Battery Backup & Storage

Tired of losing power during the storms??

We have the latest cutting edge, customized battery backup & storage solutions designed for your specific needs.  CED offers advanced solutions for battery backup power when the electric grid goes down.  For over 20 years Clean Energy Design has been providing our customers with energy storage solutions for both grid-tied and off-grid solar energy systems.  We pride ourselves in evaluating available products and determining the safest, most reliable solutions for our clients.

When evaluating your energy storage options, the most important things to consider are how much power can it provide and how long the solar battery will last.  There are many different types of solar batteries with different attributes to each type.  The most important product specifications to use during your evaluation are the battery’s capacity & power ratings, depth of discharge (DoD), round-trip efficiency, warranty, and manufacturer.

While capacity or battery size is important, it doesn’t tell you how much electricity a battery can provide at a given moment.  To get the full picture, you also need to consider the battery’s power rating and electric load.  With respect to solar batteries, a power rating is the amount of electricity that a battery can deliver at one time.  It is measured in kilowatts (kW).

A battery with a high capacity and a low power rating would deliver a low amount of electricity (enough to run a few crucial appliances) for a long time.  A battery with low capacity and a high power rating could run your entire home, but only for a few hours.

Battery Lifespan & Warranty

For most uses of home energy storage, your battery will “cycle” (charge and drain) daily. The battery’s ability to hold a charge will gradually decrease the more you use it, similar to your cell phone.

Your solar battery will have a warranty that guarantees a certain number of cycles and/or years of useful life. Because battery performance naturally degrades over time, most manufacturers will also guarantee that the battery keeps a certain amount of its capacity over the course of the warranty. Therefore, the simple answer to the question “how long will my solar battery last?” is that it depends on the brand of battery you buy and and how much capacity it will lose over time.  The general range for a solar batteries useful lifespan is between 5 and 15 years.  However, it is expected that solar battery lifespans will increase as the market for energy storage solutions grows.  Proper maintenance can have a significant effect on your solar batteries lifespan. Solar batteries are significantly impacted by temperature, so protecting your battery from freezing or sweltering temperatures can increase its useful life. When a PV battery drops below 30° F, it will require more voltage to reach maximum charge; when that same battery rises above the 90° F threshold, it will become overheated and require a reduction in charge. To solve this problem, many leading battery manufacturers, provide temperature moderation as a feature.

How Long Can a Solar Battery Power Your Home

In many cases, a fully charged battery can run your home overnight when your solar panels are not producing energy.  In order for us to make a more accurate calculation, you will need to provide us with details on specific electric loads that are considered the most critical for your household when the grid goes down.  The capacity and power rating for your solar battery or batteries combined with your critical electric loads estimate will enable us to calculate how many days of autonomy you can expect.  Many folks don’t understand that battery backup systems are generally designed to provide power for necessary loads and will not power your entire home if you loose grid power.

Assuming that the average US household uses roughly 30 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy per day and a typical solar battery can deliver approximately 10 kWh of capacity, three solar batteries could run your home for an entire day with nothing but battery support.

In reality, it is more complicated than that. You will also be generating power with your solar panel system during the day which will offer strong power for some 6-7 hours of the day during peak sunlight hours. On the other end, most batteries cannot run at maximum capacity and generally peak at a 90% DOD.  As a result, your 10 kWh battery likely has a useful capacity of 9 kWh.

Manufacturer

Many different types of organizations are developing and manufacturing solar battery products, from automotive companies to tech startups.

Battery Options for Solar

Batteries used in home energy storage typically are made with one of three chemical compositions: lead acid, lithium ion, and saltwater. In most cases, lithium ion batteries are the safest and best option for a solar panel system, though other battery types can be more affordable.  There are many options for solar energy storage systems but we have listed below what we feel are the best.

Due in part to the growing interest in other battery storage solutions such as electric vehicles, the market has been evolving with new products.  We evaluate to make the best equal comparison by analyzing the performance, lifetime value and manufacturers warranties.  Please call us for a free assessment of which solar energy storage & management solution would be best suited for your specific needs.