Battery Backup: Who needs it? Who wants it?

While most Solar 4 Planet A customers are interested in the clean energy and savings produced by photovoltaics, a discussion of battery backup options is always important.  Solar power creates savings, and does not require batteries to operate.  Battery backup creates security and, in many cases, cannot be proven to create any additional savings.  But in some cases they absolutely can create additional savings, so let's discuss batteries in more detail.

There are many different functions batteries can perform for you, depending on your specific situation:

Personal Losses from power outages - what would you lose if your home lost power for an extended period of time?  This can vary widely from household to household.  How many refrigerators and freezers do you have?  Do you office from home?  What parts of your heating system are electrical, and how much damage would you suffer if it was shut off?

Business Losses from power outages - If your business loses power, will it shut down phone and sales systems?  Data loss from your computer system?  Refrigerated product?  Are you suffering from power outages now, or concerned about them becoming more frequent in the future?

Time-Of-Use Arbitrage - if your utility charges different rates depending on the time of day, you can use the battery to charge and discharge depending on the time, turning the Utility's billing scheme against them!  Store up when the cost is low, resell to the utility when the cost is high.  It’s actually helping them with their grid supply, and making you money.

Demand Reduction - If you are charged separately for your peak demand usage of electricity, batteries can reduce those charges by limiting your measurable peak usage.  This is more common for commercial accounts, but many residences are also on demand billing.  Let's look at how battery-powered demand reduction can help you.

Batteries are clean, silent, and are usually configured so that they can be continually recharged by your solar array.  This makes them far more desirable than gas-powered generators in most situations.  Also, the applications that control them are very user-friendly, graphical interfaces that give you more information about your usage, production, and storage of energy than you've ever had before!  

Click here for the Tesla app demo

Click here for the SolarEdge app demo

Click here for an article on the new line of LG batteries

The most important thing is to have a good conversation about your specific needs and desires.  If battery backup will help you, we'll be thrilled to help you plan and implement the best solution.

Please call me to schedule an appointment if you need or want battery backup (Click here for my Contact page)