If 2022 was the Year of the Heat Pump, 2023 was the Year of the Battery! Looking at the numbers, a full 50% of our projects were off-grid, energy storage, or both.
(Aside: this is why Sungineer Solar didn’t qualify as a NYSERDA Quality Solar Installer for 2024 – the designation requires a certain volume of a) inspected, b) grid-tied, c) solar projects. We did maintain our perfect 5/5 quality scores for the projects that were inspected, though!)
Pricing for batteries has dropped quite a bit in recent years, so off-grid homeowners are retiring their aged lead acid batteries in favor of low-maintenance, long-lasting lithium ion or iron phosphate (LiFePO4) energy storage. For a grid-tied home, a battery system is a really nice quality-of-life add-on. During a power outage, rather than listening to the jackhammering generator, the house runs off batteries – and solar can charge the batteries.
Here’s a sampler of the diversity of battery projects we’ve done this year!
14.4 kWh LG Home 8 System
The grid is generally stable in our region, but there are pockets where it’s just a mess. This homeowner was dealing with frequent, brief power outages – like every week, ugh. The outages were never that long, but the frequency was so disruptive for their family life.
The LG Home 8 system was a great fit for this homeowner, as it’s self-contained, nearly zero maintenance, and dead simple to manage.
Limiting the circuits that receive power during a grid outage is best practice – you don’t want a power-hungry hot water heater to draw down the batteries and end up with no power for your well pump. For this homeowner, the well pump, a circuit in the bedroom to power the internet router and modem, and a circuit in the kitchen to run the fridge will receive power. The homeowner can turn on other loads as needed via the ThinQ app on their phone (because their internet connection won’t even blip if the grid goes down!).
48 kWh Sol-Ark + Blue Planet System
This home already had a whole-house generator that would turn on as soon as the grid went down. However, the generator was loud, and there was a brief interruption in service as loads came back online.
Three 16 kWh battery cabinets with Blue Planet batteries provide enough power to run the entire house (over 6,000 sq ft) for up to a day. Two 15k Sol-Ark inverters can power loads directly from the batteries AND send excess power from the on-site solar back to the grid for credits. Magic! 🙂
With this energy storage system, the transition to off-grid mode is seamless and silent. The house runs off the batteries, which are charged by the on-site solar, and the generator kicks on only when the batteries discharge to a pre-set SOC (state of charge).
9.1 kWh ESS + 4.95 kW Solar
This off-grid property owner was a repeat client (always nice to work with someone again!). We installed solar and batteries on their cabin house, and a few years later they returned for more solar and batteries for the garage.
To maintain consistency with the product selections in the cabin house, we chose three 3.8kWh batteries from Simpliphi, plus an inverter and charge controller from Outback, did the trick.
Fifteen Silfab solar modules generate power for the batteries. Not a bad view from the roof, either.
