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Are you looking for the best battery to complement your solar panels?
A solar battery storage backup will power your home during blackouts caused by severe weather or during grid outages due to increasing demands on our aging infrastructure.
Lithium-ion batteries are an excellent choice, as they offer high efficiency and reliability. However, some homeowners still consider lead-acid batteries for their cost-effectiveness and proven track record.
In addition, a solar-plus-battery system can help you become more independent from your local utility. This climate-change duo, which includes advanced lithium-ion batteries, will help you avoid peak utility hours and rising energy costs and keep you going when it gets dark.
Combining solar panels with a reliable battery ensures a steady power supply, even when the electric grid is down.
Two things before you begin
Consider the conditions under which your battery must work and the types of batteries currently on the market.
To choose the right battery option, you must understand your home's power needs with your solar technician. (Sunrun walks you through this.)
Solar batteries and solar power systems
Solar batteries and solar systems work together to manage several conditions effectively:
Unstable Grid Energy: Many utility companies have blackouts or unforeseen power surges that zap your neighborhood of energy. (It’s becoming common.) Your solar battery should kick in and run power to your home so the lights stay on and you stay connected to the community.
Heavy Cycling: Your solar battery will charge and discharge during use. The term “charge cycle” is used to specify a battery’s expected life. The number of cycles affects how long it will last as time goes on.1 Sunrun’s warranty for its lithium-ion battery runs for ten years (one of the best!).
Irregular Full Recharging: What happens to your solar system if the battery is not fully charged consistently? You need to count on using its backup energy when you need it. Ensure your battery works for you and delivers power to your home when needed.
It's also important to consider the depth of discharge, which refers to the percentage of the battery used compared to its total capacity. A higher depth of discharge can affect the battery life. Proper energy storage management ensures your battery performs optimally.
Understanding how solar batteries work is crucial to maintaining the efficiency and longevity of your solar energy system. Efficient solar energy storage practices help maintain the reliability of your solar power setup.
Three common solar battery types
Once you decide to go solar-plus-battery, our technicians will walk you through a customized solar system that meets your needs.
Here are the most commonly used batteries:
Lead-acid batteries
A lead-acid battery has long been used in renewable energy. These lead-acid batteries could be a good option for homeowners who want to install relatively cheap off-grid solar systems.2 “Off-the-grid” is for homeowners who can’t rely on a local utility.
Flooded lead-acid batteries are well-known for their durability and cost-effectiveness among the various types of lead-acid batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries
Most homeowners want and need to stay connected to the grid. Current research from the “US Energy Storage Monitor 2017” report indicates lithium-ion batteries dominate the market.3 Although a bit more expensive, they are the most popular battery for homeowners due to their superior performance and reliability with the local grid.
Lithium-ion batteries tend to have a longer lifespan and better performance in varying temperatures than other types. One of the popular types of lithium-ion batteries is lithium iron phosphate, known for its safety and long cycle life.
In fact, most solar batteries used today are lithium-ion because they offer the best balance of cost, efficiency, and longevity. Here at Sunrun, we use lithium-ion batteries.
Flow batteries
This type of battery is the newest option for solar storage. Flow batteries don’t degrade over time so they can last much longer than other types. However, its complex chemistry often requires additional energy and cost.4 This battery could be a good option in the future but currently, lithium-ion is the clear winner.5
Understand your power needs and take control of your energy future
Again, it’s important to understand your solar battery power needs when going solar. By evaluating your energy consumption, we can determine how many solar batteries you need to ensure a reliable and efficient power supply for your home.
This comprehensive approach to solar energy storage guarantees that you have the right system to meet your energy demands, including the optimal configuration of your solar battery bank for maximum efficiency and reliability.
Our Sunrun solar technicians will customize a plan specifically for you. We’ll help you choose a battery big enough to handle your future energy needs, and we handle the process from start to finish.
Sunrun’s brightbox™ battery service for power outages
The U.S. has the highest number of power-outage minutes for a developed nation, and almost all of our cities have rising energy rates every year. But you can protect your home from blackouts and lower your utility bill with Sunrun's Brightbox™ Solar Battery Service.
Brightbox will keep your house humming when things get dark (for approximately 8 to 12 hours), providing essential backup power. It powers back up again when the sun comes out.
Sunrun knows solar. We’re on hundreds of thousands of rooftops nationwide and here to get you up and running from start to finish. With Brightbox, you’ll have reliable backup power to ensure your home remains powered during outages. Plus, integrating Brightbox with your solar panel system maximizes efficiency and savings.
By choosing Sunrun, you invest in a comprehensive solar energy system that includes solar panels and battery storage. Go solar today
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