Solar Battery
Choosing the best battery in that market involves considering a few factors, such as its capacity, power, efficiency, or how much it will cost. Solar batteries are the best way to generate backup power. If you live in an area where utilities are unreliable, or if you desire to go off the grid while using renewable energy, solar batteries are worth it. If you are thinking of ways to store energy generated by your solar panels, it's best to invest in Solar Battery. If you don’t have a battery and you aren’t connected to the grid, this means you will have no backup power when your neighborhood has an outage. Therefore, batteries are crucial to keeping your system running consistently. There are a lot of batteries in the market but we recommend the following:
- Sonnen Batteries
- LG Chem solar battery
- Panasonic Evervolt
How To Compare Solar Batteries?
Capacity: It's measured in kWh and is the total amount of electricity that your solar battery will store.
End of Life Capacity: The moment where the solar battery reaches the end of its life and is no longer able to operate at its peak capacity.
Depth of Discharge (DoD): This term is used to indicate the percentage of the battery's energy that has been discharged relative to its overall capacity. Over time, for optimal battery performance, a specific maximum of DoD is recommended. This changes and is specific to the battery - the higher the DoD means that it's considered a better quality battery.
Warranty: Battery's performance will decline over time and a good warranty will guarantee good performance for years. Also, it will ensure that the battery will maintain a certain capacity.
Round-trip Efficiency: It's the difference between the amount of solar energy that is needed to charge it and the available amount. It's best to look for one that has more than 80% efficiency.
Life Capacity: As time goes on, the battery will start to lose its ability to hold a charge. All the batteries in the market lose their abilities over time but it's important to choose one that will hold that charge for longer.
Comparing the Products
Sonnen was founded in 2010 and has its headquarters in Germany. They are the largest residential battery company in Europe. Also, they deliver long-lasting and high-quality energy storage systems by issuing lithium iron phosphate batteries. Sonnen is a premium option and offers a premium price.
Solar Model: Sonnen Eco
The Sonnen Eco is a lithium iron phosphate battery. It has higher power and it's very safe. The company offers a 10 years/ 10,000 cycle warranty and a guaranteed end of life capacity of 70%. The battery comes in different sizes with varying power and usable capacities. They offer 7 models including eco5, eco 7.5, eco 10, eco 12.5, eco 15, eco17.5, eco 20 starting from 3kW power to 8Kw. Their usable capacity ranges from 5 kWh to 20 kWh.
Their battery is an AC-coupled battery. Solar panels produce DC electricity that is transformed into AC electricity by inverter. After that, electricity can be used by the appliances, and the rest will go to another inverter and be transformed into AC then stored on the battery. Even though most solar batteries require an external switch to allow off-grid operation, The Sonnen battery comes with backup power options. The listed price is around $10,000, which includes an integrated inverter and software. Depending on where you live, customers have access to financial incentives that can reduce installation costs.
| BRAND | Capacity | End of Life Capacity | Depth of Discharge | Warranty | Round trip efficiency | Coupling | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SONNEN ECO | 5-20 kWh | 70% | 100% | 10 YEARS | 86% | AC coupled | Lithium-iron Phosphate |
Vivint and LG Chem announced in May 2018 a partnership. LG Chem is a globally leading supplier of lithium-ion batteries for residential and other uses. They lead the global market when it comes to batteries for grid-scale and residential storage. Vivint Solar is a leading solar provider in the USA. They help people to power their homes with clean energy. They offer monitoring systems, maintenance services, and flexible financing options. Through their partnership, they offer LG Chem Resu batteries.
Solar Model: LG Chem RESU Battery
Their battery is safe for indoor and outdoor use. For more additional power capacity, the battery can be linked with other LG Chems batteries. All of them can also be linked with a hybrid inverter or a string and battery inverter. The battery comes with a 10-year performance warranty. It also offers a 60% capacity at the end of that period, which is less than most competitors. The battery is built without an inverter. The total cost range, including supporting equipment and installation, is between $8,000 to $13,000. Their battery is not intended for those individuals looking to go off the grid. LG Chem comes in 48V and 400V. The high voltage is a more expensive option but at a reasonable price. The 48V can be used in off-grid homes depending on the inverter. They come in different models and with different capacities.
| BRAND | Capacity | End of Life Capacity | Depth of Discharge | Warranty | Round trip efficiency | Coupling | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LG Chem RESU | 3.3 kWh- 13.1 kWh | 60% | 95% | 10 YEARS | 94.5% | AC coupled | Lithium-ion |
In 2019, Panasonic officially launched their own residential battery: The Evervolt. Their product is scalable with both AC and DC-coupled configurations. The Evervolt is specifically designed to work with Panasonic's HIT panels. Imagine having all the products under the warranty of the same company.
Solar Model: Panasonic Evervolt
The battery is available in four and six battery configurations and can be easily adaptable to any system. It comes as an AC and DC-coupled system. Also, they have 4 models: two Ac-coupled (EVAC-105 4 and EVAC-104 6) and two DC-coupled (EVDC-105 4 and EVDC-105 6). It comes with an app, where you can view the energy usage and the solar energy generated. The bigger model reaches a maximum power of 5.5 kW to 17.1 KWh and the standard model reaches 4.4 kW and 11.4 Kwh of usable capacity. In terms of performance, the battery has a round trip of 84% for AC-coupled and reaching 89% for DC-coupled. The Evervolt comes with a 10-year warranty and a 60% end of warranty capacity. The good thing about Evervolt is that it is a modular battery, meaning that if you like to increase the backup power you can add multiple batteries together. In terms of price, it reaches $15,000 and it goes up for Plus models, depending on where you live and the type of equipment you choose to install.
| BRAND | Capacity | End of Life Capacity | Warranty | Round trip efficiency | Coupling | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EVERVOLT | 5.5 kWh- 17.1 kWh | 60% | 10 YEARS | 84% | AC /DC coupled | Lithium-ion |
Would you like to learn which Solar Battery is the best compatible option for you?
You can reach us at 1-877-772-6357, sales@nuwattenergy.com, or you can contact our NuWatt solar consultants by filling the form below.
