Is a Home storage battery our 'missing link' (and do specialist advisors exist for this stuff?)

I’d like to hear from some members who already have storage batteries. They will be best placed to advise on the factors that determine the best return on investment, although with an ASHP, this might change the equation further. 

@Heatherd is probably the best placed member here to advise. According to my notes they have an air source heat pump, solar and storage. Share your insights for Bev and I’ll look for some way to return the favour @Heatherd!

I also know a certain @Transparent will be well placed to offer some advice on how to decide where to invest. As you say, the key is making choices you can be confident will remain optimal for several years...

It’s difficult to summarise such a massive subject as ‘storage’ without getting too technical.

But at least I can start by saying “Hi @Bev “

Most of my storage and Solar Panel experience has come from off-grid installation. It’s only 9-months since I had a grid-connected Storage Battery and 5-months since a grid-connected PV Inverter was added.

Although I now understand the reason for most of the regulations concerning what may or may not be allowed with a grid-connection, I still favour off-grid as the better option. At some point I’ll find time to document here the number of home devices which can be effectively operated using DC from the battery without going through an inverter at all.

The key to having grid-connected storage with export capability is when it has a universal smart control system behind it such as Kaluza’s Flex Platform or Octopus’ Kraken-Flex. But there’s only room for one such system in the UK, and this has all the excitement of watching VHS dominate the Beta-Max alternative. The better technology did not win that battle.

In the meantime I think there’s an interim period when the most cost-effective solution is to build off-grid battery storage using off-the-shelf modules in much the same way as I’m currently putting together my Energy Monitor.

Having said that, I’m saddened that the current strategies for commercially-available storage systems (V2G and Storage Batteries) are mainly evaluated on cost (& ROI). They have so much potential for increasing the use of renewables and combating Climate Change. But those factors won’t become evident until we see Time Of Use tariffs.

Hi @Bev , I’ll be following this topic with interest. There’s a lot to get my head around!

In a nutshell, I love my smart meter for import as it gives access to Time of Use tariffs. We have 2 EVs but only do short runs each day so we can fit our charging into cheap 4 hour slots overnight. I imagine the Eco7 rate may work out better if you need to charge for longer periods.

I’ve registered interest with Solar Together for their group buying scheme. Waiting to hear from the winning supplier as to what the price would be for solar and possibly battery.

Without battery I’d be looking to use any excess generation during the day to heat the water cylinder to make it less work for the heat pump. I quite like the look of the Tesla Powerwall batteries for their power cut protection but whether it’s worth the extra cost, I’m not sure. I’ve heard good things about GivEnergy batteries, though.

I’ve been looking at previous forum threads to try and find other members calling out having energy storage batteries. I’ve found it a bit difficult, is this still in the early adopter phase mi thinks……?!

@Chisi1 reached out earlier this summer (topic here) to get advice on replacing their oil powered heating and combining the electric replacement with storage. Chisi, where did your research leave you on storage? And does @Transparent’s off grid vs on grid advice back this up? 

Certainly is @nealmurphy ! Thanks for this, I’d forgotten about Solar Together, I’ll take a look at that too.

It’s difficult to summarise such a massive subject as ‘storage’ without getting too technical.

But at least I can start by saying “Hi @Bev “

Most of my storage and Solar Panel experience has come from off-grid installation. It’s only 9-months since I had a grid-connected Storage Battery and 5-months since a grid-connected PV Inverter was added.

Although I now understand the reason for most of the regulations concerning what may or may not be allowed with a grid-connection, I still favour off-grid as the better option. At some point I’ll find time to document here the number of home devices which can be effectively operated using DC from the battery without going through an inverter at all.

The key to having grid-connected storage with export capability is when it has a universal smart control system behind it such as Kaluza’s Flex Platform or Octopus’ Kraken-Flex. But there’s only room for one such system in the UK, and this has all the excitement of watching VHS dominate the Beta-Max alternative. The better technology did not win that battle.

In the meantime I think there’s an interim period when the most cost-effective solution is to build off-grid battery storage using off-the-shelf modules in much the same way as I’m currently putting together my Energy Monitor.

Having said that, I’m saddened that the current strategies for commercially-available storage systems (V2G and Storage Batteries) are mainly evaluated on cost (& ROI). They have so much potential for increasing the use of renewables and combating Climate Change. But those factors won’t become evident until we see Time Of Use tariffs.

@Transparent thank you for this. That is one cooooool light :) I’ve seen you mentioning off-grid connections in other threads, that’s really interesting and not something that would have occurred to us - we just assumed it all had to go through the Grid (I have no idea why we assumed that !)

@Bev slow progress with the V2G trial so far; the charger is a Quasar Wallbox and has recently had a firmware issue which has just been cured so CrowdCharge will be taking over the charge schedule automatically, all I do is set how many miles I need for the following day.

the V2G trial was ideal for me as I would never recover the cost of a storage battery due to my advancing years .

@Bev   wrote:

That is one cooooool light :)

Well it can also be a warm light. 

The LED colour temperature can be swung all the way from 6000°K right down to 3000°K.

Human-centric lighting is one of those subjects I really need to start a topic about. It’s been tested in schools with some very interesting outcomes in educational attainment and behaviour.

And, no - it’s not expensive to implement.

… just realised I’ve gone way off topic!

Well a very interesting meander off-topic this one, @Transparent.

Have heard our response to light goes back to cave times, when the redness of firelight would signal our bodies to sleep (sure you’ve got the much more scientific explanation for this!)

Wonder if this lighting setup could be linked to a home automation system - @ArundaleP - I remember you mentioned having lighting controlled by a HA, does this work on similar principals?

I’m intending to build my own control electronics to provide automation of colour-temperature for my home lights @Jess_OVO. These will be Arduino-based (cheap!).

The commercial ‘Smart Home’ systems are relatively expensive and don’t provide the extent of control I think is desirable, nor the ease of use.

Example:

An elderly person may wish to get out of bed at night, go to the bathroom and then return to the bedroom.

They should be able to use the normal (existing) bed-side light switch to turn on the light. The controller senses that it’s still night-time so it illuminates the room at one-third brightness and with no blue-wavelengths in the spectrum. Moreover the light fades up over a period of 2 seconds rather than an abrupt change.

As they enter the landing, they can reach for the switch at standard 1.3m above floor level. It might optionally also detect their hand movement by radio-wave, but the action still has the same effect as in the bedroom, fading up the light over 2 secs.

In the bathroom the standard pull-cord brings on the light, this time at 50% brightness.

The return trip to the bedroom reverses the switching. But even if they forget to turn off the bathroom and landing lights, a microwave detector should start to slowly dim those lights after 5-mins.

In the bedroom the bedside light switch also fades the light down, but with no delay… because we assume they’re back in bed when they use the switch!

To me, that’s human-centric lighting.

It’s not just that it has smart control, but that it does so without the user needing to know anything about how it works or use an iPad to set it up!

It can be readily installed as a retrofit into homes by individuals, community groups and Housing Associations.

It can be run from an off-grid battery and therefore continue to operate in a power-cut.

You shouldn’t need to evaluate whether to choose Alexa, Siri, Nest or Hive to achieve this basic level of intelligent light control.

And if @Jess_OVO can find me the additional time I need (preferably gift-wrapped), then this has the makings of a new topic