Grid Connected Battery Storage

Battery Storage Systems, Hybrid Systems, Home or Solar Batteries, and Energy Storage Systems (ESS) are all terms used to describe a range of battery products you can buy for your home.

Grid connected battery storage products do vary, but they all have one thing in common. Unlike off-grid systems, these batteries are designed for grid connected homes. They are designed to give you a level of energy independence and control that solar alone cannot provide.

There are solar self-consumption products like the Tesla Powerwall2, designed to drag excess solar in to the night instead of selling back to the grid, and to run selected circuits during blackouts; to higher capacity products like the Autonomy System which can run the entire property, or take you off-grid entirely.

Comparison Guide

How Does it Work?

How Much Battery Storage Do I Need?

NEXT STEPS

Home Battery System – Comparison Table

Batteries With Solar: How Do They Work?

For on grid storage, different brands of battery units will have different functionality. However generally speaking, a grid connect battery system works like this:
Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels convert sunlight to direct current (DC) electricity, which is then fed through the solar inverter to create usable alternating current (AC) electricity. AC electricity is then sent to the switchboard where it goes on to feed any household appliances that happen to be using electricity at the time. Any surplus electricity is then sent to the battery bank to recharge it.
The battery inverter/charger will stop the solar system from recharging the batteries once they are full, and diverts excess solar power not required by your appliances to the mains grid via your meter.
When your solar system is not producing electricity, your battery bank will send power to your household appliances. If the battery bank state-of-charge level gets too low or your loads exceed the batteries maximum output, the inverter/charger will once again allow electricity from the mains grid to take over or supplement.
Some hybrid products can continue powering selective backup circuits during power outages.

How Much Battery Storage Do I Need?

How much battery storage capacity to buy is probably your main consideration, but this depends on a few things:

Are you happy just capturing your leftover solar for use at night (instead of exporting it), and you’re not overly fussed if this runs out during the night requiring you to buy grid power again?

Or would you prefer enough storage to make it all the way through the night without needing to buy grid power very often?

Are you fussed about blackout protection functionality, or is this not so important to you?

Or do you like the idea of having something you can expand on allowing you to eventually go off-grid?

Depending on your answers, then every home has a ‘storage sweet spot’. Here are some further considerations:

how much energy you consume at night (especially in winter) tells you how much storage you will need

it’s all well and good having this much storage, but only if you have enough ‘spare’ solar to fully recharge it

if you already have solar, then how much you’ve been exporting to the grid during winter probably tells you how much battery capacity to buy (any more and you won’t have enough solar to recharge it for part of the year anyway)

If a hybrid system is not quite right for you and you’d rather go off-grid (‘Grid Defection’), then there’s nothing stopping you, but we can’t take any chances and will need to ensure you have the right technology, design and capacities needed to survive whatever is thrown at you. Off-Grid Systems have important differences to Hybrid Systems, and are roughly double the cost. Check out our Off-Grid Systems page, or get in touch to discuss your options:

Contact us today on 1300 334 839 or email info@offgridenergy.com.au

STEP 1 | CONTACT

STEP 2 | ASSESS

We assess your energy requirements and discuss your motivations for getting battery storage, to figure out what’s right for you

STEP 3 | DESIGN

We design systems to suit your usage, your objectives, and your site requirements

STEP 4 | QUOTE

You receive your quote options and system performance data for your property

Tesla Powerwall2

The Tesla Powerwall2 is perfect for people looking for an economical solar storage product to help reduce power bills and reliance on retailers. It stores 13.5kWh of energy and can deliver 5kW output.

Home Autonomy ESS

The Autonomy ESS is the highest capacity and most flexible and versatile system available for on grid use. This system provides your building blocks for eventual grid disconnection and off-grid living.