off-grid

Rural property using SoNick batteries for grid independence – Domestic Case Study

This domestic installation was designed to run as a grid minimisation installation. Although the grid remains available it is actually switched off.

The house is a rural property and is completely electric so electricity usage is higher than it could be for a normal suburban house. Water pumps, electric fences and all electric cooking can use a lot of electricity. Although the electric hot water uses evacuated tubes to heat with solar, this is often not enough in cooler months so the solar / battery system also heats the electric hot water tank.

The system consists of 11.2 KW QCells solar PV panels on a 25-degree pitch
1 x Victron 450/250 MPPT
2 x 9.6 kWh SoNick batteries which equates to 15.5 kWh recommended useable storage
1 x Victron 10 kVA Qattro inverter
1 x Victron Cerbo as the brains of the system which allows the whole system to be monitored remotely and any changes to the system can also be done remotely.

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What extended power outage teaches us about backup battery power

Recently, after the severe weather event that hit Victoria on 9th June the ABC wrote an article comparing how a few different battery installations performed.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-03/battery-power-dandenong-ranges-tesla-agm-grid/100264988

This article pointed out the importance of when purchasing an energy storage battery that it is fit for the purpose that you want it to provide.

Just like many people don’t initially realise that solar arrays don’t operate if the power is disconnected, battery storage systems don’t always work either.

This is fine if you just want a battery energy storage system to provide some load sharing but if you want power when the grid is disconnected the battery has to be capable of being used in an off-grid situation and it has to be wired to allow for this. This usually means the battery inverter is wired in before your solar inverter so that the complete battery and solar PV energy system can operate independently from the grid.

The type and size of your battery system is also important and how much of a battery systems capacity is actually useable. With lead acid and AGM batteries, generally only 30 – 50% of the batteries capacity is useable which means you will need a larger system capacity overall. Also as lead acid and AGM batteries tend to degrade over time and with use this needs to be taken into account when sizing your energy storage system.

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Off grid energy usage

 

There are many reasons why people live off the main electricity grid supply. They may live in remote areas where it is not economically feasible to connect to the electricity grid. Usually these communities have relied on diesel generators.

It may be a lifestyle choice where people want to be self-sufficient and take control of their own energy usage.

People that live at the end of electricity supply lines or Swer lines may have a lot of power outages and find it is actually more stable and economical to be off-grid or part of a local mini grid.

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Why do people look at battery storage?

With battery storage set to grow in the next few years there are many people that are interested in looking at this technology but there are also a wide variety of reasons that people are doing so.

Up until now most people that have used batteries to store their energy have been those that have been in situations where it was not possible, either for economical or proximity reasons to connect to the electricity grid. However, there are now many more reasons that people are considering battery storage and many more questions people are asking about the batteries they are looking at.

Over the last 5 – 10 years there has been a big push to install rooftop solar panels to capture electricity to use on the building the panels are installed on. This was encouraged by governments as they introduced feed-in tariffs to encourage people to install solar. This was so successful, as the general public took up these offers that governments soon decreased the feed-in tariffs and now they are extremely low or non-existent, depending on your state.

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Battery safety

 

There is a lack of knowledge on the variety of energy storage technologies, and thus on how to care for and operate them in a safe manner in the domestic and small commercial scale context.

Although battery storage is a low-risk technology, it is important that systems are installed and maintained by an accredited installer, and that industry best practice is developed.

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