Thread: I've installed a home battery

The only utility I have (apart from water into the property) is electricity and the annual bill was well over $3k.
The pay off time for my entire solar/battery system is within (just!) the warranty period of the battery, so I figured it was worth doing.
The power outage backup protection has already been used several times and, should I ever sell, the theoretical increased value to the property far outweighs the amount I spent installing it.

I'll buy a small generator to cover outages once my change-over switch and inlet socket are installed at the house, which may have to wait until my licenced brother makes his usual after-Christmas visit. I'm sure that the farm needs a portable generator.

I built my own home back up system using 12v Lithium Batteries and a UPS Inverter. Keeps the main fridge, a small freezer and some LED lighting running for 2-3 days and automatically switches from AC to DC and back as required.

For around $2,500 gives me 6.9kWhr of back-up capacity.

Electricity suppliers aren't your friend.

I've been with AGL for quite some time and their tariff has been (including tax) 46.55 c/kWh and the feed-in tariff has been 5c/kWh. Daily connection fee of $1.084

I did a Compare the Market and found their best plan was also AGL but with a tariff (incl tax) of 33.674 c/kWh and a FIT of 7c/kWh with a daily connection fee of 90.93 cents.

AGL never told me they had a better and cheaper plan. I've since changed to the new plan.

Mongrels.

So far, it's looking that with the battery, my electricity costs for the month are close to half what they were last month (we are on a monthly billing cycle).

We are finally getting some full sun and, on some days, the battery is getting a full charge. Because it's warmer, we can turn the air con off earlier (heating in the morning) and turn it on later in the evening (again heating).

Over the past week, our consumption from the grid has been (actual consumption including from battery in brackets):

Sat: 3.56kWh (26.24kWh)
Sun: 12.56kWh (28.87kWh)
Mon: 9.42kwH (27.13 kWh)
Tue: 11.02kWh (25.33kWh)
Wed: 2.11 kWh (19.04kWh)
Thu: 1.55kWh (18.39kWh)
Fri: 3.93 kWh (17.06kWh) - Today so far to 4pm.

You can see the days when it was warmer and getting enough sun to fully charge. At the moment, the battery is fully charged and we aren't drawing any power from the grid, we are running on solar generation and battery. Our load is currently (no pun intended) is 343 watts, 15 watts of which s from the battery. The rest of our solar power is going to the grid and topping up the battery.

Screenshot 2024-08-23 at 16-08-42 Alpha ESS Monitoring.jpg

same

Home battery was not on my To Do list. Getting interested in a company I bought and SOLD years ago that may make Solid State ones at scale soon- Its always Soon of course

Putting Solar on my new shed being build in a few weeks. Several quotes and one just blew me away!

"15 x 440W Canadian Hiku 6 Split Cell Mono Black Tier 1 panels
+
1 x 6 kw Potis Edge 1Phase Hybrid smart WI-Fi inverter + 1 x 20 kW Potis Edge Battery unit
"
$5490 inc GST

Several other quotes with out hybrid or the stay on when the grid goes off are more by $$$$$$$

The fact I happily paid for 2 10kWh flow batteries years ago for about $20,000 or 10k each has this in prospective. Noting RFX is dead now. I have a funny thing with creditors claim on the liquidation as both of them required another replacement under warranty Redflow kindly gave me each time they replace those two


Not sure if I will ever see money for that. RIP another Aussie try hard


Back to my unexpected home battery. Canadian solar is not a fly by night company. About us | PotisEdge are Canadian as well.

Both are built in China I assume!

Making a little addition to the rear of my shed now for 20kWh battery I did not expect to be getting

I have been pondering what to do in the future if the suppliers fit TOD meters to my villa's electricity supply . I cannot fit solar panels or get the battery subsidized. I live in a retirement village where I lease the house on a lifetime lease. I could theoretically buy solar panels but my roof area is small and poorly oriented and no subsidies.

I am considering making my own battery set up where I time it for off peak charging early in the morning for use in peak times. I thought of maybe 4to6x300amp hour LifePo4 12v batteries and an inverter

It would have to be pretty cheap as I am eligible for NSW State subsidies and currently the Commonwealth subsidy so my total yearly electricity cost is less than $1000.
Regards PhilipA