Tips and tricks for maximising your solar energy efficiency at home

The growing number of Australian households that have installed solar and a home energy storage system have realised how quickly they can achieve home energy efficiency. In addition to using clean energy produced right on top of their roofs during the day, a home battery  extends your independence from the grid during the hours when the sun is not shining and the energy tariff charges are at their peak.

sonnenBatterie owners such as the Fenech, Sheriff to the Sambells have talked about how home energy storage has allowed them to reduce grid energy consumption and reduced their energy bills dramatically. This year most of Australia has gone into a lockdown having to bring work, entertainment, schools and the rest of our lives into their homes. This resulted in many parents questioning their life decisions and, yes one of them was the realisation they needed more energy to power their homes.

Here are some on how you can make your self-produced energy go even further:

#1: Be Smart. Plan your energy usage.

Try to use as much of the power produced by your panels during the daytime as possible rather than exporting this energy into the grid. Self-consumed solar energy is about 2-3x more valuable than exported solar electricity. It’s always a good idea to set timers on your dishwasher and washing machine and run them while the sun is shining. If your property is well-insulated, you can charge your appliances and even have your house pre-heated (in winter) or pre-cooled (in summer) during the day.

#2: Charged through the day, independent at night.

Once your solar output has been used to run your appliances, it is time to charge your battery. Give it all you possibly can. Ideally, you want to have your battery charged to 100 percent to increase your autonomy at night.

#3: Stretch your stored energy.

Consider drinking your energy through a straw rather than pouring it out of the bucket having many appliances running at once. Keeping your consumption below the maximum charge/discharge rate (i.e. 2.5kWh or 3.3kWh depending on your battery model), will allow you to not miss a drop of your stored energy and run your battery at its highest efficiency.

#4: Educate yourself with sonnenApp.

Monitoring your sonnenBatterie through the sonnenApp (or the dashboard Customer Portal version) is a great way to educate yourself on how you produce and consume your energy. With these insights, you can see if you can shift your usage patterns to increase the self-consumption rate.