While batteries can certainly make financial sense for some solar owners, especially with the unique SA Government subsidy, others may find that it’s better to wait until the price drops even further over the next few years.
Those customers might wish to invest in a larger solar system and in preparing their existing solar system for future battery storage.
If your solar panel system size is small in capacity, and was installed before 2015, you may need to think about upgrading it to a size kw size, like 7, 10 or 12 kW in Adelaide, so that it can charge a medium size battery on a cloudy day.
For example a 10 kW system in Beaumont, Postcode 5066, SA will generate around 15,100kWh per annum or 41kWh on average each day of the year, which would be sufficient in an average household to operate a 10 kWh battery.
Your old solar system will also need a inverter upgrade to a special battery inverter to make use of the battery.
A battery inverter converts DC electricity into AC electricity to discharge the battery, and AC energy into DC energy to charge it again.
Unfortunately, not many older inverters will work with various types of batteries, so you will most likely need to upgrade your old system to a hybrid inverter.
Depending on when your system was installed, the older solar panels did not have to go through as rigorous fire resistant testing as the newer panels.
While the government has not declared that these older systems are unsafe, nevertheless they will not allow addition and major changes to those older solar systems.
Our DQ solar and battery system design staff can help you get the right info to make an informed decision .