How does a solar battery store energy?

As you consider whether or not to purchase solar panels and a solar battery for your home, it may be worth finding out a little bit more with regards to the mechanics of a solar battery and how it works, in order to give you a better understanding of how much benefit the addition of a solar battery could provide to you.

Most people are now fairly familiar with solar panels and how they go about taking in sunlight and converting it into solar energy for use in the home, but many people are perhaps less aware of how solar batteries work. Solar batteries are much newer on the scene in terms of being used regularly in homes, but they have gained popularity in recent years and with good reason when you see the benefits they can offer.

In essence, where the solar battery offers the most advantage is in being able to store the solar energy generated by your solar panels and keep hold of it for the exact time that you need to use it in the home. This would most usually be seen in your solar battery storing the energy generated during the day by your solar panels, which can then be used in the evening when you are back at home and solar energy is no longer being generated after sunset. Without a battery, the solar energy is either used in the day or goes to the Grid.

Without going into intimate detail on all of the technical aspects of how solar batteries work - although this can be found online if you wish to read over into the specifics - essentially a solar battery works much like any other battery in terms of being powered up by energy that is put into it, then discharged at the exact time you want to use it power something.

It is worth noting, that whilst solar batteries are most commonly used to store the solar energy generated by your solar panels, they can also be used alongside time-of-use tariffs to enable you to stock up on low-cost energy to be used during other times of the day. For example, if you have Economy 7 tariff, usually offered during the early hours of the morning, you could charge your battery up at this time, and then use that energy during the day when energy from the socket tends to cost considerably more per unit.

So, we hope that this brief overview has communicated some of the key benefits of a solar battery's ability to store energy for exactly when you need it. The solar suppliers who offer such items will be able to explain this in much more detail, and also tell you a little bit more about how their particular battery and accompanying software can help you to program it to optimise the battery’s storage and usage of solar energy.