I am looking to add solar to my home, we have central Air Con, 3 bedroom, 2 bath one story home with only 2 people.
I want to add a battery to help keep us off grid as much as possible.
Any advice as to what panels to buy? What battery to use? and how many panels or KW's we might be looking at needing?
I have been told now is not a good time to get a battery as they are very expensive atm. What do you think?
I have gotten a few quotes but it is daunting to choose so any advice would be helpful.
Prices are dropping really fast, though. The Tesla Powerwall 2 is $10k installed and will break even in around 9 years with current power prices. I haven't done it yet, but I am watching. @0% cheaper and it will be reasonable deal.
Just saw something on 4 corners about zinc bromine batteries which sound pretty cool.
Better than the Lithium ones, worth looking into.
How much power do you use during daylight hours?
How much at night?
Have you done sensible conservation things like replacing halogen downlights with LEDs?
Do you have gas? Do you heat your hot water with electricity?
Do you have a roof suitable for solar panels?
Basically, you want to cut down power usage as much as possible via conservation, move every bit of consumption you can to happen in daylight and add solar panels to cover that consumption.
If you don't mind paying a few thousand dollars to get less dependant on the grid, you can do so with batteries that work in a blackout, and they cover some of their cost by storing excess solar power for use at night. But the economics aren't there yet. A few thousand dollars buys a lot of eneloops to power the torch in a blackout.
You will need to assess backwards.
By this I mean check first with what your power supplier will charge, rebate and how charge IE are you on a smart power meter. Your state government should have post to assist you with this.
Next you should know your usage of power, peak times.
You should do an audit of the effectiveness of your home for cool, heat retention, what is needed in roof to stop heat and cold loss, are your air con duct tubes insulated to max you can get, are the blower boxes to select rooms insulated on outside., [ home handy man job ] are there any breezeway excape areas inside house, do you have curtains to the floor.
Can you have entry ways that are "snugs' that keep the opposite weather out by a two door entry [ byproduct is you can quarantine 'those' visitors you do not want in the house weather it tidy or not.
Do you have or need trees on outside of house for sun screening, and cooling in summer and shedding in winter.
As for solar, 1. go with a company that you will get a supported guarantee and warranty. Many of the Chinese companies no longer exist and units are or have failed, and try to get compensation from electrician installer even if you are entitled [ says me with gritted teeth]
I would suggest you go two panels above suggested by your supplier.
remember the bill is not all usage, so take that into account when do the sums for expected rebate and take 20% of for marketing, cloudy days and just because.
Do NOT do the sums on zero cost return as there is a Government involved.
Batteries I would like, but budget, and development stage leaves me out of the picture.
Good luck hope this assists.
Save your money and forget the battery idea - the payback simply is not there. A 10Kw battery will save you a maximum of around $2-$3 per day, meaning payback is around 10 years, which is about the warranty life for the battery.
it is not a good time to get a battery as they are very expensive atm