What does a home battery cost?
The cost of such systems depends greatly on the desired capacity. Batteries are the most expensive component, and the more batteries you install, the more expensive it becomes. Furthermore, battery inverters are also quite expensive: for a hybrid SMA inverter, you easily pay about 33% more than what you pay for a solar inverter of the same capacity. The products for smart control of the system are a lot cheaper, but still amount to several hundred euros. And finally, there are installation costs involved. So it's a significant investment, but with the right strategies the home battery can also pay for itself.
Considering January 1, 2027
It's important that we already consider what will happen after January 1, 2027. That's when the net metering scheme will be abolished. The net-metering system means that the public grid basically acts as a buffer for people with solar panels. Excess energy from solar panels flows into the grid, and is deducted from the energy consumed on your annual bill. When the net metering scheme is abolished, the solar power fed into the grid will generate almost nothing. Therefore, it's better to store any surplus energy in a home battery for later use. This way, you'll need virtually no electricity from the grid during the sunny months from April to October, saving hundreds of euros on your energy bill.
Benefit from your battery in winter too
You might be wondering: what happens to those batteries in winter? In winter, you can actually get a lot of benefit from your home battery. Offshore wind turbines often run hard at night during the winter, even though there's little demand for electricity. The result: extremely low electricity prices. By charging the battery at that time, you have cheap electricity for the day and, thanks to your home battery, you save on your energy bill even in winter.
In the middle of the night, electricity prices are low. If we charge the battery precisely when electricity prices are low and discharge it later in the day, we keep electricity costs low throughout the day.
How do you ensure that your battery lasts a long time?
If we use the home battery in the ways mentioned above, it will certainly pay for itself. But it must be reliable and long-lasting. The life of batteries is highly dependent on how they are charged and discharged. The more “cycles” (of charging and discharging) they undergo, the faster they lose capacity. Therefore, it's important to use the batteries in a smart way: only start charging when it makes sense (a lot of sun in the near future and little consumption in the short term) and only supply back to the grid at the best moments (a lot of consumption is expected and the sun's gone for the time being). This requires a system with smart control that takes into account the weather forecast, for example.
Falling prices and other developments
There is currently a lot of investment in new battery technology worldwide, a.o. because of all the electric cars that are now driving around everywhere. The cost of lithium-ion batteries has dropped dramatically as a result. The latest battery systems are also being made to trade based on dynamic power rates; when the power price on the market is low, they charge up, and when, a few hours later, the power price is high, they sell that power back to the grid, at a profit. Thus, the investment in batteries soon becomes worthwhile.
Most manufacturers today offer “hybrid” inverters; these are devices that connect to both solar panels and batteries on the DC side. This is a smart solution because it allows you to connect only solar panels to the inverter initially and decide to add batteries at a later date. You would not need an additional device for the batteries and your system is already ready for the future. One plus for the many owners of SMA hybrid inverters is that these devices are compatible with battery solutions. For example, the Sunny Tripower Smart Energy and the Sunny Boy Smart Energy in combination with the Sunny Home Manager are specifically made to work together with high-voltage Lithium-ion batteries such as the SMA Home Storage batteries. SolarEdge system owners also know they are in the right place, since SolarEdge has released the StorEdge. Of course, we keep a close eye on developments so that we can always give you the best advice.
