Calculating the Battery Size Needed for Complete Solar Energy Self-Sufficiency in a London Home
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FromTheArchives
8mo ago· 6 min readen
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Summary
A homeowner in suburban London with solar panels generating 3,800kWh annually seeks to determine the battery size needed for complete energy self-sufficiency. The article explores the challenge of seasonal energy storage, analyzing daily and monthly energy production/consumption patterns, and calculates that a massive 10,000kWh battery would be required to store summer surplus for winter use - an impractical solution that highlights the limitations of current battery technology for seasonal energy storage.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledHow big a battery would we need in order to be completely self-sufficient?
The answer is that we would need a battery of about 10,000kWh capacity to store all the summer surplus for use in winter
This is clearly a ridiculous size of battery for a domestic property
The fundamental problem is that we need to store energy from summer to winter, and batteries are not good at this
I have a modest set of solar panels on an entirely ordinary house in suburban London. On average they generate about 3,800kWh per year. We also use about 3,800kWh of electricity each year. Obviously, we can't use all the power produced over summer and we
