Solar Battery Systems

If you’re investing in solar power, you may want to store some of it so you can use your solar energy at night or on cloudy days. In that case, you’ll need a battery to store solar energy and discharge it later so your home or business can enjoy a continuous supply of free solar power 24-hours a day.

This option is particularly attractive for homes or businesses that have a heavy load in the early morning, later afternoon or at night, and for businesses with a strong need for standby lighting or other power obligations after dark.

While adding a battery to your solar power system will increase your investment, there are still a few options to consider. For example, if you’re not ready to invest in a fully integrated energy system yet, a simple battery will help you store some power as a backup energy supply.

Battery costs

We supply only the world’s leading battery storage systems and currently recommend LG Chem and Tesla as the most advanced and reliable brands. While there are cheaper brands available, both LG Chem and Tesla have offices in Australia and offer excellent warranties on their batteries.

The cost of your battery will depend on how much power you want or need to store. Battery prices range from around $7,000 to $13,000.

Not ready to invest in a battery? We recommend a battery-ready solar system

Most of our residential customers who are grid-connected choose to install a battery-ready solar system. Since they can access energy from both their solar system and the main grid, buying a battery is currently not the best financial decision for them.

This recommendation reflects the relatively high cost of batteries at the moment and the fact that they get cheaper every year.

We recommend the battery-ready system in the assumption that batteries will continue to get cheaper and cheaper. At some point in the near future, it seems inevitable that batteries will represent a good investment.

In the meantime, most of our residential customers are better off waiting until batteries are more reasonably priced and can pay for themselves in four to six years.

When setting up a battery-ready system, the best option is a hybrid inverter which can draw power directly from solar energy or from a battery.

If you decide to install a battery at a later date you may also need to add extra solar panels to generate enough energy to store for your 24-hour usage.

7 Reasons to Install a Battery Ready Solar System Now

Quite often people tell us they’re not putting solar panels on their roof until batteries get cheaper and they can have free power 24 hours a day. They feel that otherwise their solar panels will only pay for their daytime power use which isn’t worth it.

We disagree. Here’s why you should install solar now:

  1. Start saving immediately – The sooner you install solar the better for your bank balance and our environment.
  2. Avoid power rate hikes – As fossil fuels run down the cost of electric goes up. This negatively affects households and businesses who rely fully on grid energy. By installing solar now you’ll not only save money on your power bill in the first year. You’ll save more money with every year that passes because the more electricity costs the more you’ll save.
  3. Solar incentives are going down – Every year solar power installs cost less but the incentive also goes down by about 9%. The sooner you install solar the better.
  4. Pay off your investment in four years – Based on our calculations for an average home and power use, your electricity bill savings will have completely paid for your solar system in around four years. In fact, if you live in your house for another five years you’ll have saved around $3,500. This is assuming you paid around $5,000 for your solar system and saved a total of around $8,500 on your electricity bills during that time.
  5. Invest your money wisely – With a Return on Investment of 20%, solar panels are known to be one of the best investment opportunities around.
  6. Find out exactly what size battery you need – When the time comes to install a battery you’ll have all your energy use habits at your fingertips. Your solar power system will include a smart meter that tells you exactly how much energy you use throughout the day and night. This will help you choose the right battery size and avoid choosing solar battery storage that’s too small for your needs or one too big and needlessly expensive.
  7. Increase the value of your home or business – Buyers are prepared to pay more for a property with solar installed knowing their power bills will be significantly lower.

Installing batteries and a battery manager

When the time is right to install a battery, our experienced system designer will advise you on the best solution for your needs. We can then give you a fixed quote. If you decide to go ahead, we’ll simply add the battery manager or charger to your battery-ready inverter.

Battery technology support

Once your battery has been installed, we’ll show you how to read your meter and monitor the system. We can then assist in monitoring your investment for the lifetime of the system.

You can let the intelligent system simply look after itself or use your phone or computer to control and monitor your energy usage from anywhere in the world.

Enjoy energy independence

With a solar battery system, you’ll be totally independent from the grid and in control of creating all your own energy. You can then:

  • Generate solar power;
  • Use it directly;
  • Store it for later use;
  • Use stored energy on rainy days, at night or whenever the sun isn’t bright enough to power your solar panels;
  • Sell excess energy back to the grid under the Feed in Tariff system;
  • Monitor and control your solar use.

Speak to an expert

Find out more about battery technology or work out if a battery storage system is right for you by talking to one of our experts. Book a home visit now for a free no obligation consultation or call us during business hours on 07 5403 7969.