Choosing the Best Solar Batteries: What Should You Know?

Solar batteries are a great way to store solar energy, but it’s good to choose the right one for your needs. Consider factors such as type, size, capacity, and installation costs when selecting solar batteries for your solar panel system. Keeping all things into check, you can find the perfect solar battery for your solar system. 

Here’s a list of things to consider before going to shop for solar batteries. 

Battery Capacity: How Much Energy Storage?

Which solar batteries last the best is a frequent query.

One of the three elements that contribute to the solution is battery capacity. The other two are power and depth of discharge. 

How much energy the solar battery can store is referred to as capacity. The range of capacity is 1kWh to 20kWh. You can also purchase modular battery systems, which allow you to connect many batteries to achieve the capacity you need.

If your system functions in such a condition, having more capacity means you can store more energy, which theoretically means the batteries will last longer throughout the night or during a power outage. But other aspects affect a battery’s lifespan as well.

Power Rating: How Much Energy Discharge?

The power rating of a battery, expressed in kilowatts, indicates how much electricity it can supply to your home all at once (kW). It also determines how many and which appliances you may run at once.

Solar batteries typically have a continuous power rating and the peak power rating. 

For devices like your refrigerator that require a steady power supply, the continuous power rating is the amount of electricity the battery can output continually (thus the name).

The peak power rating is the highest amount of electricity a battery can discharge for a brief period, enabling you to continue using products like air conditioners that require a surge of power to start up.

Since many solar batteries have continuous power ratings of 5 kW and peak power ratings of 7 kW, you should seek batteries with power ratings in this range. Therefore, you should look for batteries with high power ratings if you need to power many appliances at the same time. 

Pro Tip: Observe both the power and capacity ratings when evaluating batteries.

Depth of Discharge(DoD): How much Usable Energy?

After learning about the power and capacity of solar batteries, it is simple to disregard this one. 

It’s simple to believe that all you need to do is find solar batteries with a high lifespan and you will get the highest capacity and power ratings.

Not exactly.

Typically, a battery cannot discharge all of the accumulated energy. The battery has to work significantly harder to build its energy store back up after completely draining it.

As a result, batteries have a “depth of discharge” that indicates how much energy they can utilize before being deemed “empty” and needing to refuel.

This explains why solar battery prices can differ so much. You can find an extremely cheap battery with a large capacity and power rating. However, if its depth of discharge is only 60% when installed, you won’t ever consume a significant amount of its capacity. Therefore, it isn’t truly a good deal. 

The battery lasts longer each day when the depth of discharge is higher.