Tweet
TLDR: I had a NeoVolta home battery installed in my home in order to save money and gain a modicum of electricity independence. It’s working great, but I’m not completely satisfied with my decisions.
I recently placed a home solar battery into operation and I would like to share my experience. I have learned that there is more than a high price point to discourage purchasing a home battery. The expense can be recovered by amortizing it over the life of the battery, but what about other disadvantages? I’m not completely satisfied with my home battery decision. I failed to adequately anticipate my information requirements, so I ended up with a battery that doesn’t meet all of my needs. Learn from my mistakes.
First, I’d like to discuss the reasons to purchase home battery storage. I, like many others, initially believed that batteries were for emergency electrical backups. They do serve that purpose, but there are other reasons as well, such as:
The high cost of a home battery initially led me to forgo it and purchase a backup generator. A generator is an inexpensive alternative for emergency backups. But recent developments led me to understand other advantages of home batteries. First, my local electrical utility raised prices (again). On-Peak pricing is now $.511 per kilowatt in the winter and $.816 in the summer. Ouch! Then the Federal Government’s Inflation Reduction Act included a 30% tax credit for home battery storage.
After learning about the home battery tax credit, I decided to determine if a battery made financial sense. First, I sought my historical electricity usage. San Diego Gas and Electric, my utility, provided consumption data for entire years, at 15-minute intervals, in a spreadsheet format. By organizing the data, I was able to determine and graph my on-peak (4 to 9 pm) usage. The data showed a usage high of 38.6 kW (AC use), low of 1.2 kW, an average of 7.2 kW, and a mean of 5.9 kW. By applying the kWh cost, I determined that I paid $1,765 for electricity between 4-9 pm in CY 2002.
However, current individual home batteries are incapable of supplying my usage when running AC. For example, an individual Tesla Powerwall battery can only provide 5 kW continuously, far short of the 20 kWs needed when running AC (unless multiple batteries are used). So, I needed to determine how much of my on-peak usage could be economically filled with a single home battery. Optimally, I would want a battery that could fill most of my on-peak needs; between 5.9 kW and 7.2 kW.
When you think of home battery storage, most people think of Tesla’s Powerwall. However, there are many other brands available. Within all home batteries however, there are two lithium types: Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC), and Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP), aka LiFePO4. Tesla and most other brands use NMC. NMC batteries have greater energy density. However, LFP batteries have many advantages over NMC. First, they are safer. While NMC batteries are generally safe, they have been known to catch fire when overcharged, overheated or receive physical damage. Not so with LFP batteries. LFP batteries also suffer less degradation than NMC, deliver more charge cycles (last longer), and run cooler. I concentrated my battery search on LFP batteries.
When starting my search for a home battery among the many available, I looked for the following:
I choose the NeoVolta home battery at the end of last year. I now realize that my search should have been deeper, and there appears to be more LFP batteries available now. During my search, I found that most batteries were NMC and most didn’t have the continuous output that I desired. I choose NeoVolta because:
I recently placed a home solar battery into operation and I would like to share my experience. I have learned that there is more than a high price point to discourage purchasing a home battery. The expense can be recovered by amortizing it over the life of the battery, but what about other disadvantages? I’m not completely satisfied with my home battery decision. I failed to adequately anticipate my information requirements, so I ended up with a battery that doesn’t meet all of my needs. Learn from my mistakes.
First, I’d like to discuss the reasons to purchase home battery storage. I, like many others, initially believed that batteries were for emergency electrical backups. They do serve that purpose, but there are other reasons as well, such as:
- Save Money. Batteries will reduce or eliminate your homes electrical demand from the grid. This can save you pennies or dollars, depending on what your utility charges. If your utility only pays pennies for your solar contribution to the grid, saving the power in a battery for your use when they charge a fortune makes sense.
- Make Money. If your utility offers Time of Use (TOU), it may be possible to charge batteries with solar and then sell it to the utility during on-peak periods. Your mileage may vary depending on local laws and regulations.
- Community Benefit. Saving electricity to a battery places less demand on the grid during on-peak periods. This can result in lower energy costs, if the utility passes along the savings.
- Electrical Independence. All solar users hooked to the grid know that their power goes down with the grid. However with a home battery, the circuits attached to the battery remain on, even when the grid goes down.
The high cost of a home battery initially led me to forgo it and purchase a backup generator. A generator is an inexpensive alternative for emergency backups. But recent developments led me to understand other advantages of home batteries. First, my local electrical utility raised prices (again). On-Peak pricing is now $.511 per kilowatt in the winter and $.816 in the summer. Ouch! Then the Federal Government’s Inflation Reduction Act included a 30% tax credit for home battery storage.
After learning about the home battery tax credit, I decided to determine if a battery made financial sense. First, I sought my historical electricity usage. San Diego Gas and Electric, my utility, provided consumption data for entire years, at 15-minute intervals, in a spreadsheet format. By organizing the data, I was able to determine and graph my on-peak (4 to 9 pm) usage. The data showed a usage high of 38.6 kW (AC use), low of 1.2 kW, an average of 7.2 kW, and a mean of 5.9 kW. By applying the kWh cost, I determined that I paid $1,765 for electricity between 4-9 pm in CY 2002.
However, current individual home batteries are incapable of supplying my usage when running AC. For example, an individual Tesla Powerwall battery can only provide 5 kW continuously, far short of the 20 kWs needed when running AC (unless multiple batteries are used). So, I needed to determine how much of my on-peak usage could be economically filled with a single home battery. Optimally, I would want a battery that could fill most of my on-peak needs; between 5.9 kW and 7.2 kW.
When you think of home battery storage, most people think of Tesla’s Powerwall. However, there are many other brands available. Within all home batteries however, there are two lithium types: Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC), and Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP), aka LiFePO4. Tesla and most other brands use NMC. NMC batteries have greater energy density. However, LFP batteries have many advantages over NMC. First, they are safer. While NMC batteries are generally safe, they have been known to catch fire when overcharged, overheated or receive physical damage. Not so with LFP batteries. LFP batteries also suffer less degradation than NMC, deliver more charge cycles (last longer), and run cooler. I concentrated my battery search on LFP batteries.
When starting my search for a home battery among the many available, I looked for the following:
- LFP technology
- Continuous output greater than 5.9 kW
- Usable capacity greater than 10 kWh
- Warrantied to at least 10 years without additional fees
- Can be charged with a generator
- Does it have an integrated inverter?
- How is the input and output monitored?
- What control does the owner/user have over battery output?
- What is the ease of installation and maintenance?
I choose the NeoVolta home battery at the end of last year. I now realize that my search should have been deeper, and there appears to be more LFP batteries available now. During my search, I found that most batteries were NMC and most didn’t have the continuous output that I desired. I choose NeoVolta because:
- LFP technology
- Continuous output of 7.6 kW
- Usable capacity of 14.4 kWh
- 10 year warranty
- Can be charged with a generator
- Compatible with either AC or DC input
- Integrated inverter. I could remove my 8 year old 6kW SolarEdge inverter that was preventing me from collecting all available power from my 7.7 kW panels.
- Modular design. My battery installers sang the praises of NeoVolta modular design. The battery case is accessible from the front and batteries, connectors, fuses, and inverter were all easily accessible. In comparison, the installers said that the Powerwall was easy to install, but if it required maintenance, the whole thing had to be removed to gain access.
- Power Optimizer Replacement. After I decided to purchase NeoVolta, but before I made the purchase, I was informed that my 21 almost new SolarEdge power optimizers were incompatible. I would have to purchase new Tigo optimizers. This wasn’t a show-stopper, but it led to my next problem.
- Power Input Monitoring.
- I failed to ask about solar panel monitoring with the removal of my SolarEdge optimizers and inverter before purchase. When I finally did ask about it, I was told that they would “try” to run a cable through the existing conduit. Unfortunately, the underground conduit run to my ground-mount array down the hill would not allow a new cable, or even allow pulling the existing wires. Either the wires were taped together, and/or the conduit was sagging, and/or filled with mud, and/or had sharp transitions.
- The Tigo reporting system uses ZigBee technology to communicate with optimizers. The receiver and cable was run alongside my house and to the top of my backyard pergola. It works, but doesn’t look good.
- Battery Output Control. NeoVolta assumes that users are imbeciles and are not allowed to adjust output; only installers may adjust battery output, at their discretion and convenience. Want to run the battery during on-peak? No problem! You want to turn it off at 12 pm and start it again at 6 am? You want to keep a reserve for backup? Well, we’ll see.
- System Monitoring. Again, NeoVolta assumes that users are imbeciles.
- If you want to monitor your entire PV system using PVOutput or any other system that requires an API Key, you are out of luck. NeoVolta’s reasoning is “Because this data allows access to a great amount of information that is not appropriate at the customer level.”
- NeoVolta allows monitoring via the SOLARMAN Smart application. Despite its misogynistic name, It provides much of the solar input and consumption data I want. Unfortunately, it only provides consumption passing through the battery; it doesn’t provide total consumption with circuits not hooked to the battery.
- I loved using PVOutput. Using the third-party Rainforest monitor, I was able to see my current and cumulative daily solar output juxtaposed against current and cumulative consumption. I am unable to use it with NeoVolta.
Comment