Investing in a brighter future: ROI for home batteries
Home batteries give you the ability to control when you use your solar energy, and this is an attractive proposition to many. Those who have invested in solar and have experienced a drop-off in their feed-in tariff are all too aware of the need to recoup a loss of income when these tariffs fall.
Perhaps you’re one of many solar households that are now working from home and are seeing the difference that utilising your solar is making to your power bills but have wondered if a home battery might be right for you.
In any case, no one wants their hard-earned solar generation to be exported to the grid before they can consume it, only to have to re-purchase expensive grid-power in the evenings. This is what makes the case for batteries so compelling.
So how can you figure out if it’s financially worthwhile getting a home battery?
Do your homework
Knowing your energy usage habits is key to understanding how storage can work for your household. Ordinarily (not in the COVID era), are you at home during sunlight hours, or at work? On weekends are you out and about more, or at home running appliances? Are your peak times for energy use in the morning and evening? Do you own an electric vehicle, have multiple fridges or run a pool pump? How efficient are your appliances and how many of them run off electricity opposed to gas?
Batteries deliver the most value back to households which:
- Consume a significant portion of their electricity in the evening when most people are running kitchen appliances, heating, televisions, electric hot water, the kettle, dishwasher and perhaps computers.
- Have enough excess solar generation to power their needs during the evening
- Pay high rates for their electricity when the sun isn’t shining