Buying Solar Batteries - 2023 Home Battery Buyer's Guide

Thank you, Finn. As always, clear, entertaining and informative. Your effort to look after the non-technical public is greatly appreciated.

Owner of an Alpha ESS Smile-B3 5kw system. Perfect for our needs. It's low cost and generally allows us to never pay peak power rates. Great supplement for our 10.2kw solar system during winter when charging our EV. Very happy with what could be described as a bottom of the market system.

Great video Finn. I used your site six years ago to source a smallish 3kw solar system (roof limited space to 11 panels). The SolarEdge system has generated 19MWh since then paying about half its cost off. Thanks for the advice then, but lack of space makes more panels or a battery uneconomic.

Thanks Finn another great presentation, and yes I have had a dodgy salesman ignore what I wanted and tried to sell me his superior system. He was most upset when I explained he was trying to sell me a Mini Minor when I wanted a Rolls Royce, he couldn't see that he had wasted one and hours of my life. The pretending to ring his manager to check the maximum KW of panels that the grid provider would allow nearly had him throw out the door.

Cheers mate, thanks for sharing

Spite! I love it!! Never underestimate the non-financial payoff of an emotional purchase.

Doing panels this fall and batteries in the next 12 to 18 months. If buying today I'd buy the Enphase 5Ps, but in 12+ months the new Tesla Power Wall 3 might be a game changer. Glad I have some time before I have to write the check.

Hey mate, Can you please consider doing a video on Off-Grid systems, particularly for rural Aussies?

Very informative thank you

Hi Finn, I used Solarquotes in 2019 (along with a lot of other research to determine what I needed to best suit needs) to acquire an installer for my 10kW solar array (30 Jinko panels, fully optimised) with an 8kW Solaredge inverter. I ended up with one of your recommended installers. Whilst covid has sent that installer to the wall, I have been quite happy with the system (with a minor hiccup - installation related) with ROI of about 6-7yrs (warranties are 10yrs for inverter and optimisers, 25yrs for panels, yes, with degradation factors of course) This was based on the previous 5yrs electrical energy usage, along with a projected 3% annual increase on power prices (which is extreme low end now!) I looked into a battery at the time, but determined that it wasn't worth the capital outlay for the potential savings. Subsequently, I 'ordered' the system to be battery capable so I could add a battery in the future with minimal further outlay, hoping the cost of the battery will come down with time. At that time, in my ACT location (with subsidies) it was going to cost around $1k per kW/h for storage. Now, it is around $1400 per kW/h... So much for my guessing that the batteries will go down in price! With the solar system, I have reduced my annual electrical cost from $2.5k to ~$1k, so it's not worth it (for me) to invest in a battery, yet... but I see another increase in cost of electricity this year. I have also looked into acquiring a 2nd hand EV battery (as they are replaced with around 80% effectiveness) but it would seem that the market has also jumped on that bandwagon, and they are around $600 per kW/h as a second hand item (stationary storage) but they do have the higher storage/capacity that I would prefer (2-3 days of household energy needs when overcast) Meanwhile, I have replaced our gas storage hot water system with a (Reclaim) Hot Water Heat Pump and was quite amazed at how little energy a HWHP uses (abt 2-3kW/h for a 320L tank) to heat the water! They also have a good warranty period. This lower gas bill now adds to the savings, lowering our ROI. Next stage is to replace our Gas space heater with a reverse cycle air conditioner. I guess at that time, I will have a serious look again at a battery, even to get us through the 'peak period' each evening. And just for all the others reading this, my objective has environmental concerns, but it's mostly driven to minimise my bills for when I hit retirement in a few years. :) Once I get the house off gas, that will save me enormously (energy cost, along with 'supply fee') For the stats (& the nerds): Last calendar year, (electrically) our household used just under 10MW/h of which, 4.5MW/h was self consumption, 5.5MW/h from the grid and we put about 7.5MW/h feed in to the grid. Consumption was similar in 2021, with about 8.2MW/h feed in to the grid. We have many fridges & freezers so have a 'base load' in our house of about 1kW. Being in the ACT, our house is 35 degrees south and the panels are flat mounted onto our 22.5degrees pitch roof (facing about 5 degrees east of north with some morning and evening shading - hence the optimisers) On another note, in 2019 when I was shopping around for a solar system, I had also approached a 'generic' solar system supplier for a quote and all they wanted to do is supply what wanted to supply (an 'off the shelf' 6.6kW system, actually, two systems as I wanted more than 6.6kW) I'm glad I had done the research and knew what I wanted - as they were quite convincing in their sales pitch - they were still contacting me 2 years later, even after I have told them on numerous occasions that I have solar! I had to threaten them with legal action (harrassment) to stop them contacting me (note: I read somewhere that this particular installer had imported many, many generic 6.6kW systems and so I guess that is why they wanted to install that size only) Cheers,

Enjoyed this video.

I realise that 25kWh in a day is a Winter crop in Australia but with the current sunshine-palooza going on here in Manchester my 25kWh+ per day is making me smile non-stop.

What do you think of Dyness batteries? I’ve had a couple for a year and they work fine with my Solis inverter, in the UK.

Thanks for a great video. You are one of the few people mentioning the fire safyey hazzard. I have commented on this in a few other ESS You Tube channels. Normally there is a response that tjeir is now or very little risk. For sure the risk is maybe not huge but inte case of NMC batteries especially the outcome can be catastrpophic. The same of course goes for For an EV parked in a garge below your childrens bedroom.

I have a BYD Atto 3. It has a power outlet capable of 2.2kw continuous. During the outage this last Saturday evening i ran a lead through the window into the kitchen and ran a portable induction cooktop, lights etc. One of my neighbours knocked on my door wondering how i still had power. Can't do that with a Tesla M3/MY.

Top vid!

I had 54 good quality panels and inverter etc installed just over 12 months ago in Adelaide and recently had a "dark start" battery and hybrid inverter installed with one of your recommended SA installers and to be frank it's been a nightmare, and yes I sent you an email outlining my concerns and currently woking through a number of persistant issues. I now realise that when you do your due diligence and part of this was using information from Finn Peacock's site, you need to consult widely to be informed, don't just listen to the glossy brochure spiel or recommended installers.

How do I perform maintenance cleaning of my Franklin backup battery? I want to ensure there aren’t any dust or debris on the hot inverters.

Very interesting video, thank you. My personal feeling is that batteries are still too expensive, especially since the warranties are so much shorter than those for PV. I expect that the industry is still developing and that there are many more improvements to come in the next few years.

What energy monitor do you recommend?