A home battery can help you save money by storing electricity when it is cheap, or when your solar panels produce more power than you need. Instead of sending that electricity back to the grid, you can use it later in the day when energy prices are higher. This makes your home less dependent on the grid and helps you get more value from your own solar energy.
Making better use of your solar power
With a home battery, you use more of the solar energy you generate yourself. Without a battery, households usually use only around 30% to 40% of their solar power directly. The rest is sent back to the grid during the day, often for a low payment.
With a home battery, your self-consumption can rise to around 60% to 80%. The battery stores the extra solar power produced during the day, so you can use it later, for example in the evening when you use more appliances and grid electricity is more expensive.
Reaching 100% self-consumption is usually not realistic. In winter, your solar panels often do not generate enough electricity to fully charge the battery. In summer, they may produce so much power that the battery fills up quickly, and any extra electricity still goes back to the grid.
Storing cheap electricity with dynamic tariffs
Using dynamic tariffs can be one of the best ways to save money with a home battery. For this, you need a dynamic energy contract and a smart meter. A P1 meter can also be used to read data from your smart meter and send it to the battery system.
There are two main ways this can work:
- Dynamic charging for your own use: the battery charges when electricity is cheap, and you use that stored power later in your home. In this case, you do not sell electricity back to the grid.
- Dynamic energy trading: the battery charges when electricity is cheap, then discharges or sells electricity when prices are higher.
Saving money during peak hours
With a home battery, you can save money during peak hours because you do not have to buy as much expensive electricity from the grid. Instead, you use electricity that you stored earlier in the battery.
This could be solar power generated during the day, or cheaper grid electricity charged at a lower price, for example at night or during cheaper periods with a dynamic energy contract.
In the evening, when energy demand is often higher and electricity can be more expensive, your home can use the stored power from the battery. This helps you avoid using grid electricity at the most expensive times and reduces the amount of expensive electricity you need to buy.
Extra peace of mind with back-up power
A home battery can also give you extra security, not just savings. Many home batteries come with an emergency power supply or back-up function. This means the battery can keep important devices running for a while during a power cut, such as your fridge, lights, internet router or security system.
A home battery helps you save money by making better use of your own solar power and by storing cheaper electricity for later. This means you buy less expensive electricity from the grid during peak times. With the right set-up, it can also give you extra peace of mind with back-up power during a power cut.
