Through panels on your roof, a solar PV system is a reliable way to harness free electricity. Radiant light and heat from the sun is converted into electricity, to be used for lighting, hot water and heating. The benefits are clear: cut your bills and reduce your carbon footprint, with minimal maintenance fuss.
If you have a solar PV system, you feel frustrated that you can only use solar electricity as you generate it. Battery storage systems give you the option of keeping it and using it as and when you need to. With battery prices falling and systems becoming affordable, products are flooding the market. They can be retrofit into systems of early solar PV adopters, so are definitely worth considering.
Why should you consider installing home battery storage?
A few years ago, the government introduced the Feed-in Tariff, paying homeowners with solar PV systems both for generating solar electricity, and for automatically sending any surplus to the national Grid. This was designed as an incentive for people to harness their own energy and reduce reliance on the Grid, therefore helping cut the UK’s carbon emissions. Whilst initially, high Feed-in Tariff rates meant that solar PV system owners could make direct profit, a huge reduction in tariff rates this year has made it much more appealing to keep your own energy – as you wouldn’t be paid much to feed it back into the grid.
The size or style of system depends on your budget, space and how self-sufficient you are hoping to become.
At this stage, it is all about reducing dependence on national electricity stores, as going entirely ‘off-grid’ is probably impractical. Most people have limited roof space for panels to produce enough for whole household’s electricity supply.
However there can be great benefits to having a battery storage system installed.
You can store energy to use once the sun goes down or on a cloudy day. On a sunny day, whilst solar panels can directly power appliances, you may prefer to divert the electricity generated into batteries and use it from there. It’s worth your while using the electricity you generate, rather than sending it to the grid. If it’s cloudy the following day, you can use your own electricity which you’ve stored instead of importing it from the grid to make up a shortfall from your solar PV system. It also means you can be using your free electricity even at night when it’s dark – and this may well be when you need it the most, for lighting, cooking and TV!
The future of home battery storage
With smart meters fast becoming the norm, time of use tariffs are expected to come into play much more in the next few years. These will enable a new way to use battery storage – so you can be independent during peak times. It could be possible to install a system large enough to cover your electricity usage when grid electricity is most expensive at times of high demand. Time of use means you pay less to import electricity at times of low demand – you could run off your own system at busy times such as morning and evening, when people are at home cooking and watching tv.
Installing Solar or Battery Storage
Interested in having a solar array or battery storage system installed in your home? We have scoured the country for the best tradespeople, so that we can make sure we only recommend those we really trust.
If you would like us to find you a local installer to help install a solar or battery storage system in your home, just fill in the form below and we will be in touch shortly!
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