House of SolarSolar Battery Solutions
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There are many different types of solar storage batteries for home use available on the market today. To make a solar energy storage system work well, you need to be careful to choose the most suitable solar storage battery for your home.
The following are the most important considerations you should have on your checklist when shopping for a solar storage battery.
The capacity of a battery relates to how much electrical power can be stored at any one time.
We commonly know this as KWh (Kilowatt Hours), majority of the batteries you see on the market today for residential use are modules which can be stacked together to expand the capacity, your battery set-up should be able to meet your consumption demand.
In principle, the storage system should be large enough to supply a household with solar power all through the night. A battery capacity of 4 to 8 kWh is usually sufficient for an average four-person home consuming around 4,500 kWh annually. If the storage system is too small, not enough energy can be stored to cover the energy needs, however, if the battery storage system is too large, the power saved is not required and would reduce the battery service life, not saving you any cost.
Depth of Discharge (DoD)
The majority of home solar system batteries have to be kept charged at some level all the time. Full discharging of the battery decreases its lifespan considerably.
DoD means how much electricity has been withdrawn from the battery. Many battery makers indicate the maximal possible depth-of-discharge for their products. For instance, the battery with a capacity of 10 kilowatt-hours and 90% depth-of-discharge allows using up to 9 kilowatt-hours before it needs to be charged. The higher depth-of-discharge is, the more capacity of a battery can be used.
Power Rating
The size of the battery is the capacity, however, do not confuse this parameter with power which can be drawn at any one time. The power rating must be taken into account to work this out.
The power rating of a battery is the amount of electricity your system can deliver at a given moment, measured in kW (Kilowatts). The higher the power rating your battery has the more home appliances you can operate at the same time. But higher power means the stored energy in the battery will deplete faster. The key point is to choose a power rating that satisfies your home consumption while scaling the capacity with enough batteries to keep the appliances running long enough.
Storage Capacity
The capacity of a battery indicates how much electrical power can be stored in a battery. This value is commonly expressed in KwH (kilowatt hours). The majority of batteries for residential use are separate modules that can be stacked together to expand the capacity of the solar energy storage systems. The system you install should be enough to meet the demand for the day and night draw.
A battery with a 4 to 8 KwH is generally sufficient for the average family home of four people, consuming around 4,500KwH's annually, however, you need to consider if the storage system is too small then you cannot store enough energy to cover the demand, if the storage system is too big you store more than you need reducing the life span of the battery and not saving you any money.
Trip Efficiency
This parameter shows how much of the electricity fed into the battery can be utilised (expressed as percentage). For instance, if the battery has been charged with 5 kilowatt-hours of power and can provide 4 kilowatt-hours of power to be used, its round trip efficiency is 80%.
Generally speaking, a higher round-trip efficiency means you will get more economic value out of your battery. However, there is always some conversion loss, but a lithium battery is more than 90% efficient.