Batteries for my home? These aren’t your Grandpa’s AA’s!

 
 

Solar Energy Storage

Many people who get solar panels, look at batteries for a variety of reasons the most common reasons being:

  1. Emergency back up power: Be it a winter storm, hurricane, a downed power line, there are many reasons that the grid can go down and batteries an help you gain energy independence.

  2. Off Grid: If you don’t have access to the utility grid, you will need battery storage to have power at night.

  3. No Net-Metering: Some utilities do not allow for excess solar energy to be sent back out to the grid and sold back to the utility, in these case a battery can help store the excess solar energy to be used by the home owner during the night.

 

Differences in Battery Technology

There are two types of batteries that are commonly used in conjunction with solar systems. An AC coupled battery, and a DC coupled battery.

DC Coupled batteries have an advantage because they can better harness solar energy production. Solar panels produce energy as DC power, with a DC coupled battery, that energy can go straight into the battery, when that energy is ready to be utilized by the home it will then be converted to AC. while with an AC coupled battery, the power has to be converted 3 times to be utilized. This is highly inefficient.