If You Have Solar Without Home Batteries, You Might Be Kidding Yourself
CNET,technology,tech,electrified,home-product
If you’re still focused on power in a blackout, you’re missing 99% of why home batteries are interesting — and even more so with a new 30% tax credit.
0:00 Solar Home Battery Storage
0:50 Hands-on with home batteries
2:31 Beyond power outages
3:10 How to save money using battery storage
4:19 How battery storage integrates into your home power management
5:51 Whole home battery backups
7:22 Emergency power for your EV
8:18 Home battery warranty
9:11 Solar panels and home batteries get a tax credit
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#Solar #Home #Batteries #Kidding
This must be an ad geared to Californians that have to deal with the most expensive and unreliable electricity. True a home can have 40 to 50 cents kWh in peak? Really?
My kWh is 11.6 cents up to 1000kWh per month and 13.6 cents over 1000kWh.
Solar is very expensive in America. No justification for it since the same stuff is used in other countries.
There is a future coming where homeowners can participate in a shared utility in distributing power from their home batteries. California and Texas are already doing this.
This is great, storage for batteries and food. How many days of calories is this chunk carrying? 60 to 120 days? How many donuts does it take to maintain? How does diabetes affect? 😇
A home battery storage is great for a blackout, but then solar panels will be needed too. All that stuff adds up to a whole lot of money.
My area doesn’t have blackouts often, so I only have 3 mid-size portable power stations with 3 portable solar panels for those rare times.
9 to 18kwh for that massive sized unit? what a waste of space
For $50,000 you too can save $38 per month…. For 15 years….
solar home batteries are like Evs people will buy them in 7 years time when they are cheaper
Note: Hotwater tanks are also a form of battery if you use the energy generated by solar.
In NYC, Con Edison is your battery. Instead of buying electricity from you, they take it and owe you back that electricity. So when your panels are not generating, Con Edison gives you back the electricity. I think they only charge delivery fees if you go above the negative balance.
Wow, huge miss on Net Metering. I get a full one for one exchange from National Grid. For every kW I send to the Grid, I get one back for free. In addition, they left out Connected Solutions where we home owners are paid by the grid to allow them to pull power from our batteries during peak demand. I make $1,500 each summer. That’s after Tesla rakes 20% off the top. Nice ad for Generac though. How much is the system? How much more for each battery pack added? How about monitoring? Is there an app?
Its way cheaper to install a LP/NG powered generator for $8,000 that can run for a week or longer than to instal a $25,000 solar/battery system that may only keep you going for only 2 days during the winter. a generator will also be easier and cheaper to maintain and replace rather than have a crew poking holes all over your roof and garage.
What is the lifespan of the battery? What is the cost of battery replacement? Can the batteries be recycled? Does the battery manufacturing and recycling process produce a lot of CO2? Are we kidding ourselves into thinking these are really green when they are not if we look at the big picture?
When I installed solar on my house 12 years ago there wasn’t much choice for batteries and they were very expensive, so I chose to send excess power back to the grid. Living in a remote area I also have a whole-house generator system for a backup, so going solar for me was a way to reduce my electric bill by 75%. Although this infomercial for Generac battery storage was interesting, I think I would make the same choice today. Battery storage is great for living completely off-grid, but if you can feed your excess power back into the grid I think it is a more cost-effective solution.
Choose; gas and oil or a compact nuclear plant …It’s an easy choice…)))
There are people who have figured out to do this with used batteries, almost no matter what Batterie you put into that system. One goes down? No worries the system is resilient enough to handle that, you plug in a new one later when you have the time.
@8:12, another white dude sporting a fancy manicured beard hard-selling.
In the US you cannot charge the battery from the grid if you have solar, so the whole arbitrage discussion is misleading. There is nothing technical that prevents it but if you get a tax incentive for installing the battery as a part of solar system, you will not be allowed to charge it from the grid. IRS rules control the battery 🙂
Electricity savings is third on my list of priorities 1st having back up power for when the grid goes down 2nd charging a EV from home and using the EVs battery to support the house when the weather isn’t good for solar generation…but a must have is a fuel generator to cover all contingency’s , can never build enough redundancy in to your home electricity generation system!!!.🤔💕🇺🇸🇺🇦
As cool as this is conceptually, this mostly feels like a Generac infomercial.
What a ridiculous, ignorant video title!
A grid-tied system is: 1) cheaper, not needing batteries, charge controllers, etc, 2) more efficient, when batteries are fully charged and the Sun is out, the excess energy is lost, also charging and then discharging batteries has efficiency losses of 3–10%, 3) a lower environmental impact option, not purchasing batteries, and not replacing those batteries every 10 years for example over the 35+ year product life of the solar array…
STOP spreading click-bait, misleading video titles!!!
I was told a battery setup for my system would NOT kick in on a backup because of backfeeding the grid. Has something changed?
You touched on something that I’ve been trying to find out. At one point someone said that a solar array that is undersized for the battery can never fully charge that battery. Is that correct? If so, why not?
I have a small (1,000 w) array which takes 2 — 5 days to charge an Ecoflow Delta Pro plus 2 extra batteries (10..6kWh). That’s good, but not enough. Getting a larger array is not an option due to space limitations. Rather than get a second Delta Pro, I would prefer to install a larger battery, even if it takes a couple of weeks to fully charge. My priority is backup power when the grid is down, so it would also be nice to be able to charge it from the grid when bad weather is coming. But if my small solar array can never fully charge the larger battery, getting a second Delta Pro setup starts making more sense. Once one is fully charged I can simply move the charging cable to the other unit.
Thanks in advance for any helpful feedback.
My question would be, how long does that battery last with those circuits ? And will the batteries charge while the power is out ? I was told it’s not worth having batteries
$10,000 in batteries won’t get you thru the night…never power your pool pumps, nor a/c etc… maybe a fridge, freezer a few lights, etc… you would neec to spend $100,000 to get thru a cloudy, snow 2–3 days…its a joke… so for all those batteries you need $40,000 in solar panels… so lets say $150,000 per house for maybe 3 days of emergency lights etc„, nothing big so even fan for your gax furnace will drain it fast…ask pthe right questionx crook
Building on what I know of Generac, this video includes a ton of misinformation to sell you their batteries. These are some of the worst possible options on the market, and it makes sense why — ToU isnt standard is MOST of the US. You need to pay some attention to your bill and understand whether you do or not. I live in Chicago and you pay 1 rate all day or night. And net metering alone is a 1 = 1 exchange with ComEd. You send them a kw, which means if you pull a kw at night, if eats that credit and you are back to even. CA and MA have ToU all over, but it doesnt mean you do, so if you can use the utility as your battery, its worth skipping this overpriced 20 grand 40 Amp dud.
I have had Enphase batteries for about a year. They have worked well. I just watched a video earlier today that said that Generac had an issue with one of their components (not the battery) used in battery installations. Put some installers out of business with warranty calls because many of the systems failed. They may have solved the problem now, but I’m sure that has to leave a bad taste in existing customers and installers mouths. I’m not a Enphase fanboy, there a multiple companies out there that have good solutions. The guy also said that you can charge your batteries from the grid. You need to read the fine print on that. If you used the tax credit, there are specific rules about charging off the grid. Generac also has a smaller limit in terms of total KW of power you can store versus other solutions.
In West Virginia AEP power company will give you 1 for 1. Every extra 1kwh you send them during the day they let you have back 1kwh at night . Been hard to justify battery because of this because AEP is my battery storage right now. If there is a system that would let my solar work and charge battery system during day when utility power is off and or allow my to use generator to charge battery when utility power is off I would be interested.
When installing batteries, be aware that using the grid to charge the batteries disqualifies you for the 30% FTC (for the purchase of the batteries).
Yikes. Generac has had issues with their solar and batteries.
2:35. I’m not even interested in doing solar panels, I only want the battery wall so I won’t need to rely on a generator every time the wind, snow, heat, etc. takes out my electrical service which has been averaging 3 days.
EASY fix: Use MOON panels at night!!
Good video. American domestic cabling/components is from the Stone Age.
Depending on the electric utility company there are some cases where the battery is unnecessary. Some utility companies will credit the extra electricity you produce at the same rate that they will sell it back to you. In a sense, the utility company is acting as a virtual battery. If that’s the case, a battery is good for frequent power outages. If those are rare in your area, and your utility is crediting your overproduction at the same rate as your usage, the battery really does not make sense.
This has probably been covered elsewhere in the comments, but at around 3:20 the guys say that without a battery, a home solar array pushes energy back into the grid, and the owner of the system only gets to “sell” that power to the utility at some nominal amount (he says 4 cents, but it varies). This is for the time being (until 4/14/23) not accurate, at all, at least not under California NEM2. Mostly.
Here’s why: On a daily basis — actually, on an annual basis really, California NEM2 home solar generators get a 1:1 Time-of-Use retail price credit (based on the price at the time they are either generating to or using from the grid) … UNTIL the annual true-up, where if AT THAT POINT the solar panel owner has generated more power over the course of the entire year than they have used, THEN they get pennies back for that excess power put into the grid. BUT .. . on a daily/monthly basis, you do get the full retail price credited to your utility account (in CA, under NEM2).
In other words, if let’s say an off-peak kWh is at 24 cents/kwh, and during a sunny day off-peak your system pushes 10kWh into the grid, then you will get 10 X24cents = $2.40 credit, to use later when you pull from the grid when your panels aren’t generating and you need the power. You get the FULL retail price (the price at the time you generated the energy, the TOU price) as credit, and you can then use that $2.40 to buy back power from the grid at night, for instance. Essentially, NEM2 lets you use the grid as a battery — you get full “credit” (TOU-based price), and you can use that monetary “credit” at full-value … until the year-end “true up” happens, where if you AT THAT POINT have left any kWh’s on the table unused, then you get pennies for it, or if you used more grid power than your system generated, OVER THE COURSE OF THE YEAR, then you pay retail for that power.
All this said, two things:
1. This full credit is the deal you get on a daily/monthly basis, but … at the end of the one-year period, when it comes time to “true-up” time, where you either pay the utility for energy you used over and above what you produced (in $ energy credits), or you get the proverbial pennies on the dollar (4 cents in the video) for any excess power you pushed into the grid and did not later use. In this sense what they say is true/accurate, at 3:20, for CA NEM2 at least. And
2. This will indeed change with California sunsetting the NEM2 plan and instituting NEM3, where you WILL indeed get pennies for your kWh pushed into the grid, AT THE TIME YOU GENERATE IT. With NEM2, basically you get the whole year to use the energy you pushed into the grid at a later date, essentially, because they will at least give you full retail credit for your energy generated, and that will be available to purchase grid power when your solar system isn’t producing. Under NEM3, you instantly get a haircut on the value of what you generate. That’s why you have to have batteries in CA for a new system installed after NEM3 goes into effect on 4/15/23. At that point in time, if you haven’t had an application approved to keep you under NEM2 for the next 20 years, you WILL get hardly anything for your power pushed into the grid, at the exact moment you push it into the grid.
So in the end, what they say, in CA at least, is currently and for the next 16 days very inaccurate. But after that time, yeah. You need the batteries, otherwise solar will not pencil out financially, in CA.
In South Africa due to our national power provider not being able to meet demand, “loadshedding” is implemented. So having a Hybrid inverter with solar and battary backup is very popular and becoming a necessity .
So now, instead of having a reliable power grid, you have to fund your own power plant.
Instead of selling extra energy back to the grid for next to nothing, store it to use in peek hours in the battery storage system you paid 40K for, plus 30% interest. Then replace in ten years.
So what happens when you have a detached garage that’s 20’ from the house . And you have a breaker box and a fuse box . 2 furnaces and an in law suit.
Grid tie or not, solar without batteries is incomplete. Just like a diesel without a turbo, is incomplete.
Battery back ups only last 10 years…then its another 10K
Our generac battery pack does not work below 40° Fahrenheit or above 105 degrees Fahrenheit. When it does work it’s great, but that just makes when it doesn’t all the more frustrating. When something does go wrong you contact generac and if they can’t fix it over the air they contact your installer. The customer service division of generac does not work with the technical support side of generac so that your installer talks to different people than you do and often things are lost in the transfer. We have had three issues with generac batteries and the two that required a technician took over a month and now almost 2 months to resolve for 2 nd time. If you deal with generac you are best served if you make sure your installer is not a third-party but works directly with generac.
Battery storage is still very expensive. Only in condition where you have over dimensioned Solar AND/or big price difference between Peak prices and low prices, it might make financial sense. Then you need to calculate, that 1000kwh of cheap power through battery and losses becomes like 800Kwh of peak price power. The price gain between it, is the value you set off against the costs of the system, to find out at howmany KwH you brake even. Set that against the KwH per year you get from the battery, and see if the ROI makes any sence in your case. Same for solar, but then calculate howmuch “costs” a solar Kwh (price of solar system decided by total kwH you will get out of it). as the “Low KWH” reference. of the ROI doesn’t make sence but is not too far off, you can still choose the system, but then really specificly based on it being a luxery and/or Back-up benifit. Of as in the video’s accemply, perhaps a batter backed up KwH is cheaper then a Generator created KwH (with rising fuel prices, and lowering battery costs, it might ;-))
Your mileage may vary. If your grid is stable and fixed rate electricity, then it makes little sense. For us, even with the fed credit, the battery warranty was too short. (before payback)
Isnnt it very stupid idea to put solar panels on every roof and storage in every home.look how much maintenance it needs.if we want solar look how many emty fields are arpund us and energy company which vsn tske care about it.
A lot of areas have very little sunlight in the long winter months to produce enough battery stored energy to run a home without a massive solar array which is not only impractical on ones property but also very expensive. It would be nice that an average home owner could afford all that is required of these systems it still is a technology that is mainly for the wealthy unless you can do much of this yourself.
Why in winter people can’t heat a home just with solar pannel during day, 0 batteries just some heaters
Please fully read.
This Generac system is to complex and complicated with nothing but excessive conduit; control boxes and can not directly integrate a generator or other power sources to charge the batteries. It’s very limited on how many batteries can be added to the system which limits the power you may need in the future. Their batteries can only be charged by solar or the grid if you have grid power. A generator can not be integrated into the system to charge the batteries and is separate. If a generator is added then it must be large enough to power the home; it is costly and eats up fuel and needs a transfer box (another box). Let’s say power is out for a week or two in the winter with heavy snow where your batteries can’t fully charge by solar so where does that leave you? If there is no generator you’re screwed because the power is out for up to two weeks. Where does the fuel come from if you don’t have a generator; especially when the entire town has no power to pump fuel and everyone is home worried about their own rear ends? With climate change; disasters etc. you should be prepared.
NOW CHECK OUT THIS STATE OF THE ART SYSTEM BY YOU SOLAR INC. You Solar Inc. has the “Power Bloc” (yousolar (dot) com). It’s one of a kind and is your primary power source (not a backup) which powers your entire home at full power and not just part of your home. The “Power Bloc” does not have the excessive messy conduit; transfer boxes etc. that the others have and NO NEED for utility approval to install it. There is no limit on how many batteries the “Power Bloc” can have so you can store days of power if desired. The “Power Block is the only system which can integrate and blend multiple power sources to charge the batteries by grid; solar; wind turbines; hydro or any size remote control generator to directly charge the batteries at the same time. Batteries can also be charged from your EV batteries. NOTE: The “Power Block” is currently installed and giving full hight power to large iconic multimillion dollar homes, small homes, clinics, ect which require alot of power. The others really can not currently do it. yousolar (dot) com