Battery storage for households: How products compare in price and performance

Shuttershock

One Step Off The Grid

Shuttershock
Shuttershock

Australia is already recognised as the principal global testing ground for battery storage technologies, which is why nearly all the major battery storage developers are releasing products here to take advantage of high network charges and the highest penetration of rooftop solar PV.

But which is the best product? That depends on what the consumer wants to do with the battery – go off-grid, provide back-up in case of a blackout, act as a hedge against time of use pricing, or simply to store their own solar energy for use at night.

The team led by Finn Peacock, from Solar Quotes, has developed what we think is the most comprehensive table that compares the numerous battery storage offerings in Australia – giving details on price, capacity, depth of discharge, dimensions, and purpose, and a list of pros and cons, and an overall assessment.

“As demand for solar battery storage starts to climb I’m getting more and more questions along the lines of: ‘I’m interested in batteries. What are my options – apart from a Powerwall’?,” Peacock says.

“A comprehensive answer to that question is hard, as new storage products are launched weekly. And trying to make an apples-for-apples comparison is even harder as many specifications are not online and even prices can be hard to get.”

Peacock says the aim of his Battery Storage Comparison Table is to eventually have every battery storage product available in Australia in the table, so their specifications and prices can be easily compared.

“When compiling this table we didn’t just get the required information from the manufacturer’s websites – because a lot of it is not there. My team had to call up and ask for much of the information you see presented in the table.

“Interestingly we found that when specifications are missing from a battery manufacturer’s website, it is usually because that particular number doesn’t compare favorably with the competition.”

And the initial findings? Peacock’s team votes in favour of the LG Chem Resu Product, a 6.4kWh lithium-ion product that retails for around $7,500, and has a 3.2kWh “expansion” product available.

“LG has put out, in our humble opinion, the best combination of price and performance currently available on the marketplace,” Peacock’s team notes.

Here is a taste of the table. Overall, there are 11 batteries storage products assesses, and 16 different criteria assessed. More can be found here. 

battery-storage-table

“The table is our first effort,” says Peacock, and he says it will be updated monthly with new products as his team becomes aware of them. Presmably, this will include the new Australian offerings from Ecoult and Redflow. He’ll be updating those findings on this website.

This article was first published in One Step Off The Grid, where you can read more stories about new products and people’s experiences with solar, storage, energy efficiency and other technologies, both on and off the grid. To sign up for the weekly newsletter, click here.

Comments

4 responses to “Battery storage for households: How products compare in price and performance”

  1. Pat Avatar
    Pat

    How are you pricing the Redflow unit when it hasn’t even been launched yet?

  2. Mike Dill Avatar
    Mike Dill

    Good work from Finn Peacock, at Solar Quotes!!!

  3. Ian Avatar
    Ian

    Nice to see that all the promises of battery storage are now starting to gel into actual products. Being able to compare the offerings like this can make decision making much easier.

    Batteries have a cycle life but customers have a certain tolerance for repaying an item. Some might be willing to pay off an item over 10 years others would tolerate 3 years. If others are like me their tolerance would be 5 years. If an item cannot pay for itself by 5 years use then it’s not worth considering. Here’s a price point calculation. Payment tolerance 5 x 365 = 1825 cycles. Break-even cost would be the difference between import and export tariff roughly 20 c/KWH. Grid connected batteries should cost less than 1825x .2= $365/KWH.

    What do others think their price point would be for purchasing a battery system and why that choice?

  4. JeffJL Avatar
    JeffJL

    While it is a comparison table it does not do some of the number crunching that would be good. i.e. what is the effective cost per watt?

Get up to 3 quotes from pre-vetted solar (and battery) installers.