Batteries | Solar Heating

Battery technology and the range of solutions’ available have been evolving rapidly in recent years. The development of Lithium-ion technology presents significant increases in performance, longevity and efficiency over conventional battery technology.

Integrating a battery facility into a solar system is an effective way to capture surplus energy generated during the day, that would otherwise be exported for a credit. Because the value of an exported kWh of energy to the grid is less than what its costs to purchase that same kWh from the grid in non-productive evening hours, this is the best way to maximise the financial return from your investment.

In many cases the most important benefit is to provide an emergency power supply in the event of a grid failure. All of these factors provide a significant benefit to the home owner.

Adding batteries to a system does incur some extra investment. However, cost in the battery sector is steadily becoming more affordable as more industry effort is focused in this area, and with a significantly longer lifetime (& warranty period), and higher yield of energy, the return on investment makes this a more viable proposition.

There are now a range of scalable battery solutions available. These are essentially modular solutions  that allow the home owner to invest in a modest size battery facility;  this flexibility enables you to test the return on investment before committing to larger system, or simply to spread the capital investment over a period of time. This may occur for example, if your average daytime consumption increases, or if you choose to expand the size of your rooftop array,   thereby generating more surplus energy.

Many of our clients choose to future proof for battery integration, by allowing at the outset for a Hybrid inverter ( that has the functionality above a normal String inverter)  to manage a battery facility. Then they have the option to integrate batteries in the future when they choose to do so.

Off-Grid Solutions:
For homes that are completely off the Grid, batteries are essential. In these circumstances a more significant investment in batteries is required as it provides the main source of energy supply in no-productive hours – but by going off-grid, you will never pay a power bill again!

In any off-grid situation we consult with the client to fully understand the energy demands of the home to be able to customise a battery solution to best suit your individual requirements as there is no one size fits all in these cases, and we want to ensure we propose the best solution for reliability and cost effectiveness.