Complete Buyer’s Guide to Home Backup Batteries in 2024
Whether you face frequent outages, struggle with high electric bills, or want to protect your family from possible cyber-attacks on the energy grid, investing in solar batteries for your home can be a great option.
While you don’t necessarily need a solar panel system at home to enjoy the benefits of backup batteries, combining solar panels & batteries can maximize your system’s efficiency, protect your home from energy grid collapse, and save money on electricity bills.
We’ll guide you through determining if backup batteries suit your needs and, if they do, how to get a battery system tailored to your requirements at the best price.
DID YOU KNOW:
- Solar Batteries are one of the best ways to reduce energy bills and protect yourself from rising energy rates.
- Solar incentives can greatly reduce the cost of a battery system in Texas.
- You can choose to either do a partial battery backup system, or a whole-home battery backup system.
- Solar Batteries are modular, so you can start with 1 and add more overtime.
- Not all batteries offer backup power solutions and are only grid-tied.
Why are Solar Batteries important?
Batteries offer a ton of benefits for anyone who is looking to reduce grid dependency, save money on electricity, and provide backup power for their home.
Batteries provide backup power
We find that one of the greatest motivations for homeowners in Texas to install batteries on their house is to create energy independence, reduce energy cost, and to provide emergency backup power for their home.
If the electric grid goes down in Texas for any reason, a battery backup system can keep your home powered when all the other homes in your neighborhood are without power.
Backup Batteries During a Power Outage:
Combining solar panels and batteries, create a closed loop circuit where the energy from the panels feed the batteries for days at a time. Keeping your house running, and your family safe.
Backup Batteries at Night:
During the day, batteries store excess energy instead of exporting it to the grid. Storing energy is more economical than selling when utility company export rates are low.
At night, batteries can power your home allowing you to use the batteries instead of relying on the grid. This will reduce your electricity bill and help you avoid delivery charges, and excess fees from electric companies.
How to produce energy and store energy at your house
One of the common myths about batteries are that you have to install solar panels to have a battery.
While you do not need solar panels to install a backup battery system, it is important to remember that batteries only store energy, they do not produce it.
A home with batteries, and no solar will use the energy grid to recharge the batteries and store them for nighttime usage, or backup power supply.
With solar panels & batteries, the energy from the solar will recharges the batteries at a more economical rate, increase energy independence, and increase your energy bill savings.
- Your solar panels generate direct current (DC) electricity from the sun’s energy.
- The DC solar energy flows through an inverter (or multiple inverters), which converts it to alternating current (AC) electricity.
- You run your home on this AC electricity.
- Any extra electricity you don’t consume charges your batteries.
- When the sun goes down or the power goes out, the energy stored in your batteries powers your home.
Benefits of Having a Solar Batteries
As discussed, prior, one of the greatest benefits of having solar battery storage is that it lets you store excess energy from your solar panels. Not only do solar batteries provide backup power in case of an outage, but they can also run your house at night to avoid importing electricity from the utility company.
Energy Independence from the Texas Energy Grid
Solar Batteries truly give you energy independence and keep you from having to import electricity from the utility companies if sized properly. As Texas energy becomes more expensive every year, we find that more people are turning towards batteries more than ever to reduce their reliance on energy from the grid.
Electricity Bill Savings
When the sun is shining bright in the Texas sky, your solar panels produce excess energy that feeds the batteries, and at night when the sun goes down, your house can run off your batteries to power the home. This also helps save more money every night by reducing or eliminating delivery charges for importing electricity from the grid.
Backup Power
Solar Batteries are becoming more and more popular by the day because their ability to capture their investment back sooner than a generator and their ability to provide reliable back up power during an outage.
How to pick the best solar battery
How You’ll Use It
One of the first things to consider when choosing the best solar battery for your house is deciding if you need the battery just for emergencies during a power outage, how much of the home you want to power, and if you want the batteries to be able to operate on a daily basis to reduce energy bills. At Defined Solar, we offer multiple batteries to help suite your needs and one of our experts can help determine which battery best suits your specific needs.
Battery Capacity
Once you know how you will be using your battery, the next step is determining how much capacity you will need to meet your goals. It’s important to pick the right battery with enough capacity to support your needs. Battery Capacity directly influences the ability to store excess energy produced by your solar panels and ensure that they have enough stored energy to power your home through the night, or during a power outage. Typically, we find that a whole home back up battery in Texas has around 20kw of storage to ensure proper backup power, and enough energy to carry your home through the night.
Solar Battery Cost
It’s no secret that solar batteries cost money. While some backup batteries cost more than others, our team of experts can help you determine the best battery that fits within your budget. In Texas, it’s possible to receive up to 30% off your battery installation if you qualify for the Federal Tax Credit. While most companies don’t offer instant Tax Credit savings, here at Defined Solar our customers have the option to apply the full Federal Tax Credit into the cost of the batteries immediately. To help enhance your savings, we also provide anywhere from $2,000 – $4,000 off each battery alongside of the Federal Tax Credit. These incentives make Solar Batteries easily affordable, and a no-brainer for Texas homeowners!
Solar Battery Warranties
Backup Battery warranties differ from each battery manufacturer. We partner with battery manufacturers that at minimum offer a 10-year warranty and have batteries that provide a full 25-year warranty. Our goal is to provide maximum peace of mind for our customers and ensure that you have the most protection possible on your investment into solar batteries. Battery warranties cover everything from potential defects, performance issues, degradation and more.
Grid Tied Batterie vs. Off Grid Batteries
When you’re considering installing a solar battery system, it’s crucial to understand the difference between grid-tie and off-grid setups. Here’s what you need to know:
Grid-Tie Systems
– These systems are popular in urban and suburban areas connected to the utility grid.
– With grid-tie systems, you can use solar energy while still having access to grid electricity when needed.
– Any excess energy your solar panels produce can be sent back to the grid, often earning you credits or compensation.
– Grid-tie systems offer cost savings, reduced reliance on grid power, and potential participation in renewable energy incentives.
Off-Grid Systems
– If you want complete energy independence, an off-grid solar battery system is the way to go.
– These setups operate independently from the utility grid, providing self-sufficiency.
– Excess solar energy is stored in batteries for later use, ensuring continuous power even without grid access.
– However, off-grid systems require careful energy management since there’s no grid backup during low sunlight periods.
– Backup power sources, like solar batteries, may be necessary to ensure continuous electricity during extended periods of low sunlight.
Understanding your energy needs and where you live can help you decide between grid-tie and off-grid systems, each offering unique advantages to different types of households.
Best Solar Battery Brands
Solar Batteries have grown tremendously over the last 3 years, and now there are more brands than ever to choose from. We make it easy for you to hand pick the right backup battery for your home. We offer brands like, Enphase, Storz, Tesla Powerwall, Franklin, and SolarEdge to suit your needs. If you are having trouble picking the right battery for your home, reach out here and one of our experts will help hand select the right battery for your goals.
Are Solar Batteries Worth It?
While solar batteries require a significant initial investment, they can save you money on energy bills after sunset or during emergencies. For those living off-grid, they are essential for maintaining energy independence.
Solar batteries offer clean, renewable energy for your home, reducing reliance on external power sources. In some areas, incentives or rebates are available to offset the costs of adding a solar battery to your system. Additionally, you may qualify for up to a 30% discount on battery installation through the federal solar tax credit.
Ultimately, whether the investment in a solar battery is worthwhile depends on your individual circumstances and preferences, considering both the initial cost and ongoing maintenance requirements.
