Solar Battery Backup For Home

With a solar battery backup, you can keep your home energized during power outages. This is possible with a properly sized system that matches your peak energy demands.

A backup battery has many other benefits, reducing your electricity costs and lessening your reliance on the grid. Learn more about the top reasons to invest in a solar battery backup for your home.

Peace of Mind

A solar battery backup is a powerful addition to your solar system. It provides a seamless backup power solution during storms, giving you the ability to stay fully powered during outages. It also allows you to maximize the usage of your solar panels by storing energy for use during peak demand times, which can save you money on electricity bills and reduce your carbon footprint.

A backup system is an ideal solution for homeowners in areas prone to power outages due to weather or other causes. It can also be an excellent solution for those who want to avoid grid reliance entirely and enjoy total energy independence, even in remote locations.

Today’s solar batteries, such as the Enphase IQ battery, work just like any rechargeable battery and can be charged with solar energy during the day and then used at night or during outages. They are built to last with a long lifespan, and their performance has been tested to exceed industry standards.

When combined with solar panels, home battery backups can increase your home’s overall energy savings, allowing you to completely cut your electricity bill. It can also help you minimize your reliance on the solar battery backup for home grid, and you may even be able to sell excess energy back to your utility provider. This can be a great way to save on your electricity costs, and it offers a level of peace of mind that is unparalleled.

Saving Money on Electricity Bills

Power outages are a major nuisance and an expensive one for most homeowners. Solar batteries add a level of resiliency to your home that provides peace of mind and lowers your electricity bills. The energy stored in your battery is available during outages and can also be used to take advantage of time-of-use rates.

For example, your utility may charge higher rates during peak hours in the morning and evening. With a solar battery backup, you can use your stored solar energy during these high-rate periods, which saves money on electricity costs and reduces your reliance on the grid.

A home battery system also helps you avoid demand charges, which track your maximum energy pull from the grid over a fifteen-minute period or hour and can be up to double the standard solar power battery manufacturer rate. Solar batteries provide a means to lower your demand charges and savings without changing the way you use energy in your home.

Solar battery systems are a great addition to solar in states with less-than-ideal net metering laws and can help you break even on your investment 1-2 years sooner than with solar alone. Additionally, adding a solar battery to your existing solar energy system increases the overall efficiency of your clean energy system, which leads to greater savings and energy independence over time.

Resilience

When your solar power system has a battery backup, you’re able to capture the excess energy that you’ve produced on sunny days. This energy is then stored in the battery and can be used during a power outage. This reduces your reliance on the grid, and enhances your resilience to power outages caused by a variety of reasons like maintenance, weather, or natural disasters.

The batteries that are installed with solar energy systems have been designed to work for a long time with little maintenance required. They are based on lithium-ion technology that’s been used in laptops and cell phones for decades. These types of batteries are considered safe and reliable, and they can be recharged over thousands of cycles.

Resilience from the Sun with Solar + Battery

East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) is partnering with Sunrun to provide a residential energy storage solution for its customers called Resilient Home. This partnership will install home batteries for the first time in California, enabling customers to backup their entire homes, or at least essential appliances such as refrigerators, without fossil fuels during outages. This will allow residents to keep the lights on when their utility experiences a Public Safety Power Shutoff event, and also protect them from high electricity costs during periods of peak demand. Resilient Home will include batteries for both EBCE solar energy system customers and those who are not yet going solar.

Time-of-Use Rates

A home battery backup provides energy security and resiliency in addition to cost savings on electricity. It stores solar energy for use at night or during a power outage, reducing your reliance on the grid and protecting you from rising utility costs and surge pricing.

If your utility uses time-of-use rates, like those implemented in California under NEM 3.0 solar billing, a battery storage system can help you further reduce your electricity costs. This is because these rates increase your utility bill during times of high demand, which are typically during the day when solar energy production is lowest. When paired with solar panels, a battery can perform smart TOU allocation to store excess solar energy during peak hours and draw from the stored power rather than the grid during these periods.

The ability to store and use your own solar energy also helps to offset peaks in demand during the summer when electricity prices are highest. This leads to additional savings on your electricity bill and further reduction in your dependence on the grid, helping you achieve energy independence and lower your carbon footprint.