From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

edinburgher

AI search result suggests 2' x 3' x 0.5-0.67' for a small house battery. Typically inside or attached to an outside wall, I'd be surprised to find them in an outbuilding unless it's attached to the house. We're considering retrofitting one, would probably want it outside for safety reasons

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks badmemory/ed - That's not too huge. ed - I was thinking of an outbuilding (ex outdoor lav, something like that), attached, but I was wondering whether the batteries had to be sheltered in some way - if only not to drain in cold weather as much as anything. Our leccy meter is on an outside wall, but wholly on our property, so there would be options for locating batteries.

Greying

greenbee

They're not that big - some older installations are in attics, but they don't do that now. Porch/garage/outside with a shelter over the top works. I currently have 10kWh of battery which is fine for charging during the day/running overnight in the summer or charging at night and running during the day in the winter. If I had a powercut and was very careful, I could probably keep the essentials on for a couple of days. I do plan to add more battery if/when I get a heat pump as it will make it more economical. Like panels, battery prices have come down considerably in the last year or so.

Jellytotts

We had our panels fitted via a grant and batteries would have been extra and we opted not to have them. We use the majority of our gain by charging the car and running the house. Have a couple of small oil filled radiators that we can utilise too if like today, sun was shining, car was charged and washing up to date. The stuff we send back to the grid was covering our gas bill until October so it felt like an easy win.

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81884736#Comment_81884736

Have I misunderstood - i thought that the 'export' amount/premium had been slashed, and that it wasn't that generous anymore? I realise that doesn't mean that it doesn't have value - and like you, for example, covering the gas bill for some months of the year, would be useful to us, but I'm just wondering if I've misunderstood?

Wow - aren't Scotland doing well…….. 😁

Greying X

themadvix

Ed, house batteries are LFP not NMC so much, much less volatile. Not saying you’re not entitled to have them outside, but the fire risk is much lower.

We had a plug-in solar panel on our garage roof before we got solar. It produced 300w at full whack and cost about £500. We didn’t have a battery with it but it covered all our background usage. It was good, but no comparison to the roof panels. We now have 8 panels and had a 5kWh battery installed with it. (Now have the bigger battery for the heat pump - charged overnight like badmemory). In hindsight we wish we’d got more panels as the majority of the cost of those was the scaffolding - but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

edinburgher

Thanks @themadvix . Bit of a fear thing for Mrs E + outside would work better for space, too

Watty1

I have just caught up. I have no idea about batteries but wanted to say I am glad you are staying around. We are all on different journeys (after all I was in the curious position of MF but zero savings and woefully inadequate pension when I started my journey around this time) and I find your diary a joy (and adore the stories of LG growing up in a much loved family).

LotsOfTea

Delurking to say I very much enjoy reading about you and your family's progress and would miss it if you decided not to continue recording it here. Of course you need to do what's best for you but you should know that your thoughtful, careful ways of having a full and rich life give us a good deal of inspiration. I'm cheering you on when you get the washing out so often and wishing I lived in a less rainy part of the country to do the same and I love hearing about the amazing selection of veggie curries you make (I'm a vegetarian curry-lover myself). Thanks for sharing it all with us.

Jellytotts

We currently get 15p per KWH returned to the grid with the tentacled power peeps.

Having the panels fitted under the grant means we have all the benefits of as much as we can use as it’s being generated and being home during the day means that’s a big advantage for us. Obviously the electric car is a huge advantage too as we use a slow charger on it and harness as much free stuff as we can.

The cost of a battery would have taken us a long time to recoup and wasn’t as necessary for us as it may be for others.