One woman has been able to spend less on her energy by using specific batteries to power the home. By making the home greener, Britons could save hundreds on their bills.
On mumsnet.com, user @TheEponymousGrub took to the forum to share her unique discovery that has meant she has made savings on her energy bills.
She said: “We recently got solar panels and they mentioned that even if you aren’t getting panels, it’s really worth getting the BATTERY installed and changing to Economy 7 supply. Then, you charge the battery overnight at a discount rate, and use it in the daytime, instead of buying power at full price.
“Our battery cost £1200. Economy 7 power is 12p/unit at night whereas “normal” supply is 24p/unit (those prices are from SSE Airtricity today) so if your bill was £100/month, you’d save half of that and recoup the cost of the battery in 24 months. After that, your power is half price.
“The lady who told me this knew I was after panels so this wasn’t especially relevant to me, but I think she just wanted to tell everyone. I can understand that and here I am sharing it here!”
A storage battery can work without solar panels, and they are used to store electricity from the grid which people can then use towards powering the rest of their home. They can then make savings by switching to Economy 7 (a time-of-use tariff).
Using a time-of-use tariff to charge one’s battery means charging it when demand for electricity and prices are low, usually during the night.
The power is drawn from the grid, so Britons won’t be able to escape the cost of electricity, even if they avoid peak times. However, they can charge for cheaper, and then use the battery to power energy appliances throughout the day.
Storage batteries help to reduce the electricity used from the grid at peak times with high prices so people can cut their energy bills.
If someone’s home is off-grid, it can help to reduce their use of fossil fuel backup generators.
@TheEponymousGrub continued: “They put in two 3.6kWh batteries in a glass cabinet that could hold four.
“We’ve only had them a few weeks. They charge fully before lunchtime and seem to meet about 80 percent of our power needs, but we have a big house (and bad habits that we are now all about addressing!)”
Experts at Which? warned that home-energy storage can cost people upwards of £2,000, so they’ll need to make sure their investment is worthwhile.
Experts recommend combining battery storage with solar panels as panels allow people to charge their batteries for free whenever the sun is up.
They can then fall back on their battery when their solar panels can’t generate enough electricity, such as on seriously cloudy days, or at night.
