Feb. 27, 2025
Solar panels are one of the best ways to capture clean, free energy from the sun for your own use. Solar energy can also be utilized for grid use to achieve further savings on your utility bill. However, adding a solar battery bank truly provides you with energy independence. Without solar batteries, homes covered with photovoltaic panels will remain powerless when the grid goes down.
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"Something people don't consider is that if they're using natural gas and the power goes out in the winter, they think their heater will work, but most of them use an electric fan, so if the power goes out they still need something," said Mike Murphy, owner of PrepSOS, a Utah-based company that sells solar batteries, generators, and other emergency equipment.
Batteries are a vital component that ensures your home stays lit and warm, and that essential electrical devices such as medical equipment remain operational. Depending on where you live, you may be able to save some additional money by selling power back to the grid at times when it’s most valuable.
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All these benefits come at a cost, and navigating specifications to find the right match for your needs can be a daunting task. Here’s a brief introduction to what you need to know before you begin shopping for energy independence.
The easiest way to think of batteries is to imagine electricity flowing into your home through wiring in much the same way that water flows through plumbing. Batteries act like storage tanks, making electricity readily available when you need it, just as pressurized tanks and water heaters do with water. When batteries are drawn for energy, their stored electricity reserve is depleted, but in a properly connected system, they can be automatically replenished by "catching" any excess electricity flowing through the system from sources like solar panels or the grid.
Depending on your goals for battery installation, your system might look slightly different.
1. Connected only to solar panels: Batteries connected only to solar panels will charge when the sun shines and will discharge when electricity is used or when the sun is down or behind clouds. This is one option if you are off-grid and far away from electrical utilities.
2. Connected to both solar panels and the grid: If you have an inverter that can temporarily disconnect from the grid, you have what is known as a hybrid solar system. In such a system, you can charge your batteries with both solar panels or the grid and use the stored power at home or return it to the grid, saving you some money through price arbitrage (if you have time-of-use pricing). A hybrid system can also keep your home powered during outages.
3. Connected only to the grid: While we may not call them solar batteries, you can install batteries without any solar panels at all. They will charge from the grid and are useful for backup power or for subscribing to a virtual power plant.
The advantages and performance strengths depend significantly on savings (and backup power) versus cost.
You can use the additional solar electricity you store in your solar batteries instead of power you would have otherwise purchased from your utility provider, or resell it to the grid when it’s most valuable. This can save you some money and take some pressure off the grid when demand is peaking. (Whether this is a viable savings option depends on your utility’s net metering rules.)
Some companies are starting to allow people to register their batteries in virtual power plants, a fleet of batteries, smart thermostats, and other home devices working together to reduce demand on the grid. Wherever available, virtual power plants may come with additional benefits for the battery owner.
Additionally, you will be able to use your battery bank in case the grid goes down due to an outage, disaster, or even a solar flare. A backup generator can also help keep power flowing in emergencies (and charge your batteries), but it requires burning fossil fuel, typically gas or propane.
Batteries add significant costs to your energy system, but federal tax credits and other incentive programs can often be applied to storage costs.
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Advantages of batteries Disadvantages of batteriesThere are several types of batteries used in backup systems, including lithium-ion batteries and lead-acid batteries. Here’s a quick overview.
There are several types of lithium chemistry on the market, including nickel, manganese, cobalt, lithium polymer, and phosphate batteries. The latest lithium technology comes with lower fire risks compared to what old headlines would lead you to believe. They can discharge deeper than lead-acid batteries (you can use up to 90% of the charge per cycle without causing too much damage) and are much easier to maintain with a longer lifespan. They are also far more expensive and sensitive to temperature. Their popularity is increasing in residential solar applications.
The fundamentals of this technology have remained unchanged for over a century. They remain low-cost and widely available. For solar power systems, it’s common to use slightly more expensive sealed batteries that require less maintenance and eliminate the risk of dealing with potential acid spills and hydrogen emissions. For a while, sealed lead-acid batteries seemed to be the future of solar batteries.
However, all lead-acid batteries require closer monitoring of charge levels compared to lithium-ion batteries and cannot compete in efficiency, power, and lifespan but are considered a good budget-friendly alternative.
Flow batteries (or flow-acid batteries) are less commonly used in residential systems as they are primarily designed for commercial use. The technology seems promising and may become more widely used in residential backup battery systems in the near future.
Nickel-cadmium batteries have a high energy density that is equivalent to double that of lead batteries. They are extremely durable, expensive, and perform well in extreme temperatures, making them a suitable option for large commercial and industrial projects. Cadmium is toxic and generally not suitable for home use.
Overall, a solar battery bank can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 for 10 to 25 kilowatt-hours of energy. (The U.S. Department of Energy states that solar batteries can range from $12,000 to $22,000.)
However, in the end, it all comes down to your budget and energy needs. You can get a small off-grid solar power system with battery capacity sufficient for the basics (without air conditioning or electric heaters) using a pair of high-capacity flooded lead-acid batteries for a total of around $500. An upgrade to lithium-ion would cost $1,300 for a system with comparable capacity.
Adding batteries is a significant cost to any system, but the good news is that nearly two-thirds of that will come back to you in the form of a 30% federal renewable energy tax credit. Additional incentives may be available from local and state governments, utility providers, and even credit unions.
It’s best to use a certified solar energy installer or electrician to install your solar batteries and connect them with your solar array, home, grid, and inverter if desired. You should expect to spend a few thousand dollars for the labor involved, and there may be additional components like inverters, charge controllers, and electric vehicle charging stations that can also add hundreds or thousands of dollars in extra costs.
If you have confidence in your DIY skills and electrical experience, you can install the batteries yourself. Just be sure to check local regulations, building codes, and equipment warranties.
If you choose the DIY route, make sure all the batteries are of the same age (preferably new). Do not mix new and old batteries to ensure they charge evenly.
For everyone, follow any instructions from manufacturers regarding the monitoring of depth of discharge. Generally, for lead batteries, this means trying to keep them above half-charge as much as possible. Many lithium-ion batteries can be taken down to just 10% of the charge safely. Flooded lead batteries also need to be replenished with distilled water several times a year.
After a few years of installation, you may notice that your backup battery system does not hold a charge as well as it did before. That is because backup batteries lose storage capacity over time just like other types of batteries.
To compensate for this, backup batteries come with a warranty that reflects how efficiently the battery will perform by the end of the warranty period. Many of the top solar battery brands offer warranties of up to 10 years and 70%, meaning that by the end of the 10-year warranty period, the battery should be operating at 70% of its original performance. Generally, lead battery warranties typically last from two to five years.
Inverters play an important role in how battery storage and solar energy conversion takes place. While solar panels generate electricity in direct current (DC), the electrical grid and homes typically use alternating current (AC). An inverter can convert AC to DC or vice versa, and most solar batteries include an inverter to store energy directly as well as an inverter to convert it back to AC for use on the grid or home.
Since electricity conversion isn’t perfectly efficient, battery manufacturers are always experimenting with ways to convert energy more efficiently and increase battery efficiency. As a result, some batteries may not include inverters for both the input and output of the system. Talk to your solar energy installer about the battery system you’re considering to ensure you get all the external inverters you need.
Beware of cheap inverters, which can be found everywhere. To run modern household devices, a pure sine wave inverter is essential; otherwise, you may end up damaging some of the more sensitive electronic circuits in your home.
Solar power is only available during part of the day. Adding a solar energy storage battery system ensures you always have power when the sun is not shining or during outages.
A professional solar energy system installer can help you choose a battery that fits your goals, whether you want to be entirely off-grid, have emergency backup during outages, or reduce your costs from your electric utility during peak hours.
DIY installation instructions for battery systems are widely available online, but beware. Working with electrical equipment is dangerous, and not doing so with the proper training may also void your warranties and make them incompatible with other systems and regulations.
It depends on how you plan to use them. You will likely need fewer batteries if you simply hope to maximize savings through net metering. To keep power in your home during long outages, you will need to calculate your total energy needs.
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