Thread: I've installed a home battery

Am starting to think a battery would be good for my solar system as the rate of feed-in is getting lower down here in Tassie.
So what brand of battery did you get Ron?
If anyone else has a battery set-up, what battery did you get.
TIA.

DG

I’ve got an AlphaESS 13.34kWh system. I bought it through Green.com.au (The family name is Green, it’s not just a name to appear green.)

It’s fed by my existing two solar systems.

The monitoring software appears very good. I haven’t worked out how to actively upload it to PVOutput so I download the data from the battery/inverter and manually upload it once or twice a day.

See p38arover 6.460kW

We've had a 14kw Tesla Powerwall 2 for nearly three years now, "bought" when a great NSW govt subsidy was running back then.
Could do with more solar in winter as we heat with a/c and only have a 5kw system so have been using lots of grid power once the battery is depleted of a night.
Had over $300 credit at the start of winter so not really worried about the cost as it's still far cheaper than timber for the slow combustion heater.

Originally Posted by p38arover

I just received my latest electricity bill. For the month, I made a whopping 48 cents from power exported to the grid.

I've just had a look at some past bills (I have them in a spreadsheet).

These are the amounts we received in credits over several quarters:
$758.20
$529.04
$571.88
$331.16
$679.80
$538.20
$378.60
$501.80

Our first 3.4kW solar system cost $10K and was paid for very quickly.

The next quarter the feed in tariff dropped to 7 cents so we got $22.

I wouldn't install a solar system today without a battery.

I've also got a Powerwall 2.
And just today I received notification that my feed-in tariff is going down to 4.5cent per kW/h so I'm glad I've got the battery as solar wouldn't really be worth it on its own.

Originally Posted by p38arover

I've just had a look at some past bills (I have them in a spreadsheet).

These are the amounts we received in credits over several quarters:
$758.20
$529.04
$571.88
$331.16
$679.80
$538.20
$378.60
$501.80

Our first 3.4kW solar system cost $10K and was paid for very quickly.

The next quarter the feed in tariff dropped to 7 cents so we got $22.

I wouldn't install a solar system today without a battery.

Save me the effort, as you have all the data.... How long to pay off the battery?

When I did the sums, I'd pay off the battery - just as the thing basically hit EOL. So saved nothing - all I got was some black out security.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Save me the effort, as you have all the data.... How long to pay off the battery?

When I did the sums, I'd pay off the battery - just as the thing basically hit EOL. So saved nothing - all I got was some black out security.

It probably works out well if you have the existing solar infrastructure and use a lot of power. I'm far convinced when it comes to batteries for the majority. for starters what do we do with them all at EOL. And I'm not wililng to have the fire risk here myself

the gubberment down here will kill all subsidies beginning 2027. This means that during peak hour (when everybody's solar is working just fine) you will be paying to enter the grid (already happens here and there) etc etc.

Mate recently bought a new property with 50kw of solar pre installed. Badly I might add but nothing we can't sort out. He is also eyeballing batteries but I have found it to be a difficult journey thus far. Such a large battery bank in lithium you do NOT want in or around your house IMHO so we are looking to install those in a small container outside of the building. Will add a small AC to manage temperatures in there to keep them batteries happy Still. Your average lithium battery manufacteror will give you around 2000 cycles at around 80% DOD. If I were to go with the "between 20% and 80%" crew, which I currently do with my mobile devices, I wonder why I wouldn't simply get myself some proper lead acid. I mean, the weight and size is not a problem and they are 4 times cheaper, even if they don't last as long AND I can store them inside the building.

Having said that, sticking to lithium since he thinks that's hip He wants to go totally off grid or at most reduce his connection to the smallest we can get here so that he would be able to charge his battery bank if solar proves to be insufficient. With so much solar on the roof he should be fine getting a battery bank charged, even during winter but you need the inverters to provide the power that you use. Sizing for an airconditioning is doable but he also wants to use his spot welder which is a beast of a machine with very large peak currents. I am kinda doubtfull we can make that work. It's probably possible but that would require a very large oversized inverter (or bank) and I think the costs for this would be excessive.

In short, I wonder what the ROI would be in this particular case. I guess power prices won't be going down untill we roll out more nuclear (fission or fusion, if ever) so it will be interesting to watch this space.

Cheers,
-P