May. 12, 2025
Canary Media’s Electrified Life column shares real-world tales, tips, and insights to demystify what individuals can do to shift their homes and lives to clean electric power.
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This article is the second in a two-part series on home batteries. In case you missed it, here’s part 1: “Is adding a battery to your rooftop solar worth it? Here’s how to decide.”
Alex Bazhinov has turned his home into a clean energy power plant, complete with the ability to store renewable energy for when he needs it. The solar panels on his roof in Charlottesville, Virginia, feed his home battery during the day, so it can charge his electric vehicle in the evening. This allows him to avoid the cost of charging from the grid; plus, he said, “I know that I’m driving on truly clean electricity.”
Besides their ability to deliver renewable power, home batteries can provide resilience in the face of outages and deliver a quicker system payback than installing rooftop solar alone. And while home batteries are still expensive, for the first time, their costs are coming down, Charles Hadlow, president and chief operating officer at clean energy marketplace EnergySage, told Canary Media.
Based on over 300,000 EnergySage battery system installation quotes done through the platform, costs tumbled from the first half of to the second half from a median of $1,352 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) stored to a median of $1,265.
Thanks to these falling costs, a changing policy landscape, and a bevy of incentives, batteries are becoming a hot home addition. In , the number of solar customers also installing home batteries hovered below 10% nationwide. Now that rate has shot to more than 30% — in large part because Californians are flocking to batteries amid a new regulatory regime that incentivizes them. Texas and Florida are also moving the market, potentially driven by extreme weather, Hadlow said.
If you already have rooftop solar — or are planning to get it — and you’re intrigued by a home battery’s benefits, you’ll have a number of factors to consider first. Buying a battery is like buying a car — only, how to evaluate batteries is less familiar.
So here are seven key questions to ask yourself before you get a home battery of your own.
Batteries have two major features: their capacity (how much energy they can store) and their power rating (how fast they can deliver that stored energy). Think of the battery’s capacity like a tank of water; the power rating is like the size of the pipe that drains it.
An average home uses 29 kWh per day, and a typical battery stores 10 to 13 kWh. To determine how many batteries will cover your needs, a good contractor will use software to analyze your energy consumption data from your utility, said Barry Cinnamon, CEO of California-based Cinnamon Energy Systems. The system size will also be influenced by how you answer this next question.
Different appliances have distinct power requirements. A Wi-Fi router takes less power to run than a refrigerator, which takes less power than an air conditioner or a sump pump. Appliances also have different needs for peak or surge power (like when an AC kicks on) and for continuous power (to keep the AC running over time). If the devices you plan to back up are power hungry, you’ll want to make sure your battery is rated to provide for their peak and continuous power needs.
These power ratings “are changing pretty fast,” Hadlow said. “Some of the latest batteries coming out, such as the PowerWall 3, Franklin Whole Home [aPower], and Enphase IQ 5P, are significant improvements over what we’ve seen in the past.”
Some models can be stacked to increase their power output, while for others, that’ll only increase their capacity. The Enphase IQ batteries, for example, scale: while one delivers 3.84 kW, two together will output 7.68 kW.
If you plan to use a battery during power outages, then keep in mind that you’ll generally need to choose which four to seven appliances or “loads” might be critical to keep on. If you’re ready to decide now and don’t plan to change them, then your contractor will hard-wire them into a critical-loads panel.
“Only the loads that are on that panel can be backed up by your battery,” said Emily Walker, the senior writer at EnergySage who leads its consumer education strategy.
But there’s an alternative: smart panels. These devices “can help you dynamically shift your load so that you don’t have to decide from the start exactly what you want to back up,” Walker said. Options include products from startups Span, Lumin, and Koben and multinational corporation ABB in partnership with Lumin.
A home energy management system also allows you to more easily participate in programs that pay customers to send power to the grid, explained Bazhinov, founder and president of Lumin. When the grid is stressed, a smart panel can pause flexible loads for a couple of hours, like charging your EV or running your dishwasher, thereby minimizing what you consume yourself and maximizing energy exports. That allows you to get paid more.
Smart panels aren’t cheap, however. They can cost $2,500 to $3,500 for the equipment alone, with installation adding on another $1,000 to $1,500, depending on the complexity of the work and the local labor market, according to Spencer Fields, director of insights at EnergySage.
Another factor to keep in mind is that if you want to use your battery during a blackout, it’ll need to be able to disconnect from the grid. If your home can’t “island” itself, your solar panels and battery will push power back into those lines — with potentially fatal consequences: Lineworkers who assume that the lines are dead can get electrocuted.
To sever the grid connection, you’ll need a transfer switch. “If there’s no power coming from the utility,” Cinnamon explained, “you hear this ka-chunk” as it physically disconnects. The price of that independence can come at around $3,000 to $4,000, he noted.
Though lead-acid batteries will work, the most popular batteries to pair with solar have lithium-ion chemistries that make them more energy dense and longer-lived. Two lithium-based chemistries dominate: lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, called NMC, and lithium iron (Fe) phosphate, called LFP.
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NMC is today’s most common battery chemistry, but LFP is gaining popularity, Hadlow said. LFP batteries are less energy dense and tend to cost more per kWh, but they are more stable, and thus safer; are longer lasting (up to 20 years of daily use); and don’t put out as much heat, so they can be installed indoors with basically no risk, Walker said. Another battery chemistry to put on your radar: lithium titanate (LTO), she added. With a higher price point, LTO batteries are reputed to be even safer and longer-lived than LFP batteries.
Battery warranties usually cover the equipment (though not installation) cost of replacing a battery if it malfunctions within a certain number of years, a total energy throughput, or a number of cycles — the number of times a battery recharges after dipping below a certain threshold — whichever comes first. Manufacturers usually warranty a lithium-ion battery for at least 10 to 12 years. As a battery ages, its capacity also degrades. Manufacturers may specify how much energy you can expect the battery to still be able to store at the warranty’s end. Look for at least 60%, according to Fields.
You’ll want to make sure the battery you get is suited to where you install it. Some battery enclosures aren’t rated to withstand the elements and need to be placed indoors. Just make sure the installation complies with building and fire codes, Fields said. And for outdoor batteries, you don’t want to put them in direct sun, which could make them overheat.
The local environment may also influence what battery you choose and where you plonk it: If you live near the beach, salt water can corrode a battery’s casings, voiding the warranty. Other batteries can’t handle the high altitudes of the Rocky Mountains. For a well-reviewed installer, this won’t be their first rodeo; you can lean on them to recommend batteries well suited to your locale.
If and when you’re ready to shop around for a home battery, remember to get at least three quotes, Walker said. The EnergySage marketplace provides them for free.
While home batteries carry big price tags, they might be worth it for you. If you have solar, they let you soak up every watt of clean power you generate — and that can pay dividends in lower energy bills, enhanced resilience, and a cooler climate.
The short answer is: If you want to take advantage of the benefits of solar power even when the sun isn’t shining or the power grid is down, you’ll need battery storage for your solar electric (or photovoltaic) panels. If you live in an area that implements time-of-use (TOU) rates, the amount you pay for electricity will vary depending on the time of day you use it. By installing a home battery backup system, you can use your battery during peak demand hours to send any power you’re not using back to the grid, and receive more credits on your electricity bill for doing so.
The amount of backup energy you’ll have varies depending on several factors, including:
The more power you’re consuming, the less time your backup power supply will last. So, we recommend avoiding high consumption appliances, such as multiple air conditioning units or other large appliances, for long periods of time.
If you want to be able to power certain things during an extended outage, such as your Wi-Fi modem, fridge, and electric furnace, use Sunnova’s battery duration tool to get an idea of how much home battery storage you might need to power your essential and large appliances.
You’ll also want to speak with a professional about your needs. You can start by requesting a no-obligation quote here.
The step from a solar system with battery backup to an electric vehicle (EV) is not a huge one. If you care about affordable energy and sustainability, these are all for you. But electric vehicles use a lot of power — whether you’re using solar power you generate yourself or pulling electricity from the grid. In fact, an EV could deplete your entire solar battery if you’ve only planned for enough storage to power your home in between charges.
If you have an electric vehicle — or want to get one — you should have a plan for charging it. And if you want to use solar power to charge your EV at night, make sure you have enough backup energy to do so. With home battery storage, you can also charge your EV during a power outage.
Failing to account for a major energy user, like a pool, a refrigerator, or one of another many things that has an outsized effect on your overall energy usage, can lead to a battery that’s too small. Before sizing a solar system with battery backup, use Sunnova’s battery duration tool to get an idea of what some major energy drains could be and how to account for them when planning your battery storage solution.
Aside from electricity prices varying based on time of use, in some cases, the price may vary from season to season. Basically, customers pay less for electricity at times of the day when there is less demand on the electric grid, and they pay more for electricity during times of day when there is more demand. These are often referred to as off-peak and on-peak periods.
When you add a battery to your solar system, you can program that solar battery to power your home during on-peak hours, when the utility rate is higher. That means you can factor in those reduced costs when you’re thinking about the return on investing in home battery storage. Also, if you live in a place that has TOU rates and you need to charge an electric vehicle, it makes the most sense to charge your EV with your battery during times when rates spike.
To correctly size your system, you need to know how much energy from the grid you use now. You can find that amount
on your electric bill. This will give you an idea of how much energy your home is using during times when solar
panels are not currently powering your home. That is the power that your home storage system should aim to replace.
You’ll also want to speak with your installer to see if it would be a good idea to add any additional solar panels to up the
amount of energy you capture once you can store extra power.
Incentives for home battery storage do exist, and vary depending on where you live. To take advantage of tax incentives, you need to own your system outright by paying upfront or through a loan, not a lease or power purchase agreement (PPA). There is one federal tax incentive — the investment tax credit (ITC) — that was extended by the Inflation Reduction Act in to include energy storage. Customers who own their storage systems may be eligible for 30% tax credit on the cost of their installed system from through .
There are other state-specific and utility-specific solar battery incentives that you can apply for, ranging from property tax exemptions and tiered rebates to post-installation bill credits.
Whether you’re interested in solar plus battery storage, or adding a battery to your current solar system, Sunnova is here to help. By requesting a quote, we can connect you with an expert in your area who can help you find the right home battery storage system and reduce your solar battery cost through rebates and storage incentives.
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