Home-energy storage

[Buckman]

While investigating lithium battery for the caravan I came across some articles regarding lithium batteries for you home. Initial cost is high, but if you factor in current rising electric prices and have solar panels in conjunction to charge the battery, you should have enough power for fridge to continue functioning, to have lights, carry on watching TV, etc.
We don't often have power cuts, but they can be annoying when they happen especially late afternoon early evening in the winter months. It seems that you would not require a massive battery and 200ah may suffice for basic needs and last quite a few hours.
See HERE.

 

[Jcloughie]

The industry is going through it’s infancy and evolving. I think prices and capabilities will improve greatly over the next couple of years. I just bought a 2nd hand mobility scooter. It has 2x22 amp AGM batteries. I was tempted to get a 3 year old one with lithium batteries until I learnt that the manufacturers only give a 2-3 year life expectancy for a 8.5amp battery and want nearly £500 for a new one. To put that into perspective, I have just bought a circular saw with 2x4 amp batteries for £159 including the saw.

I think there is room for clever companies to sell converters to make use of various power tool batteries to power other power hungry devises. There must be thousands of perfectly good, but non combatable batteries wasting away in peoples tool boxes.

John

 

[Buckman]

The industry is going through it’s infancy and evolving. I think prices and capabilities will improve greatly over the next couple of years. I just bought a 2nd hand mobility scooter. It has 2x22 amp AGM batteries. I was tempted to get a 3 year old one with lithium batteries until I learnt that the manufacturers only give a 2-3 year life expectancy for a 8.5amp battery and want nearly £500 for a new one. To put that into perspective, I have just bought a circular saw with 2x4 amp batteries for £159 including the saw.

I think there is room for clever companies to sell converters to make use of various power tool batteries to power other power hungry devises. There must be thousands of perfectly good, but non combatable batteries wasting away in peoples tool boxes.

John

A few years ago I bought a scooter with Lithium batteries. They went flat as a pancake and replacement battery was over £400. Luckily I had bought using a CC so used that to make a successful claim.

 

[Tobes]

While investigating lithium battery for the caravan I came across some articles regarding lithium batteries for you home. Initial cost is high, but if you factor in current rising electric prices and have solar panels in conjunction to charge the battery, you should have enough power for fridge to continue functioning, to have lights, carry on watching TV, etc.
We don't often have power cuts, but they can be annoying when they happen especially late afternoon early evening in the winter months. It seems that you would not require a massive battery and 200ah may suffice for basic needs and last quite a few hours.
See HERE.

200ah at 240v is about 48kWh. Thats huge for a house battery. I have one installed, it’s around 16kWh with a peak output of 6kW. Thats just enough to run the house for about 20h in winter. Battery and inverters were 9k. We already have 3.1kW of solar. We didn’t opt for emergency backup power as an option as it would have needed a large rewire and more equipment.

 

[Buckman]

200ah at 240v is about 48kWh. Thats huge for a house battery. I have one installed, it’s around 16kWh with a peak output of 6kW. Thats just enough to run the house for about 20h in winter. Battery and inverters were 9k. We already have 3.1kW of solar. We didn’t opt for emergency backup power as an option as it would have needed a large rewire and more equipment.

The maximum size lithium battery we could have in our caravan and that will fit in the battery box is 155AH. The 200AH is slightly longer and no chance of it fitting in the battery box however you could have it under a bed or bunk in the caravan.

Sadly it is not economically viable for us to have solar panels on our roof as we face East / West. However I was thinking of a large solar panel in the rear garden for recharging, but OH objects to loosing part of her garden.

We have air source heating and if we only use the radiators in lounge are and main bedroom, we may save some energy. We cannot switch off the radiator in hallway and bathroom as one is the "control" radiator and the other is linked to it.

Either way it is going to be a cool winter!

 

[Tobes]

The maximum size lithium battery we could have in our caravan and that will fit in the battery box is 155AH. The 200AH is slightly longer and no chance of it fitting in the battery box however you could have it under a bed or bunk in the caravan.

Sadly it is not economically viable for us to have solar panels on our roof as we face East / West. However I was thinking of a large solar panel in the rear garden for recharging, but OH objects to loosing part of her garden.

We have air source heating and if we only use the radiators in lounge are and main bedroom, we may save some energy. We cannot switch off the radiator in hallway and bathroom as one is the "control" radiator and the other is linked to it.

Either way it is going to be a cool winter!

Ah - you mean 200ah @ 12v, about 2.4kWh. Sorry - I thought you were focusing on the house side. That’s a fairly small battery for a house but usable if you had solar.
Our roof faces east and west, but we decided some panel’s were better than none. We put them in in 2012 just at the end of the highest level of fit payment. On a good day they generate about 15kWh.
We find that we use around 12 to 17kWh a day (excluding car charging). We opted to add 16kWh batteries, with the intention that we could charge the batteries over night on our cheap period saving using expensive electricity during the day. I estimate payback to be between 5 and 10 years depending on how the electricity prices go.

 

[Raywood]

We are with Octopus and on checking found they offer this, but I could find no idea as to the price. Might have a look at it, but I suspect it may not be cost effective.
I think you need a fair amount of free space for his system so it may be a problem for many.