Solar battery storage solutions are a hot topic in solar right now. Solar energy storage is the future of home energy and power management. The battery simply stores excess power produced by your solar panels so that you can draw on it later.
More customers are installing solar batteries for energy storage to help eradicate power bills, reduce their carbon footprint even further, and to help protect against blackouts or grid outages.
After several years of price falls, battery prices are now rising. This situation reflects supply chain issues, rising shipping costs and increasing demand for lithium. Power prices are rising at the same time. Therefore now is the right time to act to help secure your energy future.
The new generation of Sungrow batteries are cost-effective batteries. They boast impressive features such as blackout protection and battery management systems.
SolarBright are solar battery installation experts and offer batteries from the industry leaders – Tesla Powerwall , the modular, expandable Sungrow SBR Series . If you want to add a solar battery to your existing solar panels, or do a new solar installation with a battery, contact us today for a solar battery price and free solar battery assessment.
The Tesla Powerwall is the best known of all solar batteries and SolarBright are a Tesla Certified Powerwall Installer. The Powerwall 2 is an AC coupled battery with a capacity of 13.5kWh.
This high performance, smart modular solar battery can expand in 3.2kWh modules from 9.6kWh to a huge 25.6kWh capacity - four of which can be joined for an immense 100kWh capacity.
This affordable, modular battery series offers energy security and blackout protection for sensible homeowners. The all-in-one inverter and battery modules can expand to 31'27kWH capacity. Find out more.
Please contact us today for more information or to organise a COVID safe consultation or proposal.
An Introduction to The Solar Battery
The solar battery is the hot topic in solar energy. A perfect storm of rising electricity prices and power supply issues have consumers worried. A solar battery powers your home or business at night.
More people are choosing to install a solar battery system with solar panels. Why? They can reduce or eliminate electricity bills. Here we give you the information you need to know about solar batteries.
What is a Solar Battery?
A solar battery is a large capacity electro-chemical battery that stores electricity. The battery is normally connected to the solar panel system and wired into the home or building electrical system.
What is a Solar Panel Battery?
A solar panel battery is another term to describe a solar battery.
How Does Battery Storage Work?
The battery works by storing electricity. This stored power is used to power the home at night when the solar system is not making electricity and buying power from the grid is expensive.
Most solar batteries are lithium-ion batteries. In some ways they are like a large version of your phone or laptop battery. You can click HERE to find out how lithium-ion batteries work.
How Does Solar Charge the Battery?
The solar battery is charged by the roof top solar system. The solar panels produce free solar electricity when the sun is shining. This powers the house during the day. In a standard solar panel system without a battery any electricity not used in the home is exported back to the grid. The exported power generates a small feed-in-tariff of around 5 cents per kWh. This is paid by your electricity provider.
When you have battery storage this excess solar power is used to charge the battery. The battery then discharges this power to run the home at night. This saves you buying electricity from the power company at 35cents per kWh.
What Controls the Solar Charge to the Battery?
The solar panels produce free solar electricity. This goes to an electrical device called an in inverter. The inverter is the solar charge controller. It directs the electricity to where it needs to go. First, power is sent to the house. Then the battery is charged by any excess solar power not used by the house. The inverter directs all of this traffic.
What is the Storage Capacity of a Solar Battery System?
Solar battery systems are available in differing storage capacities to suit different needs. The Tesla Powerwall 2 battery capacity is 13.5kWh. Two Tesla Powerwalls can be installed to give a total battery storage capacity 27kWh.
The Sungrow SBR solar battery is a modular style battery. The range has different capacities beginning at 9.6kWh for the SBR096 model. The SBR battery models increase in 3.2kWh steps all the way up to a huge 25.6kWh for the SBR256.
On top of that up to four SBR256 batteries can be installed together to give a massive 102.4kWh of power. SolarBright can design a solar battery system with the right capacity to cover most needs.
The Sungrow SBR256 has a huge 25.6kWh capacity.
What Does Usable Capacity Mean?
The total amount of power that can be stored in the battery is called total capacity. However, some batteries cannot discharge all the power that is available in the battery. They need to keep some power in reserve.
The term “usable capacity” refers to the amount of usable power that battery can discharge before the battery needs to be recharged.
What is a Battery Cycle?
A full charge and discharge of a battery called a battery cycle. Partial charges and discharges are not considered a full battery cycle but count towards them.
The total amount of battery cycles may be counted toward the warranty life of the battery.
Also, it is important to understand that you may get more than one battery cycle per day. For instance, imagine this scenario where the battery has emptied overnight. In the morning the solar starts charging the battery when the sun comes up. By lunch time the battery may be nearly full. Then a storm rolls over and solar power production ceases. The battery then takes over powering the home. The storm clears out, the sun shines, and the battery again charges up. Here we can see here the battery could well supply 1.5 cycles in a day.
What is the Right Size Solar Battery System?
To decide what is the right size solar and battery there are two main factors to consider.
Firstly consider how many kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity you use at night and how much of that use you want the battery to supply.
Secondly, you must consider what size solar system is required. The solar needs to be large enough to generate enough power for the home during day. Also, it needs to make enough excess power each day to fill the battery as well.
Under CEC guidelines to estimate the average daily kWh production of a solar system in NSW you multiply the size of the system by 3.9.
Thus a 6.6kW solar system will produce on average 6.6 x 3.9 = 25.74kWh of power per day. This means a 6.6kW solar system could provide 15kWh of power for consumption in the home. This would leave an excess of just over 10kWh per day to fill a home battery storage system.
When designing a solar battery system SolarBright takes all these factors into consideration for you.
How Many Solar Batteries are needed to Power a House?
The number and size of the batteries depends on how much electricity is consumed at night. If you are running air-conditioning at night to warm or cool your home this could use a lot of power. A 2.5kW air conditioner running at full power consumes 2.5kWh of power each hour.
For each customer considering solar power and a battery, SolarBright examines the electricity bills to understand power usage and history. We look at the patterns of day and night power usage to correctly size the solar system and battery to suit.
Most battery customers do not want to cover all of their night-time power use. They want to have the battery power available to cover the peak times when electricity from the grid is the most expensive.
What are Solar Power Banks?
A solar power bank is created when several solar batteries are connected or installed together. This increases the total battery storage capacity available to provide power to the home or building.
For example, as discussed earlier you can connect four Sungrow SBR256 batteries together. This forms a solar power bank, or battery bank with 102.4kWh storage capacity.
What are the Benefits of Solar Battery Storage?
There are several major benefits from installing a battery storage system.
Firstly, eliminating or reducing electricity bills is the biggest benefit. The system will pay for itself and will save you thousands of dollars in power bills over its lifetime.
Secondly, it will help you gain energy independence. The right battery storage will also offer power backup for the home and help protect you from blackouts.
Thirdly it helps reduce your carbon footprint. You are replacing electricity generated by coal or gas with clean renewable solar energy
What is the Cost of a Solar Battery?
Battery costs are volatile at present. Increasing battery prices are the current trend. Disruptions to supply chains and increased shipping costs have caused issues. Furthermore, the biggest challenge is rising lithium costs as lithium demand surges with increasing electric vehicle production.
As of July 2022, the cost of an installed Tesla Powerwall 2 is now 30% per kWh higher compared with April 2020.
Battery cost also varies depending on the type of battery and the battery capacity. Of course, battery costs increase with the the battery capacity.
Is a Battery Suitable for a Commercial Property?
Yes, solar power batteries are suitable for commercial property and businesses. Any business or organisation that has a power bill and available roof space is a candidate for a solar and battery system. SolarBright has helped churches, aged care homes, schools and vets take advantage of solar power.
Can a Solar Battery be Added to Existing Solar Systems?
The broad answer is yes! A battery can be added to an existing solar system in many cases. However, the existing solar must be in good condition and properly installed. Also, it needs to produce enough excess power each day to fill a battery. Most systems will require new inverter to connect the battery.
An important point to consider is the quality of the installation workmanship and products in the existing system. If a cheap solar installer did the system corners will have been cut with the installation and components. This means that the system may not be up to standard for battery. We would recommend installing a new system as well in these cases.
How do solar batteries work?
As you know solar panels turn sunlight into free electricity. In a solar system without a solar battery any excess electricity produced by the solar panels that you do not consume in your home is exported back to the electricity grid and you receive a feed in tariff.
When you install a solar battery storage system any excess power not consumed is directed to the solar battery where the power is stored for use at night. Once the battery is full any excess power is then exported to the grid as per normal.
Solar power battery storage is the future of home energy and power management. Why are customers are installing solar batteries? There are several good reasons to install a solar battery.
A solar battery gives you the flexibility to draw on the stored energy at night when your solar panels are not producing electricity. This reduces your dependence on drawing power from the grid and will help significantly reduce your power bills and help avoid electricity bill shock.
For other customers it is about not relying on electricity from the grid and achieving energy independence.
Got an existing solar system? It’s easy to add a battery
Step 1
Contact Us
Contact the friendly SolarBright team to organise an obligation free consultation. Please have your electricity bills for the last year available so we can look at your power usage throughout the year and the amount of power you are exporting so we can correctly size the solar battery the system will support.
We are not a call centre business so you will be respected and not be bombarded with emails and phone calls.
Step 2
Site Inspection
Where possible it’s good to have a site inspection. It would be great if you have the full details of your current solar system available including the inverter make and model. By looking at your current system we can ascertain its suitability to support a solar battery.
Step 3
Quote & Proposal
Your SolarBright consultant will prepare a customised solar battery quote and proposal for you. The proposal will also detail any upgrades (if required) to your existing solar system. Your inverter may need to be replaced by one that can support a solar battery system.
Proposal Acceptance
If you are happy with the proposal and choose to go ahead with your solar battery installation all you need is to pay a 10% deposit to get the process underway for your solar battery installation.
Step 4
Solar Battery Installation
The SolarBright team will arrange with you an installation date for one of our battery qualified Clean Energy Council Accredited solar installers to install your battery to meet all the official solar regulations and standards.
SOLAR BATTERY PRICING AND PACKAGES
Check out our latest solar battery special offer – $500 off a Tesla and Solar Package.
Video testimonials from SolarBright customers regarding their solar panel installation and solar battery storage solutions from both residential and commercial solar customers.
TESLA BATTERY, SOLAR PANELS, AND SOLAR HOT WATER
Why is Jurgen so happy? He is a ten year SolarBright customer. He shares his experience with installing a Tesla Powerwall from SolarBright after having previously chosen us for a solar panel installation and solar hot water.
6.6kW SOLAR SYSTEM FOR HOME
Rollo wanted a solar power system to cut rising power bills for the family home. He shares his experience in dealing with SolarBright for the installation for 6.6kW solar power system.
SOLAR FOR BUSINESS – 100kW COMMERCIAL SOLAR SYSTEM
Anthony wanted to cut the power costs for his joinery business and chose a 100kW system from SolarBright. He explains the benefits of solar for business and dealing with SolarBright.
Solar Battery FAQ
Got questions about solar battery storage systems or researching a solar battery solution?
We answer in plain English the most common questions about solar batteries our consultants are asked by our customers.
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