How does a home battery work?

During the day, when your solar panels produce more than you consume, the battery charges with that surplus. In the evening or at night, when your panels generate nothing but you are still consuming, the battery discharges and supplies that stored energy to your home.

This happens automatically, controlled by the system that monitors your consumption and generation. You do not need to switch anything manually. The battery fills up when there is a surplus and supplies when you need it.

A battery stores direct current, while your home runs on alternating current. The inverter converts that current, in both directions, so that stored energy is usable in your home. The inverter is therefore the link between your panels, your battery and your installation.

The result is a higher level of self-consumption: you use a larger share of what you generate yourself instead of feeding it into the grid. Now that the reversing meter has been phased out, this has become more important. How much your self-consumption rises depends on your consumption, generation and the capacity of the battery.

A common misconception is that a home battery automatically supplies your home with power during a power cut. That is not a given. Many systems switch off during a grid failure for safety reasons, so that no power flows back to the grid while work is being carried out on it.

If you want your battery to supply part of your home during a power cut, this requires a specific function and connection, a so called emergency power supply. Whether that is possible and worthwhile in your situation is something we assess during a site visit. We do not promise emergency power that the system does not provide as standard.