5 Reasons To Get A (Bigger) Home Battery

Please stop saying UK, when you mean GB. Octopus, other variable rate suppliers and Powerwalls aren’t allowed in Northern Ireland.

The unknown is the useful life of the battery.
Interesting also to know what the battery technologies are and if they can be repaired/rejuvenated.

Great video by the way

I asked my solar providers the cost to add another battery I have 9.8 battery with solar panels and a year pump they said there would be no cost saving in this where they wrong. My battery charges overnight when it is less than 7p per is but is discharged by around 11:a.m They quoted abou t £5k for an additional 5is batter y I am confused as to why they said it was not cost efficient to add another

Gary, it's not so much about profit but rather independence. Install the battery bank that you can DIY based on your solar array or if you charge at low price levels that make sense taking the inversion loss into consideration. Tell us about European available cost effective equipment that have been made in China bit is well made......

Yes i have 12 panels my bill was 45$ power co adet 40 $to the bill for feed in and line up keep a bat must be the go cut from the grid is the only way you canot get ript off ,😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

When price plunges below 0 as it does in Finland at times... the solar producer (if not storing energy in a battery) EXPORTS it to the grid, and PAYS for exporting solar. Should one shut down the solar inverter then?

I'm in SE UK. I have Solar panels, air-source heat-pump and an EV with charging point, but no batteries as yet. With say an Octopus Energy Plan and batteries, how much optimum control is dependent on me and how much is automatic? How much would four of your recommended batteries set me back?

Like other vids, I come away thinking of things I never even thought of before.

For anyone looking into a battery, i recommend going bigger than you need. I have a standard sized house with 2 air-con units in Australia. I bought a 19kWh BYD battery which has excellent discharge rates, but with both air-cons going all night, the battery is discharged by 4am meaning I'm using grid power till sunrise. I wanted complete self-sufficiency, but have fell short on hot nights. After 5+ years, the battery will have 10-20% degredation too, so things will only get worse...
Having 2 Tesla powerwall 3's would be perfect for a standard sized home like mine.

Gary this video is brilliant and the tool looks amazing so helpful to have that to help decide how to go solar

When we get mega amounts of grid power from wind farms our export payments will dwindle in future.

Soon you can use your ev as a battery on wheels

Hi Gary, does force discharging the battery cause damage to them? Also, what % should I be keeping my batteries to?

No one wants to connect to exstisting system

Hi Gary....I'm in the throws to moving to a property with only 4 solar panels and a fox inverter. There is an out building with enough room for 9 panels now with ducting and electric c,u. This is where the battery will go. We have an ev and use approx 3.400 a year. You can work out who's best at this. Can you point in the right direction.

Judging from the benefit we get from OUR solar panels, I could upgrade to a PP3, I suppose...

I have a one year old system with a Sunsynk 5.12 battery. For the first time I dared set up import (so many settings!)at a cheap night rate, today 03/11 was the perfect day to do it. My batter was charged between 3am and 5am.

it's already become clear that a second battery is a good idea, especially as the installer advised my not to discharge below 23%

The problem (I think!) I have is the battery (L5.1) was being phased out when it was installed, I can't seem to find a battery that is compatible with the battery I have now.

What is the cost of disposal of the battery, and capital cost of the batter? Given interest rates? I question these figures

I have 2 x14kw air sourse going in 2 tesla 3 batteries with 14 panels and a ev and hybrid car what tarrif would you think I should look at

That video is a great resource for those considering the move. That said, I’ve yet to take the plunge. My usage is only 9kWh per day and here is Australia the feed tariffs are horrible at maybe 5c/kWh versus maybe 30c/kWh from the grid. There’s even talk of charging people to feed in due to the over supply of solar. I did some calcs and the solar alone would be about a 7 year payback and if I added a battery it was 13/14 years. That’s without factoring in pulling the up front costs from the mortgage to pay for it all.
Don’t get me wrong I’m very pro this tech, but for me, and my usage, the numbers don’t stack up. If you are a bit user I’d be jumping on this technology.

VPP’s are a global trend we’ll see roll out in the coming decade. Dedicating a % of your home and car battery to this purpose. The micro manageability of personal battery storage and the ability to sell at peak times will be beneficial to society and individuals.

If you spend enough thousands of pounds on batteries you may end up getting a free Starbucks a day.

Thanks

Recently found your channel and loving the content. I want to switch to Octopus Energy (UK) - how do I use your code? Thanks.

Get a bigger battery to save the grid - at your cost... You are the consumer, you always bear the cost, up front through retail costs, or on the back end through Governmental misuse of your tax money.... ("Price Guarantees" to the Green Revolution at the top end of town..)


(I have a - cheap dumb battery to keep the lights on and run the refrigerator in the event of a power outage and still pay zero-net electricity bills - though I do realise I had to spend %% money on the installation, feels so good paying zero usage or "access charges" - I think of it all as ROI - Until the government "allows" all the retailers to properly, once again "take it out of the hides" of all "royally decreed" consumers - along with "pounds of flesh"...)

How long do we expect the battery to last?

hi Gary .. .great video ... the spread sheet you have created ... can you change the currency so it is relevant to where i live ... south africa ... again really find your videos very helpful .. .thanks vey much ... Shaughn

Gary, you did not include the daily standing charge as applied in the UK to your various calculations. Its not a huge amount but one that adds up throughout the year. And yes, a bigger battery is the way to go!

The future both economically and environmentally is a reliable grid fed by the most economic and reliable energy sources rather than a mass of fragmented do it yourself systems.

One of the best non-fiction videos I have watched for years.

Really useful info, Gary. Fabulous. I'm currently looking into a home battery. This week I had a survey from Octopus re. heat pump but was told that my house wasn't suitable (economically, anyway) so I'm looking for a battery to match my 3kw solar array.

I'm really happy to see your channel

Lot's on emphasis on Octopus. Clearly a big sponsor it appears.

I have a small solar array of 2.4Kw. We are on Octopus Agile tariff and use the dishwasher and washing machine at night at the cheapest time available, and eat our main meal after 7pm avoiding the expensive times. We are also on the Octopus export tariff of 15p and there is no way I can make the case for a battery system stack up. Even on Octopus own web site confirms that the payback time for a battery system was over 14 years! Not withstanding I could invest that money and get a better return.

nice if you can get those sort of import rates. Australia is down to 0.08c and now the government is putting the electricity companies to include a charge to all solar customers who import electricity back to the grid due to their own storage costs and infrastructure costs to facilitate feed-in.

great video , what batteries do you refer to ? how many disscharge cycles will they do and what is there cost . great content

Great content - thanks!

The obvious problem with basing demand flexibility payments on individual customers historical demand is it encourages eg 750000 octopus customers to use more electricity at peak times in anticipation of an event! Would be batter to base it on an average use scaled by individual users overall use.

Thanks Gary for your channel! It's Most helpful!
I had a look in the comments to see if this question was answered but I haven't seen it...
Most Lithium Ion batteries (e.g. EV car battery) operate with reduced cycle wear when charged to 85% and discharged to no less than 15%. This equates to around a 0.2 cycle wear compared to a full 100 to 0% cycle. With this 15%> 85%>15% approach only 0.2 cycle wear occurs (for our EV battery) compared to the nominal 0.7 cycle (70%) discharge cycle equivalent to 100% cycling. Thereby improving the battery longevity by over 250%.
My question is whether its possible/preferable to oversize the battery in a solar-battery setup to do this by setting limiters so that it doesn't charge more than 85% and doesn't discharge to less than 15% of total charge capacity?
What is the impact upon the battery life expectancy? This matters for ROI calcs as its a whole different ball game replacing the battery after 10 years compared to 15+.
Thanks in advance of any guidance you can offer here. I get that this is NOT your approach (for using a battery) but I would like to know my options around this please. Am I better (cost wise over the lifetime of the battery) getting a larger battery and then limiting the cycling to 15-85% to extend its expected lifetime (e.g. beyond the warrantee period) or fitting a nominal battery size and doing full battery cycling (basically hands off approach) and not caring about the cycle wear of the battery?
My gut instinct tells me that if I can more than doubling the life expectancy of the battery by limited 15-85% cycling, this has to be a better ROI equation than 100% battery cycling.

Great content. Illuminating. I've liked & subscribed. Thanks.

Very good video Since I have installed the battery 14kwh I m totaly off grid..greeting from Italy

Great video. Greetings from the Netherlands. As I see it from your video…. The time of use tariffs. (We call them dynamic tariffs) are an excellent addition to a solar power and home battery setup.

Great and informative video, thank you! I love the modeling utility tool, I just have to convert to US :-) Subscribed

Please normalize your audio volumes!
Content is low, intro very high... My ears hurt 😂

None of this works in Australia because the standing charges are so high. It's the same with your water bill. If you think you'll save money by being careful with water use, forget it. You might as well just waste it, it'll make very little difference to your bill.

Great Solar Vids. Gary! 🙂

However using Pounds is quite challenging for your friends in the Antipodes! 😱

We moved on to that new fangled $ in the swinging '60's which you might remember! 😉

Will your new Solarazma Calc. offer such crazy foreign currencies for us here in the Sunny 'Lucky Country'?.... 😃

I pay 9 cents per KWH in my home state. Solar/ batteries for me are for emergency preparedness. ROI is non existent 😆