Upcycling HousesNov 9
Jan Wildeboer 😷

Put battery in basement or garage. Book hourly rated electricity contract. Optionally add solar panels and switch to heat pump.

Charge battery when electricity price is negative or very low. Automatically switch to battery power when price is above defined threshold or battery is full. This approach might pay for itself over time. Has someone already tried this? Made a calculator? I am sure some of you did ;) @fedihouse

Nov 9 at 1:33pmWeb
Show threadhalfaNov 9
@jwildeboer @fedihouse really depends on your country, but although solar panel and battery are more affordable than ever, if you have reliable power and live in a place where grid price are not crazy, it is very difficult to break even
Show threadhalfaNov 9
@jwildeboer @fedihouse of course if you power is unreliable (as it is still common in some places), then the added cost is somewhat offset by the possibility to rely on your battery power in those times where the grid is down
Show threadJoe MansfieldNov 9

@jwildeboer @fedihouse

In my case (in Ireland) my unit cost of electricity is about 11c per kWhr for a few hours at night vs ~33c per kWhr at other times.

The 5kWhr battery I put in a year ago cost me about €1800. It is set up to charge fully overnight at the lower rate and has saved me at least €400 in bills this year.

It was put in as part of a solar system that saved me ~€1700 in the last 12 months compared to the year before.

Show thread🇪🇺 Paul Schoonhoven 🍋🍉Nov 9

@jwildeboer @fedihouse

The results may depend on some variables, including the country you live in.

But as you look at it as something for the next 10-20 years, I think that large scale batteries will win that competition. Their price/MWh will be much smaller than your at home installed battery.

The large scale storage will bring down price differences. Probably enough to make home installed batteries not so profitable as predicted for now.

Show threadLykle de VriesNov 9
In Nederland doen Zonneplan, Frank en anderen dit, met software die je van hen/via hen moet gebruiken. Misschien weet @hmblank meer
Show threadHerbert BlankesteijnNov 9
@lykle @jwildeboer Most lucrative is combination of hourly rates and EV. Makes life cheaper and greener. SEcond is heat pump but may require big investmens like insulation and underfloor heating. Solar panels don't add much (hourly rates let you profit from other people's solar panels). Battery also makes life greener but not necessarily cheaper. Hard to break even.
Show threadNemo_bis 🌈Nov 9

@jwildeboer Without solar panels, this only works in countries with low/no distribution fees/electricity taxes, no?

It seems some companies (at least in Germany) offer to make the calculation for you: https://sonnengroup.com/press/europes-largest-vpp/

sonnen to build Europe’s largest virtual home battery storage solution | sonnen

sonnen's virtual storage consists of thousands of energy storages throughout Germany which can be intelligently controlled and used like a large-scale storage facility.

sonnen
Show threadSteven WillemsNov 9
@jwildeboer @fedihouse that’s exactly the reason why batteries are profitable right now. Some go even further and use their battery on the imbalance market. Check Sigenergy, Frank energie, etc..
Show threadJaap-Henk Hoepman 🟥 ⬜️ 🟩 ⬛️Nov 9
@jwildeboer @fedihouse Indeed, I did ;-) https://codeberg.org/xot/ecsim
My conclusion: this strategy is not profitable, unless battery prices decrease significantly.
ecsim

Simple energy cost simulator to compute the cost of electricity under a dynamic (hourly) tariff system

Codeberg.org
Show threadJaap-Henk Hoepman 🟥 ⬜️ 🟩 ⬛️Nov 9
@jwildeboer @fedihouse To be clear: I meant the price you pay as consumer for a home batttery. For some reason wholesale prices are much lower (factor 5-10 last time I looked).
Show threadJohn TimaeusNov 9

@xot

What price point are you seeing? In the US it's $200-300 / kwh in 5 kwh units (pretty much the standard unit size here), depending on mfg & chemistry.

@jwildeboer @fedihouse

Show threadJoseph A di PaolantonioNov 10

@jwildeboer @fedihouse Yes, I wrote about our resilience and sustainability efforts here

https://mastodon.social/@jadp/115075471226619652

But no, we don’t have the option of time of day rates, but we are using time of use scheduling to avoid using not-green utility sources (natural gas) but charge when the utility uses primarily hydro, wind and their own batteries for PV storage