Ken has ordered a house battery

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Ken
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:38 am
Location: Adelaide

Ken has ordered a house battery

Post by Ken »

Thought this might be of interest to someone.
A while ago I attended a session given by the local energy minister on home batteries.
The govt is encouraging them because they charge up during the day when there's plenty of sun, and supply juice at night when there isn't. That helps the grid supply, evening out peaks and reducing the need for more infrastructure.
Even better, if the battery is part of a VPP (virtual power plant) where juice can be fed back to the grid in time of need.

In SA, there is currently a subsidy of up to $5000 on a home battery, $6000 for pensioners. (Depends on battery size.) This reduces by $1800 on the 14th April. The mob I signed up with, Shinehub, give an extra $2000 subsidy for being on their VPP.

So my deal is: $2,869 buys me a 10.3kwh battery (supplies up to 9.3kwh) on 3 phase, with mains-fail switchover. If they draw juice out of the battery, they pay me a rate of 45c/kwh. A WiFi Internet connection to my modem puts the battery info on the net, with an app on the phone to keep an eye on it.
Supposedly gets installed in June. I think I'll pay a bit more because I don't have any room in my meter box for extra circuitry, so will probably need another small box on the wall. The battery can stand outside, but should be shielded from the sun.
Three phase was an extra $300. Mains fail backup an extra $500, which I figure is worth it since my home phone / Internet modem aren't battery backed, and I have cameras and weather station (and maybe more) needing constant Internet connection.

I reckon that's pretty good. I expect to almost draw no electricity from my provider, except in very cloudy months.
Gear warranty is 5 years, battery is warranted to maintain 80% for 10 years.

While I was pondering all this, I did another check of rates. My provider, Simply Energy, (happy with them) has a plan on the net which gives 15c/kwh feedin tariff. I was getting 10c. So I did an online chat with 'Elizabeth' asking why the difference. She told me to do an online signup for that plan, and I'd get it. So I did. Great, I've increased my feedin tariff by 50%. I should be making money hand over fist now! (I have 4.8kw of solar panels.)
My plan also includes decent discount for RAA membership and being a pensioner. But they won't count for much when I'm not using any of their juice!

So 1. See if this battery deal interests you. 2. Check your electricity plan to see whether it can be bettered. We all know that like insurance, they take advantage of you if you don't keep an eye on them.

Caveats:
I've only signed up to the deal. I can't say whether Shinehub are a good mob, but best I can find on the net, they seem OK. (A friend went to a presentation they did in Adelaide some time back.)
The batteries are made in China, assembled in Adelaide. (May mean they pull off the cardboard packing here, dunno.)
Your mileage in other states will vary.
Ken Wagnitz #21315
Gra Har
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:56 pm
Location: Leith TAS

Re: Ken has ordered a house battery

Post by Gra Har »

Hi Ken, that is an interesting read. I have 8.76kw of panels and on 3 phase, so would be good for me. I should contact DMS Energy here in TAS (who installed our system 12 months ago) and see what the go is. We only have one power supplier in TAS and the fit is only 9.3c a 10kw LG battery was $9000 last year, it may well have dropped in price now.

Cheers
GH
Graham Hart #12131
Leith TAS
Ken
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:38 am
Location: Adelaide

Re: Ken has ordered a house battery

Post by Ken »

Oops, hope I didn't lead you astray GH. I put 100kwh for the battery. Have corrected it to 10.3kwh.
Ken Wagnitz #21315
Gra Har
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:56 pm
Location: Leith TAS

Re: Ken has ordered a house battery

Post by Gra Har »

I thought about it for a nano second, then thought na, you added one too many 0s.
Graham Hart #12131
Leith TAS
Ken
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:38 am
Location: Adelaide

Re: Ken has ordered a house battery

Post by Ken »

Thought I'd update this thread.
We had the battery installed, relatively painlessly. Along with a small extra box next to the meter box.
Along with that, came a website for monitoring, and a phone app.
It hasn't been brilliant. I do wonder if its metering is correct. Had a guy out to check it. He swapped a CT (current transformer) around. I've subsequently swapped it back, cos it was clearly wrong. I'll do some testing of my own when I can be bothered. (Switch on loads, check usage graph on website.)
The WiFi connection failed intermittently, so I couldn't see what was happening. They've replaced the WiFi module in the battery. Time will tell if that fixes it.
While the guy was doing that, I found out that the "backup" facility I paid an extra $300 for, isn't automatic. If the power fails, I have to flip a switch to get battery power onto two circuits, one light, one power. Why that isn't automatic, beats me. Too bad if I'm away (or asleep) when a power fail happens.
The alternative is to switch that circuit to full time battery. But the danger with that is that if the battery is overtaxed (eg due to heavy night time power use), it will cut out. Then I lose a fridge and modem until the sun charges up the battery again.
The other gotcha is that because I didn't get a "hybrid" inverter, a prolonged power fail will see the battery cut out, unable to be charged from my solar panels. No idea why they didn't offer me that type of inverter. (Most of us have no power from our panels on a grid fail.)

So the devil is in the details, which they may not tell you up front. Shinehub's website is more about sales gloss than hard info.

On the plus side, it was relatively cheap.
Don't know how my power bills will go. After the battery was installed, my provider (Simply Energy) installed a smart meter. -Presumably smarter than the smart meter they installed when I got the solar panels. It has a mobile data connection, so meter readers don't need to visit. And I can now visit a web page that tells me my bill for each day.
My Spring quarterly power bill (with battery in use) was $20. I suspect my summer bill will also be in the black (ie I owe them). Whereas last year with no battery, I had some bills negative. -Dunno if that is higher usage, higher rates, smarter meter, or dumber battery system.
Time will tell if I'm ahead or behind.
(It doesn't help that the car fridge is running full time as a freezer in the garage, full of stuff the missus has made. -In addition to two fridges which run lots.)
Ken Wagnitz #21315
olfrt
Posts: 83
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2020 3:50 pm
Location: Rochester Vic

Re: Ken has ordered a house battery

Post by olfrt »

Interesting reading Ken. Trials and pitfalls everywhere. (as in, 'it's in the fine print').
Ive been looking at a battery system. Because I use a fair bit of power in the shed, welding, grinding etc, the battery would only ever work as a backup unit (when the grid goes off).
The quote I got was over $10,000 (with all government rebates), so it's not happening in the foreseeable future.
I don't have 3 phase, I have 14 panels, (which have all been replaced under warranty), our inverter failed a while ago. I got the same contractor to replace it, and then noticed it was a 3kw unit, rather than the original 3.5 kw.
I'm not really excited about solar.
Paul Butler #17758
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