Guide to Buy a Home Solar Battery

Battery technology has evolved a lot over the past few years. As it should be given the increased interest in people towards renewable energy sources like solar energy. The emergence of companies using environment-friendly energy sources like electricity to bring change in the automobile and other sectors is also driving innovation forward. Now people can buy things like solar panels, solar batteries, and inverter battery online as well.

With the availability of different vendors providing solar panels and solar battery for home, having a guide will help you make the best decision for yourself. This guide will help you buy the best solar battery for your home, how much a battery would cost, and other factors that you should keep in mind before buying a solar battery online.

What is a Solar Battery

Before buying a solar battery, you should know what a solar battery actually is. Solar panels installed on your roof, or any other location, generate electricity in the morning when the sun shines on them. This electricity can be immediately used to power up your home. With a solar battery, you get the ability to store the energy generated from the solar system. You can either store any excess energy you are not using or just store the energy and use it in the vening when the solar panel isn’t generating anything.

Common Solar Battery Types

Solar Batteries can be of Two Types:

1. Lead Acid

If you’ve ever brought an inverter battery online or offline, there is a big chance that it is a lead acid battery. This is one of most commonly used battery types for solar battery as well. They are cheap, been in circulation for decades but aren’t that efficient as compared to other battery types.

2. Lithium Ion

Lithium Ion batteries are the new technology and several new battery storage are using this technology. It provides a reliable lifespan and are compact on space as well. While they are a bit expensive than lead acid batteries, they are more efficient and have better Depth of Discharge.

Factors to Consider While Buying a Solar Battery for Your Home

Power Rating

The power rating of a battery tells you how many appliances it can support at once. The power rating is generally referred in kilowatts (kW) or Amps. Different appliances require different amounts of power. It is better to check the power ratings of the appliances you want to power up with the battery and buy something that has a power rating greater than their combined power rating.

Battery Capacity

While power rating is the number of appliances the battery can power, battery capacity is the time it can keep powering up the appliances. It is expressed in kilowatt-hours (kWh) and depends on which appliance you are planning to power up.

Roundtrip Efficiency

Any battery system is bound to lose of energy when it convers electricity from DC to AC. The roundtrip efficiency of a battery shows how efficient the battery is while converting electricity from one form to another. The more efficient a battery, the less electricity loss it will suffer from.

Battery Lifetime

Expected years of operation, throughput, and cycles makes up the battery lifetime. The battery throughput allows you to check how much electricity you’ll be able to move through it. Cycles, on the other hand, tells you how many times you can discharge and charge your battery.

Safety

No matter which solar battery you decide, it should meet the safety requirements prescribed by the government to make it eligible for installation in homes and businesses. Battery with no safety rating or certificate to back-up shouldn’t be used ideally.

What Does It Mean for You

While this solar battery buying guide is created to help you make a decision while buying a solar inverter battery online or offline, this is not an exhaustive list. There are other factors like your budget, available space at home, use cases for the battery, added features, and more that can influence the decision as well. There is no single battery that is outright better than the rest. Hence, it is important to thoroughly asses the needs and requirements for the solar battery and choose the one that is able to tick most of the checkboxes on your list.