Frequent Questions About Solar and Battery Solutions
Click on any of the below common queries to reveal its content.
What is Self-Consumption Solar?
A self-consumption solar model is where your existing solar system incorporates a new battery storage solution. Rather than sell your excess solar to the grid during the day, your solar power is used to recharge a battery storage bank that your home can run off during the night. This self-consumption model reduces the amount of expensive kWh you need to buy from the grid.
For every kWh your battery system can store, the more money you save from selling and buying back from the grid.
What is the cost of a solar storage system in Australia?
How long is a piece of string? The amount of storage and type of battery dictates the price. For a home connected to the grid, we have found most households consume at least 6 kw hrs per night, some use 20 KwHrs a night, and more.
If you are only a 6 kwhr user then I suggest it is cheaper to simply buy it from the grid while prices stay at 2018 levels. If you consume 10 kwhrs per night then it's worth investing seriously with a starting budget for around $15,000
Off-grid systems that are designed with a reasonable life span start around this $15,000 figure also. The design of an off-grid system is quiet complex and requires professional input. Check out our off-grid page for more details.
Lithium Ion vs Absorbed Glass Matt Batteries for Solar?
Technically an AGM battery should be discharged no more than 30% and even at this low level the stated lifetime is around 5-6 years. Lithium has a warranty for 10 years and may last 15.
That means if you have a lithium battery of 6 KwHrs to have the same available power from AGM will require 6 x 280 amp hours 12v batteries. I suggest you look at our table reguarding lithium compared to carbon and AGM which you'll find on our Choose Your Battery Type page.
How much battery capacity do you need for a 10 kwh Solar?
With a grid connect solar the best way to approach it is to determine how much of that 10 Kwh is surplus and you require that amount of storage as a minimum. If you have 10 Kwhrs available to store per day then I suggest a 12-13 kwHr capacity.
In an off-grid system I would prefer to have more infromation about your usage and requirements to make a recommendation. The generalised principal is to have 3 days of battery storage capacity.
Can I add batteries to my solar system?
The short answer is YES! How much capacity is best considered in conjunction with how much surplus power you generate to fill those batteries.
If you have a standard grid connect inverter you will need to either upgrade that to a hybrid inverter or add a battery charging unit to be able to store the surplus power in the battery and then retrieve it when you want to use that stored power.
What size batteries are required to go off-grid?
Interesting question, one which required a lot deeper understanding of your power requirements. How much solar you have to make the power to be stored or use a generator. I have built off-grid systems with as little as 5 kw hours of usable storage to over a 100 kw hours. I'm happy to offer a much more definitive answer in a 20 minute phone call.
Can air conditioning be done with solar and batteires?
Yes it certainly can. The equation is to determine how much draw your air con require X how many hours you want to run it for. This will give you a minimum battery storage capacity requirement.
Is home solar battery storage worth it?
If you are off-grid it is vital no matter what the cost. On-Grid - Pay back is dependant on how much you pay for your grid power.
Let's assume that the cost is $10,000:
At 27 cents per kilowatt one has to use 37,037 Kwhrs for pay back.
At 44 cents per kilowatt one only has to use 22,727 Kwhrs for pay back.