Do I need a battery with solar panels?

No, you do not need one for solar to work, and not every home benefits from one. A battery is worth it when a lot of your electricity is used in the evening; if most of your use is during the day, you may do perfectly well without it. The deciding factor is when you use power, not whether a battery sounds like a good idea.

Panels generate while the sun is up and power your home in real time. Without a battery, anything you are not using at that moment is exported rather than stored. That is fine if someone is home in the day, or if appliances like the dishwasher, washing machine and hot water can run while the sun is out, because you are using the cheap, self-generated power as it is made.

A battery earns its keep when your usage is shifted towards the evening and night, after generation has stopped. It banks the daytime surplus so you can use your own power in the evening instead of buying it from the grid at a higher rate. The more of your life happens after dark, the stronger the case, and an electric car or a time-of-use tariff can change the sums again.

So the people who benefit most are evening-heavy households; the people who benefit least are daytime-heavy homes already using what they generate. There is a broad middle where it is a judgement call, and that is where honest sizing matters: a battery that is too small runs flat before bedtime, while one that is too large is capacity you have paid for and never empty.

You also do not have to decide everything at once. Many homes start with panels and add a battery later, and a system can be set up so storage slots in cleanly when you are ready. If you are unsure, that is exactly what a free assessment is for, we look at when and how much power you use, and where that is heading, since an EV or a heat pump can change the answer, then tell you straight whether a battery stacks up for you.

More on this: battery storage in Leicester.

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