Our self sufficiency is running around 86% with solar and battery👍👍

I'm really happy to see your channel and site grow and get better and better. While I'd consider myself a solar/battery expert I'm still watching every video of yours as they're possibly the best illustrated and explain very complex concepts very easily for all to understand. Anyone who's a beginner and interested in solar I recommend to watch all your videos, they're truly the best on KZfaq and far better than my engineer brain can explain!

Thanks for having great audio and info

Excellent explanations, many thanks.

Outstanding Gary, many thanks 👍

Excellent video, thanks 👍🏻

I'm proud owner of a 56 kWh battery pack and earned £5 within these two cheap hours on July 2nd charging the ESS and the Tesla.

Thank you, Gary! This is strategic information.

Amazing work Gary!

Well explained Gary, great video!

Really enjoy your videos, keep up the good work

I loved this. Clear and concise.

Great video Gary , keep the good work going 🌞🌞

What a very helpful video. Thank you Gary.

Brilliant video and fantastic modeller. 👏

Excellent video as always Gary. Good to see how the utility has developed. 👍

I've been thinking about this it's great to have the information in such a clear format thanks

Great video. Very informative and helpful. Many thanks.

I am the West of the US and found your explanations very useful. I was amazed by the massive price changes you have. We never get to the point where they pay us to use electricity. I wish we did because we have solar and 28 kWh of batteries. We have largely eliminated our electric bill which reduced our home costs about 400 USD per month. We also got paid about 300 USD for spare energy we exported to the grid during a 4 day power emergency. All and all solar plus batteries was one of the best home improvement we ever made.

This is incredible info, well explained and easy to understand. Thanks Gary

Your videos are excellent. Keep it up!

Great information and updates, thanks…👍

Another great presentation. I have learned so much from your brilliant programmes.

Another high quality professional and informative video. Good work.

Superb mate 👌

Great work Gary. The future looks bright for solar and home battery users. 👍

Brilliant ….. the best video so far ….. thank you 👍

You are an amazing teacher Gary! Very well done.

First time I have come across your videos Gary. Very professional & informative. Thank you!!

What a great overview of solar, batteries and grid cooperation! I'll share this video to my friends, especially those who are skeptical of things like this.

Another fantastic video! Your info is great and supported by to notch charts and calculations that really hit home the reality. I'll certainly be considering patreon, just not sure about our level of spare cash at the mo. Keep up the great work!!

Thank you Gary.

Another fantastic presentation ... engage, inform, inspire. Incredibly well researched programme bringing a new dimension of vision to the subject. Thanks very much Gary 🙏🏼

Excellent. Glad to see my thinking about batteries just prior to a solar system purchase echoed, with realistic scenarios. Your videos are great, down to earth and informative. Many thanks

Great video and tool

Gary, you continue to produce amazing videos, so thanks! I love how thorough you are, how precise your delivery is, both factually and your speech. You are one of the few presenters on KZfaq who actually pronounces all 3 syllabus in battery. It grates my pedantic mind when so many call it a batry. Your webtool is amazing and I can't help think that it must have massive value for so many trying to process the difficult cost/benefit issues for their circumstances. We are going the whole hog, 2 x EVs already with 7kW solar and 20kW battery coming in September. Your advice and tools have really helped me tune what to get for our needs. Massive thanks.

Amazing information I never heard anywhere else. I will definitely change my high energy tasks to daytime!

Everything explained thoroughly and simplified for the novice such as myself...the way you presented your findings and graphs are second to none, i had no difficulty understanding,by far the best presentation ive seen to date..Thank you.

Great video Gary excellent work....in US my particular electrical rates are much lower, however plugging in my values into your tool work well. You have put a lot of work into this and it's appreciated. Very nicely done videos, clear concise and and to the point. Keep up the great work and Cheers from the US.

Hello Gary I just want to say thank for yet another great and very informative programme I have been looking for lots of answers to lots of questions for a long time about batteries and what I could add to my 13 year old 3.84kw PV array and I think you have just about covered everything I needed to know in this one so thank you very much. I don’t know if there is such a thing but if there is an award for the best and most informative presenter videos for a lay man like myself well Gary you most certainly deserve it. Well Done. Les

Another great video. When battery prices fall 30% I can see them being the default choice for all home solar buyers. For now the financials are quite marginal, for me at least.

Great 🧐 stuff,

Excellent job, Gary. Very well explained. I'm writing from Perth, Western Australia, where we have a lot of sunshine and rooftop solar, so our export rates are getting near zero cents. Even with these structural differences to your UK situation, I've found your modelling tool (Pro Version) very helpful. We're far behind you in terms of flexible retailer behaviour and VPP development, but I found your Step 4 and Step 5 very helpful in showing where we're most certainly headed. I'm about to install an 11.62 kW PV array, a 13.8 kWh battery and a 7 kW EV charger on a new home I'm building.

Great video Gary. I have a 20KWH battery at home and it’s transformed our energy usage.

Excellent video! I have upgraded my storage from 3kw to 6kw as it wasn't enough throughout the night.

Thanks!

Just about the most concise, but also comprehensive video I’ve seen on solar. I have solar panels, a Tesla battery and am also on the Flux tariff. I’ve only just switched to the tariff though so I’ve yet to see the benefits. Thanks for a great informative video that helps more people take the leap into solar 👍🏻

I have an Enphase 7KWdc - 6KWac system with 13.3KWH storage and your tool maps my actual performance almost perfectly. I can also run off grid continuously with the storage set to a minimum of 30%. I normally use the storage to offset peak use price, and keep 50% for backup. I really enjoy your videos. Thanks.

BTW, I subscribed to your channel after watching this video. Additionally I forwarded a link to a family member who is looking at solar so that she can visualize what I have been explaining . This is by far the best video for explaining how it all works that I have seen. I have retired from the solar industry but try to stay on top of it all. Yours is an extremely good presentation.

All grid operators throughout the world reserve the right to change the field goal post whenever they want. Don’t play their games go completely battery and solar and shut your main breaker off. Much money saved and far less confusion in last three years since being off grid totally. Once I hit 66 kWh of batteries storage I had no reason to stay connected to the grid as my house would run for 3 to 4 days on battery alone.

Thanks Gary, really intresting. I did try your tool and found that actually upgrading the invereter had a much bigger impact on my retrun (80% increase in annual return changing inverter size and export limitation from 2.5kW inverter output to 5kW) on my PV system than increasing the battery capacity as my inverter limits backup supply to house and grid and hence the import and export of energy. When both are upgraded in my case it did have a 20% overall increase in annual so really good to model.

Hello Gary, I was introduced to your channel by a friend just as I was thinking of getting solar, which will be installed in two weeks time, cannot wait to see how much I can save using solar and yes, I am also having a battery system. Thanks for the time yo take in producing these videos.

Estimator app was most useful. Gives me a good idea on sizing battery. Was going to move to Octopus energy anyway so used your referral.

Great content. I’m getting solar shortly but not batteries. Think your video has changed my mind.

Gary, I watched this video before installing solar about 2 weeks ago, this video helped me to make my mind about a battery, glad I did, otherwise the solar would be useless in winter and only partially useful in summer

Thanks

Great video Gary - I’ve had 5kw solar and 5kwh battery for only a couple of months, and loving it, just wish I lived in a sunnier country 😂. Indra V2H charger is coming soon that will take my battery capacity much higher utilising an old 24kwh Leaf…can’t wait…

A really excellent and brilliantly delivered video Gary, very well done. I'm a relatively long standing user of Agile and switched to Tracker for gas. Unfortunately I'm in a 3 storey Victorian end terrace which makes solar installation quite an expensive proposition and that's before I confirm the actual feasibility. I'm surprised there aren't drone services available that would do a remote roof inspection, check available roof area etc which would definitely give me harder information to work with. In the meantime I'm beginning to wonder whether a decent sized battery installation alone might prove a reasonable investment in light of the way things appear to be heading.

Brilliant Gary you da man

Thanks, Gary. a very useful summary. btw, I took part in the Loop energy reduction scheme. It did not work for me as I had bee using solar/battery install already. My usage was already close to zero in the scheme hours making the saving negligible. I'll have to take a look at other schemes for next year.

Great video - have been hearing good things about Nissan Leaf, pilot schemes for V2H and V2G, all interesting stuff.

.. just discovered Gary...so glad there is someone who explains solar issues simply without those screaming and shouting presentations, in a well spoken educated, non-demeaning manner. Keep up the good work. .. is there any way to send links for downloading the excel sheets for those who aren't capable of producing them?

Great video Gary ! Once I’ve completed my first full year of solar generation I will have a better understanding as to if I need to add extra battery storage. I have a 7.2 kWh battery at the moment and a 4.8kw solar array split south and west. The battery is full most of the time so I’m cashing in with octopus flux.£££. Keep up the good work 👍🏻

This was a really good video and your calculation model is quite accurate. I really like the Excel utility model you created to simplify these calculations, I wish I had something like that when I was figuring out my situation. One thing missing from these calculations is the cost of purchasing a battery system and in my case upgrading my current 5.7KW solar system was very costly and based on my calculation would take me about 12 to 15 years to pay it off. I was really aiming for a at the very max and 8 year return on investment. The one thing I really liked was in the event of a grid outage (blackout) you would still be ok depending on the battery current condition.

Brilliant

Well structured, consice video! I'd still be hesitant to go all out on an oversized battery system today as there may be one with the same capacity for half the price in a couple of years. Better buy what makes sense today and then add/upgrade when it makes sense again.

Hey Gary, this video provides valuable insights on why a home battery is an ideal complement to a solar installation, enhancing energy efficiency and sustainability.

Excellent video Gary, some parts are like you have read my mind... They thought I was mad in the UK to go for 60Kwh of battery storage... but I have enough solar that one good day can crank the storage all the way up to 100% so even with a string of cloudy rainy days the grid draw remains at virtually zero for days on end. So the stats are in and since go live grid import has been a mere 3% of what it was... and I mainly feel that most of that was the inertia of how the system/inverter/battery deal with the grid connection. I did also opt for 10Kw inverter capacity so that multiple high load devices running at once CAN actually use the stored power. I am not on any fancy tariffs yet but look forward to what the future holds.

Thanks Gary, nice explanation. Because PV is so cheap in the US now I'm buying so much that I can can charge my 15kWh battery bank on overcast days. I just bought 370 watt, double side panels that can charge at 461 watts. This is particularly handy on snowy days when the sun reflects on the back of the panel too. In fact I'm going to experiment with turning two of my mounts 20 degrees off center east and west to extend the day because my PV is greater than my inverters can handle. I'll be limiting the charging current because on sunny days I have more charging than I need so with the off center mounts I'll do better on overcast days and still get all my charging on sunny days. It sounds more complex than it is. We live in the a rainy area that is very overcast in the winter months often for days.

Finally got my solar and battery installation at the end of this month, after 6 month wait. Exciting times ahead.

With my soon to be 1yr old GE system (gen1 5k inverter / 6k PV and 8.2k battery) ive considered an additional battery. However, apparently whist you can add more batteries, it will only use one at a time. Max discharge is 2.6kwh. So the best option (other than adding another inverter) is a newer 9.2 GE battery, which can output at 3.6kwh max, then when empty, fall back to the smaller one. Like you, Ive been getting paid well over £100 for the last few months. Inclined to wait until / if we consider a heatpump and or aircon. Good video as ever Gary.

As always great presentation but a Part 2 is needed that focuses on the cost versus ROI and space. Large scale storage appears to make greater sense in terms of safety, best in class technology and relaibility. No software updates and headaches to consider. Its just done as part of the National Grid Energy Plan.

Interesting. It helps being a geek - I have kept good records of electricity use since before installing Solar and then a Battery. Good historical data is a very useful tool. I have a Powerwall and since the start of June to date (17/7) I've used 6 units of electricity by managing load manually. (Would have been 0 but I messed up on a couple of days!) I'm adding sensors all the time to automate some of the users so hopefully less input from me. My base load overnight (summer) is 200 w/hr and that's for running two fridge freezers. I'm already on Octopus - since the demise of Bulb, and when that wonderful day that I feel comfortable with smart meters arrive, I might go onto their cheap tariff.

Great video Gary Thanks. Could you please look at being able to adjust the battery charge and discharge levels? As you know some older battery types will really suffer from constant full charge and discharge cycles. If it's possible to add in a car battery as well, that would be fantastic! I believe that Vehicle To Load / Vehicle To Grid V2L / V2G will be a great addition to the load sharing ability of us as consumers. Not all existing EV'S can do this, but more manufacturers are now adding this feature to their cars in the future.

I am currently at 77Kwh of storage but plan to get to around 107kwh. Really pleased with my system. Not paid for any electric since my system went live at the end of April.

Fabulous video... Good luck in persuading the masses... I've cashed in my pension pot for solar, batteries and electric car and get so much enjoyment from generating our own energy. It works extremely well 👍 Ps. Go for as much batteries as you can afford... im glad I did with 15kwh worth.

Great content. Considering an ev + givenergy AIO install (no solar) with IO. All electric @ 7.5p seems super tempting and saves the solar outlay. Just need to dodge the vat!

These are great videos. However it would be good to see the price of a solar setup today and what you could expect to get back in places like Scotland where you see very little sunlight in winter, and the extra costs associated with better quality solar panels that actually work with more diodes in winter. That way we can see what time scale you will be looking at to actually get a return on your investment. It always sounds good when people say you are making money etc, but the initial outlay can mean 25 years before you actually see a single penny and thousands spent trying this out. Plus in later years something else will come along and replace the expensive solar panels like the ridgeblade.

A very informative and useful video Gary, as always. Just over a month ago we had a 15KWh battery system installed (to go with our legacy inverter/PV/FIT system) and have experienced many of the things that you have highlighted in your video already: It's a bit of a roller coaster as this was a retrofit AC invert/battery to an existing PV array with 3KWp output to the house/grid. I didn't turn on any charging of the batteries from the grid as I wanted to monitor how things went over the summer/autumn with just PV and decide after that. In the first two weeks the sun shone beautifully and the batteries were singing on full charge each day - life was great! Then the sun went away, the batteries discharged and the modest PV generated barely covered the base load of the house, let alone charging the batteries. Batteries barely above 20% charge at any time - four letter words! Suddenly, was getting batteries such a good idea after all? I decided that I couldn't wait until the autumn to gather enough data to select a smart tariff - I had to do it sooner. We dont have a heat pump (our old house isn't a natural partner to them). We don't have and don't plan to have a EV - so bang goes a few Octopus tariff options. We have a semi decent FIT based upon generation and deemed export and, this early on I don't want to meddle with the FIT at all - bang goes Flux (as far as I can tell). So this left us with Agile - the risky one .... Octopus moved us over at the start of this week - it took less than 24 hours (as we were already with them and had a SMETS2). So ... We've kept the FIT as it was. I've set the charging up so that we stuff about 9KWh into the batteries in the middle of the night and I add another 6KWh in early in the afternoon - but only up to a 75% fill of the battery. My theory is that the PV can do the rest, if the sun ever shines again. I'm not governed by one cheap rate - it's relative, across the whole day - just pick a reasonably reliable cheapish window or windows and fill my boots! The load shifting is working and buying electricity at 8 or 9p or even 12 or 13p per KWh (compared to 30p as it was) is a revelation and makes us feel that the batteries are starting to earn their keep. Today we experienced plunge pricing for the first time - it's happening again tomorrow. To be able to fill our batteries and run heavy loads and be paid to do so seems like madness - but we will "take it for the team". In the back of our minds is the concern that we may get stuffed at a high rate based upon wholesale pricing at some stage - but if that happens we can revert to the standard tariff or take it on the chin for as long as it lasts. Now, it is VERY early days and my data is very limited but, so far, it feels like we are on to a winner again. If this is the future of electricity pricing, I'm in!

Great video, well explained. I have subscribed. Our neighbour here in France has just had a virtual solar system installed. I didn't fully understand his explanation of how it works, so you have cleared that up! We have a 4kWh solar pv system installed since September 2011. We have a contract with EDF to purchase our excess energy for 20 years at 43 cents per kwh. We have received a cheque from them each year for roughly the same production, gaining between €1350-1450. The system paid for itself in less than 9 years. As we are under contract with them, we can't change anything, but when the contract is up, I'll buy a battery. The best investment we had was installing our own solar got water system. 20 evacuated tubes bought in the UK and transported over. Including travelling, hotels, ferries and installation course, the total price was less than £1500. The savings were immediate. 500 litres of fuel oil saved per year. It paid for itself in less than four years. I installed it in 2008 and it's still working fine. Two new circulation pumps, an expansion vessel and one cheap fuse in that time. I also upgraded the tank to a 500 litre purpose built solar tank about six years ago.

Hi Gary. An excellent analysis using solar and battery to support the home usage of power, the best I have seen to date. The only thing you didn't cover was the difference in sunlight across the UK. We have a 4kWh Solis solar system with 12 panels(about 4yrs). In Nov 22 had a 10kWh battery box installed from PureDrive. We are still working on the exact benefits but they are definitely being be achieved as our costs have reduced over the summer period dramatically. The winter period produces far less solar and consequently less power for the battery. There was still a benefit as being in the south east we seem to get more sunlight than other parts of the UK. I think one of the biggest misconceptions of installing solar is that it does not relate to the daily usage of power for the average household as you have highlighted in your video. The graph showing solar production does not match the household usage as you have explained and this is where battery power can help to match the production with usage with demand. We are also connected to the FIT tariff which has produced very little return for the energy we export. This was not a good idea for the government to roll out although I believe some installations do produce a reasonable return, we do not! We are currently looking at future options. Do we increase our solar panels to 8kWh as the daily range of energy production would increase particularly on cloudy days when there are fewer or intermittent periods of solar production. Or more battery power and increase to 15kWh or even 20kWh to hold onto as much energy as possible for use in the areas outside solar production times. I did like the Octopus options and will look at them again as the last time I made contact with Octopus they suggested we stay with our current supplier SO Energy. We are interested in further optimizing our setup and would like to move away from the FIT tariff although not sure of the best way to move away, maybe Octopus would have the answer. I do record our usage monthly so if you are interested I am willing to share this information. It does get complicated as to how much energy is going from point to point as the APPs we use are limited on what they display (PureDrive APPs). An example of this is that we do not how much charge went into the battery on a particular day all we can discover is the battery state of charge on a day/week/month/year. Interesting times. Really appreciate your video thank you.

Interesting video. We have a 9Kw East/West solar system and a couple of Tesla Powerwalls. Being somewhat high users of electricity, we’re saving around £3k a year - not to mention how much diesel we’re saving running 2 EV’s. My only wish would be to have some South facing panels set at a steep angle for the low sun in Winter, as production in the winter months with an East/West system is woeful. We still save by charging on cheap rate though. This is definitely the way forward - I just wish it weren’t so expensive to get into, so those with constrained budgets could benefit as we do.

You should mention up front if we add batteries we also need to change the inverter to one that csn handle battery storage. That adds to the cost.

Great video Gary. But having learned the maximum export limit in one of your early videos, I thought people should know that having a 12kWh battery may not always be beneficial if they want to export it to the grid within a short period of time, as they may be restricted to exporting above 3.68 or 5 kW default limit.

Wow so insightful. Thank you

Just a small comment. In your "Time of Use Tariffs" examples, you force the battery to charge to 100% at the beginning of the reduced rate period and then immediately take over the house load until fully discharged. Shouldn't the house load be handled by the grid until the end of the 4 hour reduced rate period, at which time the battery takes over? This will make the battery last longer during the day. Granted, the amount of drain on the battery isn't that much overnight, but still, every minute you can use the battery rather than the grid during times when the grid price is up is more money in your pocket. So, use the grid to charge the battery and run the house during the four hour reduced rate period, and then automatically switch to powering the house with the battery when the reduced rate period ends. I am not sure if your app allows you to set up that sort of schedule.

Excellent, thanks Gary for all your work and explanation. We've had a 100% South facing solar panels installation and am now using Octopus Flux but, as our usage profile basically resembles your diagram, I wonder if they should have offered 50/50 South & West. If we were to add more panels I suspect 66/34 could be a good route. Good installers would confirm the customer's present and future usage profiles as part of their proposed design solution, I wonder how many do?

Good video, there is only one problem here in Sunny California. Our solar use system are tiered programs which benefit the power companies and not the consumer.

Thank you Gary, another very useful and well presented video… ✅ We are now set on Flux, following your recommendation, not yet completed a full month but even in the recent dull and cloudy period it is still working for us… 👍🏻 Our system includes 2x5kW Growatt batteries, which for some reason I am not yet aware of is the manufacturer imposed limit (not that we necessarily need more!). I am seriously considering an EV now (pre-loved as I cannot justify or afford new!), which could work out well - would you recommend a different 🐙 tariff? Anyway, many thanks for all your work on our behalf, it is much appreciated… 👍🏻

Very nicely illustrated scenarios. I am in the US and we have another method called Net Metering. It is not in all states so many of the IS folks will benefit from your presentation. Net metering is…Anything you generate is saved for you to use later with the best case scenario of zero costs for electric use. Just thought I’d mention it. It is very interesting how it works in the UK.

Great video Gary I can really see the potential benefits of Flux but I don't think it will fit our circumstances. We have a SE array which biases solar generation to the morning. That's great for filling our battery, but not so great for the 4-7pm Flux peak period Our use is highest in the afternoon and evening, in addition to the normal household appliances, my wife's PHEV often needs charging for evening journeys. This means not much or nothing spare to export What we need is some more panels on the SW facing garage and my wife to get a BEV...Ah well, I can dream

Some great ideas and advice there Gary. I've recently had installed 3.2 Kw solar, couldn't fit anymore panels sadly, with 3.2 Kw battery and quickly realised I needed another battery, now ordered and being fitted soon, as I was exporting quite a lot once battery was full. Although my system can handle 3 batteries not sure if I would be able to charge them all up. Ok in the summer but winter may be different. Could charge up on the cheap rate I suppose. Something I didn't suss until now was if I boiled a kettle for a cup of tea the grid would kick in even though I had juice in the battery, probably exceeding the battery discharge level? however by switching to the microwave, 800Watts this didn't happen. Unless you have already covered this your thoughts on Lithium batteries and longevity ie charge/discharge cycles would be appreciated, looking at sodium based batteries now.

Have you considered producing a teaching pack to use in schools? This is exactly the type of resources we need in education because our students have very little knowledge and understanding of the way the energy is used and generated especially with the push on green energy. The Department of Education might be worth considering as long as the resources are suitable for each key stage.

Thanks Gary. You channel is very informative. What about a electric storage heaters to use the excess solar energy? Is that a good idea?

Another fantastic video. I have 2x 3.2kWh batteries and have been thinking about adding another one. I am using Home Assistant to “balance” the battery charging. It looks at my Solcast forecast and sets the battery charge level so I don’t over charge from the grid at night when the sun will charge it. This is more for the winter when otherwise the battery wouldn’t charge fully. In the summer the battery will last 90% of the day, I would say. Home Assistant also sets when the battery will kick in after midnight. On good days, it will be 1am. That means it has enough charge left around 6am to cover the house as the sun gets better. I only made £8 on the saving session as the battery covers the peak time so my historic saving was tough as historically most days, I don’t use the grid 😀. Lastly, plunge pricing is good again tomorrow. I will charge the battery from 10am. Hopefully it won’t be too sunny prior to that or the battery won’t need much 😀

Great video, thanks. When prices for electricity go negative on a sunny day, I want the solar panels to stop feeding the grid but keep feeding the batteries from the grid. At this moment I'm forced to turn off the solar inverter manually. So I'm looking for an automatic switch that looks at the spot market for electricity and switches off the solar inverter when prices go negative.

Nice presentation Garry, Ive had my Solar installation for about 2 weeks now, It comprises of a 5.1PkW solar pv array and a 6.5 kWh battery. Most days so far there is enough solar energy for normal domestic use and to charge the battery and have enough to last over night, but I end up exporting a few kW excess through the late afternoon. Today we had a price plunge on Octopus Agile tariff( 15 June ) ,about 2 hours where is was around -2 p so I forced charged the battery, and charged my EV and had most kitchen appliances on at the same time (normally spaced out to maximise the solar without import). Tomorrow ( 16 June) we have about 10 hours below zero and peaking at about -9p a unit mid afternoon so having a smart export of say 15p I could continuously charge (at -x pence) and discharge the battery ( at 15p) if I wished to make some money but that is at odds with the price plunge ideology. Now Ive had the system for a very short while would I change anything ? , well I will wait a while but I suspect I may get another identical 6.5kWh battery to take advantage of both cheap overnight and decent export rates in the winter.

What an excellent episode, Gary. One comment: the EV battery will not become part of the grid. Discharging and fast charging will ruin the car battery and also reduce the resale value of the EV. The car seller will not give any guarantees for that kind of usage. That must already be an issue when you buy any second-hand EV car, i.e., how much has the battery been mistreated by 'fast charging,' which will shorten the battery life - and thus the vehicle itself-just my 2c. Cheers.

Thanks, a well produced video and good information for those new to or just embarking on their solar journey. I only have a 7.5Kwh battery, but for about 8 months of the year it is more than enough and I mop up surplus generation with my EV, I do not have an export agreement but do give away about 300Kwh per year, about £12 on SEG. For the Winter months, there are days when I cannot fill the battery and have to import, I do load shift and charge the battery at night, I did consider adding more battery, but it just does not make financial sense for me.More battery will work for other users, each case is different.

I have a solar system that overall provides more power than I use. My utility does not offer variable pricing by time of day or any other factor. I have simple net metering billing. There is no point to my load shifting, at least not an economic reason. Whatever I generate, minus my consumption, the difference is what I pay or collect. Storing power, or not, does not impact my overall bill. I do have batteries (2 Tesla Powerwall Plus). I keep 70% in reserve, leaving 30% available when the sun is down. That means if the power goes out I have 70-100% of the stored power to carry me through. I am seriously considering changing the limit to 100%, so it ONLY operates during a power outage. On a simple dollars and sense basis it doesn't impact me either way, because my net metering is at a flat rate at all hours.