When it comes to choosing a solar battery for your home, one of the most important things to consider is the size.
I’m not talking about physical dimensions but the battery capacity and this can vary greatly between products so it’s vital to get it right.
What Are The Different Solar Battery Sizes In The UK?
The great thing about solar batteries is that they come in a wealth of different sizes designed to suit the needs of the homeowner and current installation.
Solar battery size is measured in kilowatts per hour and in the UK, these batteries can range, on average, between 1kWh and 13kWh for domestic installations. Of course, there are much more powerful batteries but you typically wouldn’t need to worry about these unless you were working on a large commercial project.
- For a 1-bedroom property, you would generally need a 2kWh solar battery
- For a 2-bedroom property, you would generally need a 4kWh solar battery
- For a 3-bedroom property, you would generally need an 8kWh solar battery
- For a 4-bedroom property, you would generally need a 9.5kWh solar battery
However, it is vital to take the size and power of your solar panels into consideration and choose a battery that’s around twice the size of this. For example, if you have a 4kWh solar panel system, you’d need at least an 8kWh battery. This would mean that your system could generate enough power to charge it each day. Undercharging a solar battery can lead to its premature degradation.
What Size Solar Battery Do I Need?
As I discussed above, solar batteries come in a range of sizes relating to their capacity to store energy. It’s really important to consider the factors that will influence your choice because choosing the wrong sized battery might mean that your solar system isn’t powerful enough to charge it or that it won’t have a large enough capacity to store the energy the system generates.
Factors Affecting The Best Solar Battery Size
Before making a decision, I would recommend that you consider the following:
- How much power is your solar panel system able to generate?
- What are the power demands of your home in the day?
- What are the power demands of your home at night?
- Are you looking to simply reduce your energy bills or do you want to go off-grid?
For people who are looking to go completely off-grid, having a larger capacity battery makes far more sense. Again, I have to reiterate that your solar panels need to be powerful enough to charge a large battery. If not, and you still have your heart set on being 100% self-sufficient, then it may be necessary to also upgrade your panels.
This will come with another sizable investment but over time, you will make your money back by not having to fork out to an energy provider.
