But how do you know what size is right for your home?
That’ll depend onyour energy consumptionand how you plan to use your battery.
Here’s what you’re gonna wanna know about your home battery’s capacity.
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What is a home battery?
You might use this stored energy to power your home withsolar at nightor to offset your energy use.
These are calledtime of use rates.
you’re free to recharge your battery during parts of the day when energy rates are lower.
What is battery capacity?
Batteries are “sized” based on their energy storage capacity.
Battery capacity is the amount of energy your battery can put away into storage to be used for later.
The larger the capacity, the more energy you’re able to stash away.
We’ll dive more into the specifics of that below.
When looking at a specific battery, its capacity is likely the first thing you’ll see.
Some manufacturers even stick a battery’s capacity right in the name of the product.
LG Energy Solution tends to include its capacity somewhere in the name.
TheLGES 10H Primeis a 10-kWh battery and the LGES 16H Prime is a 16-kWh battery.
A battery’s maximum capacity is the total amount of energy it can store.
Every home is different and every household’s energy needs are different.
Batteries with more capacity also tend to be more expensive.
It all depends on how much energy the consumer is using, Lutton said.
And that varies all the time.
Your energy usage is measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh).
To be specific, it’s the amount of kilowatts (kW) that are consumed in an hour.
One kilowatt is equal to 1,000 watts.
Your installer will perform an energy audit and site assessment to find your average household energy consumption.
From there, they can start calculating what that energy use would look like on a typical day.
You’ll either have a partial home or whole home battery backup system.
Yourinstallermight ask what your backup objectives are, Lutton said.
Installers need to know your energy goals and consumption so they can design a system that meets your expectations.
Whole home backup solutions are designed to power your entire home in the event of an outage.
Most homes are wired for partial home backup.
Think of essential loads as things that need to have power during an outage.
Carefully consider what you choose as your “essentials.”
Do you have solar panels?
While you could have just a battery by itself, many people tend to pair batteries with solar panels.
It’s a pairing that makes a lot of sense.
Solar plus storage systems let you store any excess electricity produced by your solar panels in the battery.
It’s a more self-sufficient system.
“The solar panels can recharge the battery even if the grid is down,” Lutton said.
“It depends on how sunny it is and how big the battery is.
However, these systems come at a cost.
Thecost of the solar panel systemitself will cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
Adding a battery could cost anywhere from $12,000 to $22,000, according to theUS Department of Energy.
Frequently asked questions
How long will a 10-kWh battery power my house?
You’ll also need to factor in the length of the outage.
