Help! How Do I Choose the Best Battery for Solar Charging?
So you know you want solar. You also know you want solar even when the skies are grey or your electricity provider goes down.
You need a solar battery!
A solar battery can help lower your energy bills and make your home more sustainable. What’s not to love?!
That said, there are a few things to consider when choosing the best battery for solar charging… let’s discuss.
What is a solar battery?
For all the deets on what a solar battery actually is and how they work, check out our previous post on solar batteries. But the TL;DR?
🔋 Solar batteries are a device you can add to your home or commercial solar that store excess energy generated by your solar panels. They’re great additions if you want consistent power, particularly during long stretches of cloudy days, low-light winters, and even power outages. 🔋
But why are batteries for solar storage important?
Like we mentioned above, it’s not always sunny weather. Solar panels work great on their own when the skies are blue — not so much when it gets cloudy.
That’s where batteries come in!
Solar batteries store extra solar energy created during the day so you can use that sun-powered electricity at night, when the demand for electricity is particularly high, or it’s just a rainy day.
Like any sort of appliance or electronic purchase, it’s important to vet your options. While a qualified contractor can help you choose the perfect option, here are a few things to consider first…
How do you choose the best battery for solar power storage?!
You’ve probably heard of the Tesla battery — and sure, that's an option. That said, there are a ton of other batteries for solar power storage that lack the brand awareness but come with lots of other benefits.
Regardless of the company you choose to buy from, here's how to figure out what sort of battery you need:
Battery size and storage capacity
This is really important! Capacity is how much electricity a battery can store and therefore how long it can power your appliances/home. Obviously someone just looking to charge an electric car wouldn’t need quite as much capacity as someone who wanted to power everything in a 3,000 sq ft house.
The good news is that most commercially available batteries are stackable, meaning you can hook together multiple batteries to one system to get the power you need.
Power rating
Batteries provide their power in kW; logically, the higher the kW, the more power the battery can provide your house.
Knowing the power rating is important. it'll let you know how many appliances (and what kind) you can power at once.
Power and capacity work together. Think of it like this:
Power + capacity = how much & how many appliances you can power. So:
A battery with low capacity rating could only run for a few hours. A high capacity battery could run for a long time.
A low power rating means the batter will power just a few appliances, while a higher power rating means it could potentially power your whole home.
Power and capacity can be mixed and matched in any way.
Battery lifetime
Like any battery, solar batteries have a finite lifespace. ⚰️
Solar batteries can last anywhere from 5 to 25 years. Most are lithium-ion batteries that come with an average lifespan of up to 15 years.
That said, lots of factors affect how long your battery for solar charging will last. Things like:
☀️ Where you keep it. Like anything else, your solar battery will keep better in a mild, even-temperature spot. Keeping it an uninsulated garage that gets really hot and really cold may limit its battery life.
🔄 The solar battery's cycle life. A cycle life just means how many times the battery can can fully charge and discharge before it dies. Each battery has a finite approximate number of cycles.
So just know… eventually you’ll need to replace your solar battery. Think of it as another major appliance you’ll need to budget for over the years.
Wrapping it all up
We’re sorry we can’t say exactly which batter is the absolute best for your situation, because it depends
After all, a custom option is always better in the long run than a one-size-fits-all sort of deal.
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