Is solar battery storage worth it?

Jinglish

House batteries are already a dead technology don't waste your money. V2H will become more mainstream in the next 5 years.

Martyn1981

Jinglish said:

House batteries are already a dead technology don't waste your money. V2H will become more mainstream in the next 5 years.

Not sure about that. Remember that a house batt can help with simple demand managment on its own, then boosts PV if co-located. Many houses may not have a car, may not have a BEV or may not have a BEV at home when PV is generating (if co-located). So that's a sizeable market.

Plus the cost of a V2G/H charger is significantly more (something like +£3.5k I think), and you may need DNO approval, which in my case was declined. [That said for V2H (rather than V2G) I'd hope a zero export approval would be possible for most.]

V2L will ramp up fast, I think, so that's a possible solution, so long as you can run a cable into the house. I worked out I could via letterbox(es).

For home batteries I think the market will explode (no pun intended) in a couiple of years, as the scale of production is driving down costs rapidly. We are now seeing those cost reductions, which were held up for a few years due to high demand after the leccy price spike (invasion of Ukraine) coming through at pace, with massive reductions this years. I think the economics of home batteries will become simpler, possibly obvious by 2026, for many. Though at the moment I appreciate that the benefits may be marginal.

Edit - Apologies, acronym overload:
V2L - BEV can power a device usually via a simple power socket on the vehicle.
V2H - The BEV is plugged into a specialist charger, which in turn can feed power back to the consumer unit and power the house demand, or part of it.
V2G - Similar to V2H but the BEV can feed an excess of power, so the house starts exporting to the grid.
DNO - District Network Operator, they manage the distribution network, there are 10 of them in the UK. Whilst the National Grid manages the transmission network.

EricMears

Jinglish said:

House batteries are already a dead technology don't waste your money. V2H will become more mainstream in the next 5 years.

Jinglish said:

House batteries are already a dead technology don't waste your money. V2H will become more mainstream in the next 5 years.

Jinglish said:

House batteries are already a dead technology don't waste your money. V2H will become more mainstream in the next 5 years.

V2H may well become more common but there will always be a slight problem with relying upon that if you've only got one EV but would like to get in it and drive somewhere..

Reed_Richards

I was going to use my house battery this morning but my OH had taken it out for a drive.  Well no, not true, but unless you actually never drive your V then V2H will always present scheduling conflicts.   So looking to the future, anyone using V2H would probably also want a house battery to cover for when the V isn't at home.

Solarchaser

Jinglish said:

House batteries are already a dead technology don't waste your money. V2H will become more mainstream in the next 5 years.

Dead technology?
That's a strange view on a green and ethical forum to be honest. 

I'm sure v2g and v2h will become more mainstream in the next 5 years, it's been around through various trials for about 5 years, but more mainstream, isn't mainstream.

I've managed 98.3% electric consumption on an off peak rate for the last year despite the fact that my EV is at work with me for most of the day.

If my EV arrives at the house almost flat, how can it power the house?
If the EV requires to charge at 7KW and I require it to charge off peak, how can I do that with a limited amount of off peak hours?

House batteries are definitely not a dead technology, and in fact will become far more prevalent as their prices fall and people realise just how effective they can be at reducing electricity bills.
Using batteries has reduced my electricity bill by over 50%, and on the specific things that are powered by those batteries, it's 75%.

Pulpdiction

V2H may have an impact on your vehicle warranty, you need to look at that and the increased battery cycling, also what about when your V is not at H and you still need power (assuming people don't live on their own).  You couldn't charge your battery then if you had solar or a free hour of electric like Octopus are currently doing.... 

There is going to be a lot of change in this area over the coming decade, so you can't make statements like home batteries are a dead technology as it has no credibility.  Home batteries will soon start having UPS options, will have cells that can be swapped out on individual basis to upgrade, etc.  They will become cheaper and in 10 years time will be a quarter the price they are today.

retireby50

Just a couple of comments from someone who has had solar panels for around 15 years and recently installed an air source heat pump. The rule re doubling your PV output to give you your battery size seems really simplistic. Whilst this would allow you to capture all the surplus in the low productivity months you'd be missing out on a lot during the summer and that's when the big surplus figures occur. Not sure having an Air Source Heat Pump really helps that much as again it's all about time of year. Your heat pump (obviously) works hardest during the winter when you will have little or no surplus solar and then will use little stored energy during the summer. I considered a battery, but with even optimistic figures it would take at least 15 years to work financially. Environmentally is there any difference, because if you don't store and use your surplus it goes back to the grid for someone else to use.

Shropshirelad1969

Personally for us the export is worth more than use of a battery as only use about 1.5kw per night. We went for 12 panels not the 8 recommended. Electric bill was over £1,000 now it’s £200 net of energy generated and used in the day plus summer export. Pay back just over five years. 

markja_2

The thread title is a little too narrow. Why limit to "solar"? A Battery can equally be used to 'shift' low tariff electricity from one time period to another. Typically overnight to daytime/evening. Without any "solar" equipment being involved. The 'worth it' question applies equally to both scenarios.

MouldyOldDough

Exactly how safe are Solar Batteries - assume Lithium ?

You do hear increasing numbers of reports of fires caused by lithium batteries. If your solar battery goes up - then it's goodbye house and possibly life !!