{"id":51988,"date":"2021-08-16T12:25:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T01:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=51988"},"modified":"2024-10-01T14:45:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T05:15:40","slug":"tou-solar-batteries-savings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/","title":{"rendered":"How Time Of Use Tariffs Can Boost Your Solar Battery Savings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-53033 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou-battery.jpg\" alt=\"Solar batteries and time-of-use electricity tariffs\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou-battery.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou-battery-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou-battery-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou-battery-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p>I&#8217;ve been given a mission.\u00a0 It&#8217;s to determine how much money a home can save using a battery with a time-of-use tariff in every Australian capital.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>This isn&#8217;t easy to do. <!--more--><\/p>\r\n<p>It&#8217;s not merely a matter of gathering information and crunching numbers.\u00a0 The hard part is presenting the results in a way that doesn&#8217;t make battery optimists cry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"attachment_52955\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52955\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52955\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_cry.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_cry.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_cry-300x151.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52955\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Who did this to you?\u00a0 Who hurt you so badly you feel the need to tell horrible lies about beautiful batteries?&#8221;<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p>It&#8217;s very easy to tell people the maximum possible savings from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/\">solar battery<\/a>.\u00a0 The hard part is breaking the news to them they&#8217;ll never see that much benefit in real life.\u00a0 It can be tough for those who have fallen in love with the fantasy of an <em>ideal<\/em> battery.\u00a0 They don&#8217;t want to listen when you try to tell them that reality will sink its claws into their perfect numbers and drag them down to a far lower level.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>But I feel obligated to let them know what they&#8217;re getting into.\u00a0 I used to be regularly whacked on the knuckles by a nun for fibbing, so I&#8217;m very honesty orientated.\u00a0 But I still feel terrible for tearing down people&#8217;s dreams.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"attachment_52816\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52816\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52816\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_nun.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_nun.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_nun-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52816\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Why she felt the need to whack my knuckles every time she told a fib, I&#8217;ll never know.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p>Fortunately, I have a solution.\u00a0 It&#8217;s called giving up.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>I will give the maximum possible savings a home battery can provide in each capital and if optimists want to use those figures, I won&#8217;t get in their way.\u00a0 But, in the interests of realism and keeping my nun phobia at bay, I&#8217;ll also include information on why you&#8217;re unlikely to see those savings in real life.<\/p>\r\n<p>I&#8217;ll begin by briefly covering the different tariffs and then determine the maximum possible savings.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll start with flat tariffs and then show the greater benefits from time-of-use tariffs.<\/p>\r\n<h2>Electricity Tariff Terminology<\/h2>\r\n<p>Here &#8212; in a nutshell &#8212; are the four main ways people pay for electricity:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Flat tariff:<\/strong>\u00a0 Same charge for every kilowatt-hour of grid electricity.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Time-of-use tariff:<\/strong>\u00a0 Charge per kilowatt-hour depends on time used.\u00a0 Can be based on seasons or time of day, but only time of day ones make sense for home batteries<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#en-51988-1' id='enref-51988-1' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(51988)'>1<\/a><\/sup>.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Demand Tariff:<\/strong>\u00a0 Low per kilowatt-hour charge but has a demand charge each month based on the maximum amount of power used during peak periods.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Wholesale Price Exposure:<\/strong>\u00a0 This is an electricity plan where &#8212; in addition to other charges &#8212; the household pays the wholesale price for grid electricity when it&#8217;s used.\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>I&#8217;m only going to consider flat and time-of-use tariffs.\u00a0 The demand tariffs I&#8217;ve looked at so far are worse for solar battery households than time-of-use ones and can even be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/demand-tariff-battery\/\">worse than a flat tariff<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>Electricity plans that expose households to wholesale electricity prices have a lot of potential to lower bills, but to maximize the benefit requires a solar battery system smart enough to buy and sell on its own initiative and they&#8217;re not currently available.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"attachment_52357\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52357\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52357\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/war_peanut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"496\" height=\"657\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/war_peanut.jpg 496w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/war_peanut-226x300.jpg 226w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52357\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">During the war, Mr Peanut was shelled mercilessly.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<h2>Battery Assumptions<\/h2>\r\n<p>To work out the maximum possible savings from a home battery, I&#8217;ll have to decide its characteristics.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll make the following simple assumptions for my example battery:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>10 kilowatt-hours of usable battery storage.<\/li>\r\n<li>Round trip efficiency of 90%.<\/li>\r\n<li>It&#8217;s fully charged with solar electricity every day.<\/li>\r\n<li>The household&#8217;s electricity consumption is high enough to be fully discharged during an evening Peak period, if there is one, every night.\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>For any remotely normal home, the last two assumptions are about as realistic as a cheese submarine, but for now, I&#8217;ll ignore that.<\/p>\r\n<h2>Flat Tariffs By Capital City<\/h2>\r\n<p>To work out the maximum possible battery savings I&#8217;ll need to know the cost of grid electricity and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/systems\/feed-in-tariffs\/\">solar feed-in tariff<\/a>.\u00a0 To get these figures for flat tariffs<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#en-51988-2' id='enref-51988-2' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(51988)'>2<\/a><\/sup> I can use the SolarQuotes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/energy\/\">electricity plan comparison<\/a> tool and choose what looks like the best plan from a large retailer for a home with a solar system of 10 kilowatts or less.\u00a0 Rounded to the nearest cent, the per kilowatt-hour amounts are:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Adelaide:\u00a0 34 cents, Feed-in 16 cents<\/li>\r\n<li>Brisbane:\u00a0 22 cents, Feed-in 15 cents<\/li>\r\n<li>Canberra:\u00a0 20 cents, Feed-in 10 cents<\/li>\r\n<li>Darwin:\u00a0 27 cents, Feed-in 9 cents<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#en-51988-3' id='enref-51988-3' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(51988)'>3<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\r\n<li>Hobart: 25 cents, Feed-in 10 cents<\/li>\r\n<li>Melbourne:\u00a0 18 cents, Feed-in 10 cents<\/li>\r\n<li>Perth:\u00a0 29 cents, Feed-in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wa-feed-in-tariff-slashed\/\">4 cents<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li>Sydney:\u00a0 26 cents, Feed-in 17 cents<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div id=\"attachment_52985\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52985\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52985\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_denki_bucket.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_denki_bucket.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_denki_bucket-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_denki_bucket-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52985\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">If you even slightly resemble this picture, you may be a battery optimist.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<h2>Determining Flat Tariff Savings<\/h2>\r\n<p>Using the above information for each capital it&#8217;s easy to determine the maximum possible savings using my example solar battery.\u00a0 All I have to do is:<\/p>\r\n<ol>\r\n<li>Determine how much the household saves in grid electricity by discharging the battery each night.<\/li>\r\n<li>Determine how much charging the battery with solar energy effectively costs the household every day.<\/li>\r\n<li>Subtract the cost from the savings to get the final result.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<p>Starting with Adelaide and following the three steps, I get:<\/p>\r\n<ol>\r\n<li>Using 10 kilowatt-hours of battery energy at night instead of grid electricity will save $3.40<\/li>\r\n<li>With 90% efficiency you will need 11.1 kilowatt-hours to charge the battery, which costs $1.78 in forgone solar feed-in tariff.<\/li>\r\n<li>Subtracting the cost from the savings gives $1.62<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<p>Over a year this comes to $590.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>Performing the same calculation for all capital cities gives:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Adelaide:\u00a0 $590<\/li>\r\n<li>Brisbane:\u00a0 $195<\/li>\r\n<li>Canberra:\u00a0 $325<\/li>\r\n<li>Darwin:\u00a0 $620<\/li>\r\n<li>Hobart:\u00a0 $505<\/li>\r\n<li>Melbourne:\u00a0 $250<\/li>\r\n<li>Perth:\u00a0 $895<\/li>\r\n<li>Sydney:\u00a0 $260<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>As you can see, Perth comes out well ahead, thanks to their low feed-in tariff. Conversely, the least profitable place for a home battery on a flat tariff turns out to be Brisbane thanks to a low electricity price and high feed-in tariff.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<h2>Time-Of-Use Tariffs By Capital City<\/h2>\r\n<p>Determining the best time-of-use tariffs in each capital is more difficult, as the SolarQuotes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/energy\/\">retailer comparison page<\/a> can&#8217;t handle them <em>yet<\/em>.\u00a0 For WA it was easy, since there&#8217;s only one available for Perth homes.\u00a0 For everywhere else I looked for the best available for a solar household.\u00a0 There may be better time-of-use plans than those I found, but the ones I used should be among the best.\u00a0 <br \/><br \/>Here&#8217;s the cost of a kilowatt-hour of electricity in cents for the different periods, plus the solar feed-in tariff:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Adelaide:\u00a0 Peak 41c, Shoulder 25c, Off-peak 20c, Feed-in 13c<\/li>\r\n<li>Brisbane:\u00a0 Peak 30c,\u00a0 Shoulder 22c,\u00a0 Off-peak 18c,\u00a0 Feed-in 12c<\/li>\r\n<li>Canberra:\u00a0 Peak 26c, Off-peak 22c, Feed-in 12c<\/li>\r\n<li>Darwin:\u00a0 Peak 31c, Off-peak 24c, Feed-in 9c<\/li>\r\n<li>Hobart:\u00a0 Peak 30c, Off-peak 14c, Feed-in 7c<\/li>\r\n<li>Melbourne:\u00a0 Peak 25c, Off-peak 18c, Feed-in 12c<\/li>\r\n<li>Perth:\u00a0 Peak 56c, Shoulder 29c, Off-peak 15c, Feed-in 4c<\/li>\r\n<li>Sydney: Peak 53c, Shoulder 22c, Off-peak 14c, Feed-in 17c<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>A majority of the time-of-use plans have three different rates &#8212; Peak, Shoulder, and Off-peak &#8212; while a few only have Peak and Off-peak with no in-between Shoulder rate.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><em><strong>Update August 17th 2021: <\/strong><\/em><em>Hobart was originally missing from the above list because I couldn&#8217;t find a daily time-of-use tariff there, but AJ in the comments pointed one from Aurora out to me.\u00a0 This is fortunate because I had only found seasonal time-of-use tariffs and it requires a huge home battery to take advantage of them.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"attachment_52907\" style=\"width: 799px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52907\" class=\"wp-image-52907 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_big_bat_fire.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"789\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_big_bat_fire.jpg 789w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_big_bat_fire-300x163.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_big_bat_fire-768x419.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 789px) 100vw, 789px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52907\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You&#8217;ll need to grab one of these if you want a home battery big enough to make use of a seasonal time-of-use tariff.\u00a0 Just take care to avoid any on fire, even if they come with a substantial discount.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<h2>Best Possible Time-Of-Use Savings<\/h2>\r\n<p>Determining the maximum possible savings from a time-of-use tariff is a little more difficult than with flat tariffs.\u00a0 This is because the Peak rate isn&#8217;t paid on weekends<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#en-51988-4' id='enref-51988-4' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(51988)'>4<\/a><\/sup>. When there is a Peak period I&#8217;ll assume the solar battery will be completely discharged within it.\u00a0 On days without a peak period, I&#8217;ll assume the battery is fully discharged during the next most expensive period.\u00a0 This will be either a Shoulder or Off-peak rate depending on the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>Calculating the maximum possible savings using my example battery gives:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Adelaide:\u00a0 $805<\/li>\r\n<li>Brisbane:\u00a0 $525<\/li>\r\n<li>Canberra:\u00a0 $420<\/li>\r\n<li>Darwin:\u00a0 $695<\/li>\r\n<li>Hobart:\u00a0 $665<\/li>\r\n<li>Melbourne:\u00a0 $355<\/li>\r\n<li>Perth:\u00a0 $1,600<\/li>\r\n<li>Sydney:\u00a0 $1,045<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>As you can see, Perth is way out ahead with a maximum battery saving of $1,600.\u00a0 This is due to having the highest peak and shoulder rates in the country and the lowest feed-in tariff.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>Sydney is in second place with $1,045.\u00a0 But savings there were calculated slightly differently from other capitals.\u00a0 Because the Off-peak rate was lower than the solar feed-in tariff, I assumed the battery was fully charged with Off-peak grid electricity each day.\u00a0 If it&#8217;s instead charged with solar electricity, the annual savings will be $120 less and come to $925.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>In last place is Melbourne thanks to its low Peak rate, while Canberra is second-worst.<\/p>\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-53100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_flat_comparison-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1108\" height=\"506\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_flat_comparison-1.png 1108w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_flat_comparison-1-300x137.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_flat_comparison-1-1024x468.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_flat_comparison-1-768x351.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1108px) 100vw, 1108px\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<h2>Optimists Can Stop Reading Now<\/h2>\r\n<p>If all you want to know is the maximum possible savings from a home battery you can stop reading now.\u00a0 I will mention a few reasons why a home battery may not actually save that much money in real life, but if you&#8217;re not interested in reading things that aren&#8217;t 100% optimistic, there&#8217;s no reason to continue.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>You can instead admire the battery posters on your walls, hug your pillow with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/reviews\/lg-chem-review.html\">LG Chem RESU<\/a> cover, and perhaps practice kissing using your framed photograph of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/reviews\/tesla-powerwall-2-review.html\">Tesla Powerwall 2<\/a> signed by Elon Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"attachment_52950\" style=\"width: 741px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52950\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52950\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_otaku_disagree.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"731\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_otaku_disagree.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_otaku_disagree-300x144.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 731px) 100vw, 731px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52950\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Of course, even battery optimists can disagree on what they should be optimistic about.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<h2>5 Reasons Why You Won&#8217;t Get Maximum Savings Out Of A Battery<\/h2>\r\n<p>Are the home battery optimists gone?\u00a0 If so, I&#8217;ll provide some information they may not want to know.\u00a0 Here are five reasons why the maximum possible savings aren&#8217;t something you&#8217;ll get out of a battery in real life:<\/p>\r\n<ol>\r\n<li>There won&#8217;t always be enough surplus solar energy to fully charge a battery during the day.<\/li>\r\n<li>Normal households often won&#8217;t use all the stored energy during peak periods.<\/li>\r\n<li>Home batteries, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/redflows-zinc-bromide-zcell-battery-may-have-the-edge-over-lithium-ion\/\">one exception<\/a>, deteriorate in capacity with use.<\/li>\r\n<li>To determine savings you should compare how much you would pay on the best possible electricity plan without a solar battery and the best possible electricity plan with a battery.\u00a0 Just looking at what you would pay if you were on the best battery plan without a battery is misleading.\u00a0 This applies to the maximum possible savings I give in this article.<\/li>\r\n<li>In real life, solar batteries are unlikely to work as perfectly as they do in hypothetical examples. As a result, you have to expect some additional losses, inefficiencies, and downtime.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<p>Just how much these problems will eat into savings is impossible to say, as they will vary between locations and from case to case.\u00a0 But it will come to a lot.\u00a0 Below I&#8217;ll give examples of two problems &#8212; fully charging with solar panels and fully discharging during Peak periods.<\/p>\r\n<h2>Full Battery Charging In Winter Is Difficult<\/h2>\r\n<p>Even if a home has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/systems\/10kw\/\">10 kilowatt solar system<\/a>, it often won&#8217;t be possible to fully charge a 10 kilowatt-hour battery in the middle of winter. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>The graph below is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-analytics-fronius-smart-meter\/\">Solar Analytics<\/a> information for an Adelaide home with 10.56 kilowatts of solar and an annual electricity consumption of around 6,000 kilowatt-hours, average for a four-person SA household.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>If I assume the home self-consumes an average of 4 kilowatt-hours of solar energy during the day &#8212; which is a low amount &#8212; and then put a red arrow over every day in July the home doesn&#8217;t generate enough surplus solar energy to fully charge a home battery with 10 kilowatt-hours of usable storage, I get the following:<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"attachment_52972\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52972\" class=\"wp-image-52972 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_charge_july.jpg\" alt=\"10kW solar system and 10kWh battery - Adelaide\" width=\"1200\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_charge_july.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_charge_july-300x70.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_charge_july-1024x237.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_charge_july-768x178.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52972\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">If this graph looks tiny to you because you&#8217;re on your phone, trust me, those red spots are bad.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p>In July, it shows that on 5 out of 31 days &#8212; about 16% of the days &#8212; the solar system did not generate enough surplus energy to fully charge a battery with 10 kilowatt-hours of usable storage and 90% round trip efficiency.\u00a0 So even with 10.56 kilowatts of rooftop solar, this household won&#8217;t always be able to fully charge a battery that size with solar energy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>If the household instead had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/systems\/6kw\/\">6.6 kilowatts of rooftop solar<\/a> the situation would be much worse, with a shortfall on 11 out of 31 days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>The problem is worst in winter but can occur any time of the year solar energy generation is low and\/or daytime electricity consumption is high. \u00a0You can charge batteries with off-peak electricity instead of solar power, but in most cases this is more expensive.\u00a0 Of the electricity plans I used, only Sydney had a solar feed-in tariff is higher than the Off-peak electricity rate.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<h2>Low Electricity Consumption In Peak Periods<\/h2>\r\n<p>Most households usually use considerably less than 10 kilowatt-hours during peak periods.\u00a0 The typical amount varies between households and electricity plans, but is often under 7 kilowatt-hours.\u00a0 This reduces the maximum savings possible from a battery with 10 kilowatt-hours of usable storage because discharging outside of a peak period or not discharging at all reduces potential savings.<\/p>\r\n<p>While low peak period consumption will sometimes reduce the problem of being unable to fully charge the battery with solar power, the two problems often occur at different times of year.\u00a0 Low household electricity consumption is most common in spring and autumn when little heating or cooling is required, while solar generation is worst in winter<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#en-51988-5' id='enref-51988-5' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(51988)'>5<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n<p>The graph below shows the electricity consumption in April of an Adelaide household with annual electricity consumption of around 6,000 kilowatt-hours.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>If we assume half the household&#8217;s electricity consumption occurs during the peak period on days there is one, then the home will only use all the energy in a battery with 10 kilowatt-hours of usable storage on days when electricity consumption is 20 kilowatt-hours or more.\u00a0 I have marked all the days in April this occurs with a red arrow:<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"attachment_52948\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52948\" class=\"wp-image-52948 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_consumption.jpg\" alt=\"Electricity consumption graph - Adelaide\" width=\"1200\" height=\"249\" data-pin-description=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_consumption.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_consumption-300x62.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_consumption-1024x212.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_low_consumption-768x159.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52948\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">If it&#8217;s hard to see this graph because you&#8217;re on your phone, this time the red dot is good.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p>While the 10.56 kilowatt solar system usually produces plenty of surplus energy in April, there is only a single day when peak period energy consumption will be high enough to make full use of 10 kilowatt-hours of usable storage.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<h2>Smaller Solar Batteries May Not Help<\/h2>\r\n<p>The smaller a home battery is, the easier it will be to fully charge with solar and fully discharge during peak periods.\u00a0 But this isn&#8217;t necessarily a cost-effective solution because smaller battery systems normally cost more per kilowatt-hour of usable storage.\u00a0 Also, a larger battery used at lower capacity will tend to deteriorate less rapidly.\u00a0 This makes it difficult to improve the economics of batteries by using one with a lower capacity.<\/p>\r\n<h2>VPPs Can Provide An Advantage<\/h2>\r\n<p>Some good news about batteries is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/virtual-power-plants\/\">Virtual Power Plants<\/a> &#8212; VPPs for short &#8212; can improve their payback.\u00a0 But they also come with drawbacks, as every VPP involves sacrificing at least some control over the battery.\u00a0 Ideally, a VPP can provide substantial additional income.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>Less ideally, they can potentially cause more wear and tear on your battery than the benefits are worth.\u00a0 While VPPs have plenty of potential, they also carry risk.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>You can check what&#8217;s available in your area with our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/vpp-comparison\/\">VPP Comparison Table<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"attachment_52998\" style=\"width: 910px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52998\" class=\"wp-image-52998 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_dangerously_optimistic.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"505\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_dangerously_optimistic.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_dangerously_optimistic-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_dangerously_optimistic-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52998\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wait a minute&#8230; Why does this battery optimist have a gun on his wall?<\/p><\/div>\r\n<h2>A Simplistic Risk Assessment<\/h2>\r\n<p>I could do a lot of research and write around 40,000 words delving into details of determining exactly how much batteries will or won&#8217;t save you, but that sounds like hard work.\u00a0 Instead, I&#8217;m going to present one simple table that puts all the onus on you.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>The table shows savings possible under four different conditions:<br \/><br \/><strong>Maximum:<\/strong>\u00a0 This is the maximum possible savings the example battery that has 10 kilowatt-hours of usable storage and a 90% round trip efficiency can give.\u00a0 If you are foolishly optimistic or believe the benefits of a VPP will make up for any losses, feel free to use the savings in this column.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Optimistic &#8212; 80% Max:\u00a0<\/strong> This is for people who like to look on the sunny side of things but aren&#8217;t so optimistic they don&#8217;t bother to buckle their seat belts.\u00a0 The savings here are simply 80% of the maximum.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Mediocre &#8212; 60% Max:<\/strong>\u00a0 For a middle-of-the-road approach, this gives savings 60% of the maximum.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Pessimistic &#8212; 40% Max:<\/strong>\u00a0 If you&#8217;re the sort of person who likes to err on the side of caution, you can use the results here, which are 40% of the maximum possible savings.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>The results are annual savings.\u00a0 If you want a quick and dirty estimate of savings over 10 years &#8212; the maximum warranty length of most home batteries &#8212; add a zero to the end:<\/p>\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-53101\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_table_mobile-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"559\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_table_mobile-1.jpg 559w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou_table_mobile-1-300x158.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<h2>Perth Comes Out On Top<\/h2>\r\n<p>Perth is clearly the capital with the best return from a home battery.\u00a0 If you expect the return to be a mediocre 60% of the maximum, provided these two conditions are met&#8230;<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>The battery lasts a few years beyond the end of its warranty<\/li>\r\n<li>You place at least some value on its ability to provide backup power<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>&#8230;Perth appears to be at least close to the point where batteries begin to pay for themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>But it&#8217;s not a sure thing.\u00a0 Firstly, circumstances will have to be considered on an individual basis.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t just pick a number off a table because it looks good.\u00a0 We also don&#8217;t know what will happen with electricity prices over the next 10 years.\u00a0 Personally, I expect them to head downwards as more batteries are installed along with more solar and wind capacity.\u00a0 But, despite this, things are looking good for Perth to lead the nation in home battery installations.<\/p>\r\n<p>On the downside, home batteries face challenges in WA not seen in the rest of the country:<\/p>\r\n<ol>\r\n<li>\u00a0Homes with rooftop solar over 6.66 kilowatts can&#8217;t receive a solar feed-in tariff, so almost all systems are under this size.\u00a0 While Perth has the highest solar output of any Australian capital, there are still likely to be many days when it&#8217;s not possible to fully charge a battery with solar energy.<\/li>\r\n<li>I only know of one VPP operating in WA and zero I can recommend.\u00a0 This means they are not an option for improving battery payback at this time.<\/li>\r\n<li>Solar households have been underpaid for the electricity they provide to the grid and the difference used to subsidise other generation in WA.\u00a0 The state may attempt something similar with home batteries, which will reduce their benefit to households.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<p>Note I used the current feed-in tariff for new solar installations in WA of around 4 cents per kilowatt-hour.\u00a0 If you&#8217;re receiving the old feed-in tariff of 7.1 cents, the return from a battery will be around 8% less than the figures in the table above.\u00a0 With a 7.1 cent feed-in tariff, the annual savings for the different conditions will be:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Maximum:\u00a0 $1,475<\/li>\r\n<li>Optimistic (80% Max):\u00a0 $1,180<\/li>\r\n<li>Mediocre (60% Max):\u00a0 $885<\/li>\r\n<li>Pessimistic (40% Max):\u00a0 $590<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Although there are drawbacks, I am optimistic about batteries in WA.\u00a0 Because I think <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/comparison-table\/\">solar battery prices<\/a> will fall, a home battery boom looks set to occur in the western third of the country.<\/p>\r\n<h2>A Rough Guide Only<\/h2>\r\n<p>The table of potential savings for a home battery with 10 kilowatt-hours of usable storage is not meant to be any kind of accurate guide to how much you&#8217;re likely to save from a battery.\u00a0 But it does make one thing clear.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a wide range of savings people can claim a solar battery provides without actually fibbing.\u00a0 A battery with 10 kilowatt-hours of usable storage could technically provide the maximum savings and potentially more with a good VPP.\u00a0 But it&#8217;s no fib when I say you should be prepared for a far less than optimal outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been given a mission.\u00a0 It&#8217;s to determine how much money a home can save using a battery with a time-of-use tariff in every Australian capital.\u00a0\u00a0 This isn&#8217;t easy to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":53033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battery-storage","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Time Of Use Tariffs Can Boost Solar Battery Savings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While Time-of-Use tariffs are often bad news for solar owners, for solar+battery system owners they can make a lot of sense. Here&#039;s why...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Time Of Use Tariffs Can Boost Your Solar Battery Savings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While Time-of-Use tariffs are often bad news for solar owners, for solar+battery system owners they can make a lot of sense. Here&#039;s why...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-16T01:55:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-01T05:15:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou-battery.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ronald Brakels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BrakelsRonald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ronald Brakels\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d0ce1779b3f5cb67cb4f146732af2fc7\"},\"headline\":\"How Time Of Use Tariffs Can Boost Your Solar Battery Savings\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-16T01:55:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-01T05:15:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/\"},\"wordCount\":3432,\"commentCount\":37,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou-battery.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Battery Storage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/\",\"name\":\"How Time Of Use Tariffs Can Boost Solar Battery Savings\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-batteries-savings\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/tou-battery.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-16T01:55:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-01T05:15:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"While Time-of-Use tariffs are often bad news for solar owners, for solar+battery system owners they can make a lot of sense. 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Battery Capability:\u00a0 This includes usable storage capacity, power output, and flexibility. Location:\u00a0 Time-of-use tariffs vary greatly from state to state.\u00a0 To a lesser degree, they can vary within states. 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