As most of us already know, home batteries are becoming a more common technology. Whether they are talked about at the residential or nonresidential level, batteries are an important technology that is only going to improve over time. There are many reasons to have a battery system for your house, this article will touch on four of them.
Time-of-Use: Local utility companies charge higher rates for customers during peak demand hours. A higher price per kilowatt makes sense from a business perspective, but it can significantly impact a user’s energy costs. This is where the battery comes into play. Energy stored in an onsite battery can be drawn upon during those peak rate hours (usually around the time period of 3-8pm), thereby reducing the customer’s demand on the grid, and charges on one’s bill.
Peak Offset: When grid energy is in high demand, infrastructure is more susceptible to failure. Peak offset is a strategic way to reduce the amount of grid electricity you consume during the time of high demand. It is important because it allows customers to rely on the energy from their battery instead of drawing off the grid. This has ramifications for the grid system overall and decreased use of “peaker plants”, which tend to be fired to meet peak demand and make generally more carbon intensive electricity. Like time-of-use, peak offset is significant to the time of day when energy is in high demand, however it is about demand, instead of cost.
Self-utilization: Simply put, the battery can be used during non-peak times (or whenever you want) to power home appliances such as a washer and drier, a dish washer, A/C unit, or heater. The battery can be set to recharge directly from the photovoltaic (PV) system before sending excess to the grid. Nothing like running one’s home on the sun!
Backup Energy. The most common application of a battery is to supply energy to a house when the grid is down. When the battery kicks in, the necessary appliances will be able to operate. The amount of time that they will be able to operate is dependent on the size of the battery, how many appliances are tied into the backup panel, and usage patterns.
Batteries help customers lower their electric bill, help stabilize the grid, reduce overall carbon emissions from grid power, and provide energy during power outages. As nonresidential and residential builds incorporate PV panels, consider providing space in your drawings for batteries. In a future article, we will show dimensions for a sample full PV battery system, as well as the necessary components required to make sure the system is code compliant.
Interested in installing PV for your home or commercial project? Contact us! We can provide load calculations, system sizing and optimal ROI analysis for your PV Basis of Design.