Plug-in home battery: what can you do with it?

A plug-in home battery is a compact storage system that you connect via an ordinary socket, without an installer having to open the consumer unit for it. The idea is that you place it, plug it in and use it. Hence the term plug and play.

In practice, the power that can flow through a socket is limited. An ordinary circuit is not made to send large amounts of energy back and forth continuously. As a result, the storage and feed-in capacity of a plug-in device is generally smaller than that of a permanently installed system.

A permanently installed home battery is connected directly to your electrical installation, with its own cabling and the correct protection. As a result, it can handle a higher power output and work better with your solar panels, your inverter and heavy consumers such as a heat pump or charging station.

A plug-in solution lacks that integration. It can absorb part of your consumption, but it does not control your installation the way a fixed system does. For those who really want to increase their self-consumption now that the reversing meter has been phased out, a fixed installation offers more options to use generated energy at the right moment.

When storing electricity, safety is not a detail. A fixed installation is connected with the necessary protection, such as a separate circuit breaker and a correct earthing situation, and complies with the rules of the electrical inspection. With a plug-in device, much depends on the quality of the device and on the condition of your existing circuit.

If you want more capacity, integration with your solar panels, or support for heavy consumers, we recommend a fixed installation. During a site visit we assess what is safest and most sensible in your situation, instead of talking you into a solution that your installation cannot support.