22 July

With the new federal rebate many wil be buying home batteries for the first time. This is a great thing. However a word of caution, don’t be suckered in by thinking bigger is better. New modular batteries allow you to add enormous amounts of storage, like in this ad. The most important thing to remember is, you need to be able to FILL the battery from somewhere. There is no way an ordinary domestic solar system for example will ever fill a 40 kWh battery, in a regular, usable or useful way. And in winter you have buckleys. The time of year when you might generate huge amounts of excess solar will often also be when you need less energy in the home anyway. Less heating etc. There is also a limit to how fast your inverter (which converts the DC generated from solar into the AC your house or grid uses) can actually deliver this energy, either into your home, or exported to the grid to make money. Usually you’re limited to 5kW or 10kW at a time.