SA Battery Rebate still available
<< BackHi Everyone,
Solar Wholesalers are now offering battery solutions for our clients. Several of our electricians have their battery qualifications and we have installed a variety of different battery solutions over the past few months (well, last few years for our own staff and family members). I get my Tesla Powerwall 2 installed at my house next week :-) (thanks James)
Those who know us know we have been reluctant to supply and install batteries over the last couple of years due to batteries not making any real financial sense, but due to several recent changes in the market and to changing electricity rules batteries are starting to make sense in several different scenarios.
There is still a max $3,000 dollar battery rebate available and the price of batteries has started to come down a bit and we feel the technology has started to mature. Another factor is that the trend in feed in tariffs seems to be dropping off a little bit. I am with Origin and just finished my 12 months on their 18 cent feed in tariff (which currently see's me over $500 in credit with my 10kW system) and now I am back to 14 cents so it's time for a Powerwall for me. (did I say thanks James ;-)
The two types of Battery solutions we have been installing recently are the BYD BBox solution and the Tesla PowerWall 2. The right battery solution for you will depend on a few factors.
The easiest way if you already have solar and just want the battery only will be to go with the Tesla, reason being that the Tesla has an in built BMS (battery management system) that makes it quite straightforward to retrofit to really any type of solar system. You will want to have a big enough solar system to put some charge into the battery over the winter months, all the solar people out there know you make less solar power in the winter, so it may be you need a bit more solar too.
Now the Tesla does have a couple of drawbacks compared to the BYD, the main one being in the event of a blackout and your running of your Tesla battery and you have a standard older model inverter you can not charge your battery until the grid comes back, and in 90% of times that won't matter but if your concerned we might have another 2 day blackout anytime soon this would be a drawback as far as the Tesla goes.
The BYD battery if installed as a whole new install (Solar and Battery) will be installed with a Fronius Gen 24 Hybrid inverter that means in the event of a blackout and you are running off battery power your solar CAN charge the batteries while the grid is out and if we ever have a 2 day or 4 day blackout again this is a massive advantage BUT you will be paying for the extra functionality as its several thousand more than the Powerwall 2.
Another thing to consider is what circuits you want the battery to be able to power, for example you may not want the battery to be able to run your electric hot water as that could chew up the bulk of your battery power overnight, if we happen to have a blackout over night, you could quickly run out of battery power.
So if anyone wants to get a battery retro fitted to their existing solar system that we installed for them please give us a call. Or if you don't have solar yet and want solar and a battery (or just solar) please give us a bell and we can run through your options, cheers
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