Home Battery Power

Posted December 21, 2023

I’m supercharged! We fitted three more batteries and pushed our capacity to over 14 kilowatt hours. That is more than we use each day, especially when our solar panels are producing. They just need light, the more the better. It was expensive but we feel that it is another benefit to the environment. It is also far less labour intensive than the benefits of my gardening work. The compost heap is bigger than ever this year and turning it is going to flex my muscles. However, I am in control in the garden whereas I need to use technology when it comes to energy. Those blasted apps are never quite as easy as people say. Whatever, home battery power leaves me and Ann feeling a little smug.

Tentacles of power

We joined Octopus and they have been so much better than Eon or Utility Warehouse. At least we feel Octopus is working for rather than against us. They offer a tariff for properties with solar panels and a battery. Then, they charge the battery cheaply at off-peak times and then suck the power back to the grid at the peak period of 4 – 7 pm. They credit us a good rate for this export. Consequently, we are small part of our village energy storage system. If everybody had a battery, we would all charge up using renewable energy and then distribute it at peak times. That makes full use of wind turbines which are providing power at night when it is not needed. What’s not to like?

Home battery power

Is it going to work? Rather too early to say as we have only just signed up. It will take some weeks to programme the smart meter and we may need to utilise the app as we progress. Our electric bill is not such an issue because the greatest cost is gas for central heating over winter. Could electric smart heaters warm us sufficiently, at least in spring and autumn? That would reduce the gas central heating as a standby for really cold periods. We would also need to use the electric immersion to heat our water. Only time will tell. It’s certainly interesting to have some options.

PS: I could not show the entire battery in my photo. It is now floor to ceiling.

Ken West

After 45 years in bereavement services, I retired in 2006. Subsequently, I wrote 'A Guide to Natural Burial' in 2010 and 'R.I.P. Off! or: The British Way of Death' in 2012'. I moved to Christchurch, Dorset in 2012 to join the oldest population in the UK. My book 'My Pagan Ancestor Zuri - A Parallel Journey: Christchurch to Stonehenge' was published in July 2019. My vision is to show the relevance of history, in this case pre-history, in the way we live today and in the future, through disseminating knowledge and understanding. The book highlights how a small area of Dorset and Wiltshire played a significant role in the creation of Stonehenge and the first common culture or civilisation in Britain, then fell into agrarian decline only to re-emerge as a retirement hotspot; Avonlands became picturesque for the affluent pensioner. However, the Covid lockdown reminded Ann and I of our love for the Peak District. In December 2020 we moved to Taddington, near Bakewell. Life is now trail running, walking, wildflowers and sheer joy. A Neolithic chamber and stone circle still watch over us.