[Closed] Home storage battery experiences

Often wondered about the point of them actually. Why not fit more PV and maximise your feed in. That will surely work out cheaper than a battery install.

I've kinda thought battery systems were for "off grid" types.

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Why not fit more PV and maximise your feed in.

No Feed in Tariff on new installations now, and there was effectively a limit of 4kW for domestic installations. And there's no more space on my roof.

Often wondered about the point of them actually. Why not fit more PV and maximise your feed in. That will surely work out cheaper than a battery install.

Look again.

As for the op check what options and tarrifs become open to you in each case.

My spreadsheet tail end of last year the tesla power was with the octopus tarrif was where the gains were. The battery only made sense with the tarrif as a standalone system without the brains there was absolutely no sense.

I have my name on the list for a powerwall when it becomes availible through my installer I'm still on the fence if I'm.hinest it's a big outlay but then I also feel that solar is pretty pointless for most folk without it.....

The biggest differentiator for me was ....which company do I think will a. Stand behind their warrenty and b. Still be around to do so.

No Feed in Tariff on new installations now,

Sorry, export tariff which is the same bloody thing. You sell your output back to your supplier.

Look again.

At what ? More info would be a help likes.

Hi Brads, the reasoning behind storage as I understand is is that renewable generation is not in phase with demand.
My pv system exports during a summer day and I then buy power in the evening at a higher rate.
I also have a variable rate tarrif so I can buy power at low cost overnight, currently used mainly for car charging.
PV systems >4kw can be problematic for homes as you require special permission to avoid local grid issues.

Storage batteries do not make sense in most cases on ££ alone. I have cut my winter energy use in half with the heat pump and would be able to use no grid power at all for 3 or 4 months in summer with a battery. That appeals to my sense of humour.

I believe that storage is the big thing required for our energy system.
In Scotland we can generate much of our power needs from renewables but you need storage for it to work.
And I am an engineer who loves tech!

Perfect answer thanks. I was unaware of a couple of things there. I'm planning a new build and am looking to be bill free as far as possible using solely electric / PV / powering Solar thermal and a heat pump

Got a Tesla power wall battery and use octopus agile variable tariff, battery powers the house when electricity costs are high, usually between 4pm onwards till bedtime and I store/feed electricity back into the battery during the night/early morning where the cost is minimal or even free/get paid for using it.

The Tesla master plan for their power wall is decentralised grid.

And works exactly as little Dave points out.

https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/powerwall

Start here. Then look at the market

There's about 10 options currently but not all have import/export tarrif support

Thanks Trail Rat, Somafunk, I am already an Octopus customer and would move to Agile if I do install a battery.
Interesting thoughts on warranty, I had not really considered that you not only need a warranty but also trust in the provider.
Agree that the cost are high, if cost was lower I would have a battery installed already. In Scotland we can obtain interest free loans to cover all or most of the cost so it stings a little less.

Sorry, export tariff which is the same bloody thing.

No, it's a different thing, but if you're going to swear at me for trying to answer your question it not worth trying to explain.

No, it’s a different thing, but if you’re going to swear at me for trying to answer your question it not worth trying to explain.

Too right it's not the same thing fit in 2013 was 5 times as much as the current smart export guarantee.

If you have early FIT you'd be mad to fit a battery

If you have early FIT you’d be mad to fit a battery

Why? They still receive their full FIT AND export payments, regardless of what energy they do or don't use (or store in a battery).
FIT is worked out by what is generated (battery storage doesnt affect this) and export payment was deemed at 50% of what is produced, again regardless of what is consumed (or stored). Export meters weren't fitted to early FIT solar pv systems.
So a battery = win-win. You get the FIT payment for what you produce, you can store that power and use it for free and you still get the export payment, even if you use (or store) 100% of your generated power yourself!

If you have early FIT you’d be mad to fit a battery

@trail_rat A battery makes no difference to FIT, you get paid the FIT on what you generate, even if you use it all yourself directly or through a battery. Our FIT is from 2011 and is 55.36p/kWh (but our panels cost £12k). Our export tariff (at present, paid on half what I generate, not measured) is 3.9p/kWh and we pay 13.594p/kWh for supply. We use the washing machine etc when we're generating, and will be getting an EV at some point, so a wall battery isn't cost effective for us.

Ha - guest1 beat me to it by 27 seconds!

Watching

Didn't know that. But I don't really need to be cause it's largely irrelevant to my situation.

Pain that SEG does depend on your exported figures and thus makes battery maths necessary.

But then the difference between what you paid to get FIT and what I've paid covers alot.of FIT

<whispermode> If you want to be bill free, you’ll need some inter-seasonal storage. And long term the DUoS costs will be related to the network requirement people have for voltage & frequency regulation, micro-balancing and backup - you can of course be energy bill free if you have inter-seasonal storage </whispermode>

I watched this video a couple of weeks back, this guy has owned the Tesla Powerwall for 2 years, and works out the cost of purchase Vs "savings"