save it for later use. Since solar power is generated during the day, getting the right battery is essential to maximize the solar power you generate. Did you know you can even feed that power back onto the grid for general use and get paid by your utility company? Home batteries can also serve as power backups or help charge your EV at night using extra power you generated during the day. It’s a great way to cut energy costs.

Related: 6 unconventional solar panels designs we love

Home solar is just taking off in the U.S. as the energy grid struggles due to natural disasters and rising gas prices. But in sunnier countries such as Australia, over 30% of homes already have solar systems. Solar costs can be prohibitive up front, so it’s important to know what you’re buying and how you will use it to make the most of your investment. Ideally, solar panels and a home battery together can help power your house, charge your appliances and electric vehicles at night, cut your energy costs and create energy independence powered by clean renewables that are good for the environment.

Imagine if every house and apartment building in America had solar panels tomorrow, and all of that power could be fed back to the grid. That would reduce the strain on the grid tremendously, create redundant safe power production from clean energy and only require the grid to be updated for two-way energy flow with smart grid technology. This would solve all kinds of other problems in the process. Which is to say, home batteries may not just help you — they may help society through our clean energy transition.

Home batteries create energy independence

If home batteries are installed in a large number of homes, municipalities may continue to further limit the amount of power that can be exported to the grid that pays homeowners for the energy. With this uncertainty in mind, it’s best to buy a home battery that serves your own needs and has the flexibility to participate in exporting energy to the grid but not count on the income.

Think this is utility company greed? Actually it’s not. If too many homeowners in your neighborhood export power to the grid, the local voltage could go too high and solar inverters will dampen generation. This problem may be solved in the future, but it means that at the moment, the best position to be in as a homeowner is to have a battery sooner than your neighbors if you want to export power, and to set it up in a way that benefits your home and justifies the cost on energy savings from your own solar generation alone. Otherwise you could get stuck with excess energy that doesn’t pay for the high cost of a battery in the first place.

Home battery costs are coming down

The good news is, home batteries are coming down in cost as new options come on the market in the last few years. Tesla’s PowerWall may be the most famous, but there are many options now whether you are charging an EV, storing solar power or managing home energy use with smart meters to curb excess energy waste when you’re not home.

If you generate power at home and store it in a battery, you might be eligible to join a virtual power plant (VPP) such as the one just announced by Tesla that is piloting in Texas in 2023. Homeowners generate power and act as suppliers to the grid. You can also generate extra solar energy during periods of low feed-in tariff, which means money received for exporting power to the grid, and use it later instead of importing energy when prices are high. This means that the cost of generating your own power is in your hands instead of the utility company’s, so you can reduce energy costs by having a battery that lets you control where your power comes from at which times of the day.

VPP operators often offer discounts on home battery costs, management to take advantage of tariffs on offer from utility companies and payments for allowing the virtual power plant to use your battery to trade energy on the electricity market. When you buy a battery, cost can be offset by local municipalities, offering tax breaks on solar panel or battery installations as well. Don’t give up if the cost seems daunting. First ask about programs like these that might reduce your costs up front or over the life of the battery and solar system.

Peak energy demand times raises costs

To avoid having your energy export curtailed by the utility company is by moving your energy use to the middle of the day. Energy use that can be shifted to mid-day could include:

  • – water heater
  • – air conditioning
  • – appliance use: dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer use, etc.
  • – EV charging

This may sound obvious, but there is an enormous demand for energy on the grid when people come home from work in the evening. The evening hours are when most people spend time in their homes and catch up on chores, as well as charge their appliances. When EVs become the majority of vehicles, everyone will be charging their electric car at the same time after their commute.

Energy costs go up based on peak demand. If you can store energy in a home battery, you can save your own energy for use at peak times and cut your costs. Combine that with shifting your energy use to off-peak hours, and you have a recipe for reduced energy costs. Home batteries can help monitor and manage home energy usage by marking your usage over time and helping you schedule energy use on timers. As you look for a home battery, look for complete smart meter systems like this that help you keep track of and optimize energy use for off-peak hours.

Calculating battery capacity needed for managing home energy use

If you have extra energy generated during daylight hours, you can store it in your home battery for later use to avoid paying for peak energy prices in the evening. This can cover the load you can’t shift from peak times. Luckily, new home battery systems make this all visible and easy to automate, so you don’t have to sit there doing math in your garage.

To buy a home battery, first calculate your home energy usage based on your current utility bill, and get an estimate of the amount of solar power you can generate on your rooftop in your climate (factor in tree cover, shade, snow cover in winter, and number of daylight hours). By calculating the amount of energy you need minus the amount you can produce, you’ll know if your energy needs are higher or lower than what you can produce. According to Energenie, the average kWh usage, or amount of energy used in a month for a 2,000 square foot home, is 1,325 kWh.

Then, budget out the cost of solar for your roof panels for the capacity you need, and look at home batteries that have that amount of storage capacity. Think you’ll be the first in your neighborhood to export energy to the grid? Talk to your utility company about laws and limits of current technology to find out if you might be able to export extra solar with a larger system and get paid, but don’t count on energy prices staying the same. As more homeowners export energy to the grid, the pricing the utility company pays them for supplemental energy is going down. You need to be able to afford solar panels without counting on being paid back for energy for the long term.

Types of home batteries

Most home batteries are lithium ion batteries. Smaller batteries can actually be better because their payback period when they pay for themselves is shorter than larger batteries. By the time your larger battery pays for itself, technology probably will have outstripped it and costs probably will have changed. This means balancing practical power storage needs with an eye for the long term.

Current top picks for home batteries include:

  • Tesla PowerWall (also pairs with Tesla’s solar roof tiles) – $12,000 13.5kWh capacity
  • – Generac PWRcell – $20,000 36kWh capacity
  • – Panasonic Evervolt DC Coupled Battery System – $15,880 102 kWh capacity
  • – Enphase IQ Battery 10T – $10,000 10.08kWh capacity

Want something cheaper to serve as emergency backup house battery? The following systems can act as a smaller backup power unit:

  • – CyberPower PR2200LCDSL – $855 on Amazon
  • – Ego Power + Nexus – $595 at Walmart
  • – EcoFlow Delta Max 2000 – $3,199 on Amazon

Still not sure? Solar panels and home battery technology are getting more efficient and cost effective every year. If you’re intimidated by the idea of figuring out a home battery system, you’re not alone. Just keep an eye out for new products, and ask your utility company about the latest options in your area as well as researching private power plant programs in your area.

Via Tech Xplore

Lead image via Pexels



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