Solar Panel Costs
Solar batteries help you store the excess energy that you would typically send to the national grid helping you increase your savings. One drawback to solar panels is that they don't work at night time no matter how much people pretend they work in moonlight.
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A battery will allow you to make use of your solar panels through the night time a typical user in the UK uses around 9kWh a day so having a 5kWh battery to help you through the night will be a massive advantage.
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Installing a solar battery to your system can effectively double your savings in some cases.
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It is important to understand how to size your battery correctly to make sure you are not overspending on battery storage or are leaving yourself without enough power but for the typical average user a 5kWh battery will be a good choice.
Will Solar Panels Save Me Money?
Best Solar Panels?
Solar Batteries?
Solar Battery Savings
Solar panels will typically save you 33% of your electricity bills as they produce less power in the winter months and also they do not work at night time. Installing a solar battery can effectively double your savings from your solar panel system as it will allow you to store the excess energy you would otherwise send back to the national grid and allow you to store it for use through the night.
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Also, something to consider is that most people work through the day so putting the power into storage for when you get back at home can make the difference to your solar panel system.
Understanding the Costs of Solar Batteries
The best way to figure out the average price of a solar battery is to assume it would cost £650 per kWh but this is only when installing with a new system not adding a battery to your existing system.
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If you are adding a battery to an exsiting system than you will need to take into consideration adding another inverter into the mix and also adding a further 20% on for the VAT charge that will apply.
How do Solar Batteries Work?
If you have a hybrid inverter, a single device can convert DC electricity into AC electricity and can also convert AC electricity into DC electricity. As a result, you don't need two inverters in your photovoltaic (PV) system: one to convert electricity from your solar panels (solar inverter) and another to convert electricity from the solar battery (battery inverter).
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Also known as a battery-based inverter or hybrid grid-tied inverter, the hybrid inverter combines a battery inverter and solar inverter into a single piece of equipment. It eliminates the need to have two separate inverters in the same setup by functioning as an inverter for both the electricity from your solar battery and the electricity from your solar panels.
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Hybrid inverters are growing in popularity because they work with and without battery storage. You can install a hybrid inverter into your battery-less solar power system during the initial installation, giving you the option of adding solar energy storage down the line.
SEG Payments
Having a battery installed does not effect SEG payments it just means that you would export loss energy but seeing as thoguh the power you buy costs more than you get paid its always better to use the power than it is to send it back.
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You can even take advantage of some of the tariffs out there to make better use of your battery for exmaple there are few tariffs with Octopus Energy, Claim your FREE £50 Credit.
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If you have an electric car you can go on octopus Go/Intelligent which will allow you to charge your battery in winter at a cheap rate to use through the day.
Solar Panel Batteries Explained
As you are already aware solar panels will only work when the sun is up meaning that typically in the UK that means that for 50% of the year your solar panels will be providing you with 0 benefit. Installing a solar battery on your system will allow you to store the excess energy you gather through the day and store it in your battery.
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You will need a hybrid inverter for a solar battery so if you currently have a solar system installed you will more than likley need to install a new inverter on your system.
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Below you will find 3 systems from the same street with solar and battery on to show you the generation and savings side of the system. These 3 systems are based upon having a 5kWh battery installed with the solar panel system.
So as you can see from this system this property can put 10 panels on the east and west roof giving them a system size of 8.2kW with a battery size of 5.12kWh
In this area, it is calculated that the system will generate 6031kWh of usable energy per year.
So over 25 years this system would save £54,730 with a battery.
Feed in Tariff and Batteries
When the feed in tariff was introduced the orginal agreement was that you would get paid for generation but you couldnt alter your system, now technical the battery is not altering the system as some poeple will argue with, as it is after the current system, but please be aware that if you have the FIT you are safer installing an AC coupled battery so its not attached to your system at all, this will require an additional DNO but it will make it much safer for not loosing your FIT.
Are Solar Batteries VAT FREE?
So this is where it can get a little confusing for customer and in reality it doesnt actually make sense but please keep this into consediartion when purchasing your solar equipment.
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For a battery to be VAT free it must be purchased and installed with a full solar panel system this includes
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Mounting System
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Solar Panel
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Inverter
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Battery
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If you install a battery to an already existing system then it must be charged at 20% VAT which does increase the price of a battery installation.
Some of Our Solar & Battery Range Examples
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