Solar Battery outage

D

Dodger

Registered User
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Contemplating getting a 5 kw battery for my 4.5 kw solar system 10 panels just about to be put in .
if I use a 9 kw a day does it mean a 5 kw battery fully charged will supply me with half a days energy.or should I bother with a battery hoped to use battery outage in the evening for tv kettle etc .
 
Dodger said:
if I use a 9 kw a day does it mean a 5 kw battery fully charged will supply me with half a days energy
Click to expand...
Yes.

Probably worth saying that the general consensus is that the payback is not great on batteries at the moment. This is because your electricity provider will pay you to export electricity to them, so it makes more financial sense to just do this rather than pay for batteries and try to store it yourself.

Personally I like the technology of having a battery and seeing it get me through the night, and the ability to boil a kettle or run some lights during a power outage is also handy.

Note you can opt for a ‘hybrid’ (aka battery-ready) inverter now so you have the option to easily add batteries later.
 
I'm open to correction on this but if you're planning an SEAI approved grid connected system they won't amount to much in the event of a blackout. It's my understanding that the systems are designed NOT to work during a power cut. I believe its a safety measure to stop the likes of electricity repair workers getting zapped while trying to repair a fault.
 
The system will stop generating electricity in the event of an outage; but the battery can continue to be used until it drains down.
 
In the event of the mains electricity going off the panels get shutdown yes. The inverter will also stop providing power to the house from the battery. Although there are ways to wire things to legitimately avoid this, if you wanted the option for true off-grid.

However most inverters have a separate output which the installers will wire to a dedicated socket you can use to drain the battery when the mains is off. If you know the power is going to go off you can charge the battery in advance, otherwise it’s just luck. I used it a few times and it was enough to run the broadband, WiFi, my computer and the gas boiler for 6-7 hours.
 
The Invertor will stop feeding the house in event of a power outage

This is to make sure there isn't any power going out to the grid while ESB are working on a fault.

It is possible to wire in an isolator in case of power outage to disconcert from grid during outage, this would be an extra

I have a 5kwh battery on my system
Charge every night on 7c / kwh ev rate from 2 to 5 am
Barring really cloudy days I manage to cover all day similar usage of about 10 kwh

I would like to double the battery, but need the money tree to recover first.
 
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