Charging Battery at night rate

Hi all.

I have been getting some installation quotes and both so far have been very hesitant to recommend batteries. Part of my reasoning for getting solar installed was the added bonus of getting a battery and switching to a day/night tariff for load shifting. I'm not sure what my question is here but I guess I'm looking for advice on whether to pursue installing a battery?

As a side note I have a smart meter so think I cant get the best day/night tariffs but the smart meter day/night tariffs are still cheaper. Would love advice on this as well :)

Thanks team!

Adding to @unkel, if getting a battery rules out solar due to cost, then get solar without a battery. Decision made. If you have / get an EV and it's in the drive during the day it will charge for free for parts of the year. So again, another reason not to need a battery. I've no battery and solar is amazinggggggg

I'm only self consuming 50% of what I generate (average over 6 months it's live) but I will get paid FIT for the remainder. And in time I'll likely be able to get the self consumption higher.

Once you move off a 24hr tariff, you can load shift a lot of the stuff in the house anyway without a battery. Timers on dishwasher, washing machine...10 quid smart plugs will do that on many devices even if they don't have timers

I found on the Electric Ireland site the rate is 21c per kwh. They are also saying the 'generous' payment will be around 150 euro per year! Or am I misinterpreting this?

I did the sums a few pages back on the PV FIT Tariff thread... Based on my last year numbers I could save 300 a year using battery to convert day rate into night rate during winter months...if I expanded my existing battery. I feel like im chasing small money with a big investment on battery at today's peak prices.

If the gov gives another cost of living grant I might end up with another zero cost year again...without upgrading. You really need a years data though to work out your own scenarios...

Just wondering if anyone has had this issue with Energia....

I Have 2 x 5kw batteries on my PV system, charge both at night at night rate and discharge into the house during daytime rates.

However..... the last 2 monthly bill looks like Energia haven't allowed in my bill for the battery discharging during the day, so in essence seem yo have double charged me.

We've Always used approx 1200 units x day rate over 2 month winter period.

And 1000 units x night rate BEFORE BATTERY install AND 1800 units when battery night charged. Therefore I'd expected my date rate useage to be reduced by 800 units approx.

However after contacting Energia they commented that the meter might not be recognising the battery discharge during the day, hence the reason for no reduction in my daytime unit useage.

Is this scenario even possible?? Any comments appreciated.

I have a 5 kwh battery and last two months discharged 170 per month average. Dont forget it will also fill again and discharge again... the solis will count sun and battery together it of you have one as generation.

If you have a solis, the energy imported number should match the Energia number.

Even with a 10kWh battery getting similar results but lower overall usage. for dec/jan from bill I only used 22 day (expect xmas dinner used a few of those) and 1203 night. Thats also including charging EV. And only have a 4.65kWp SE/SW system with shading issues in winter!

I should have stated previously - Have the smart meter - so all readings are ACTUAL readings, no estimates - good battery storage capacity 2 x 5KW.

I used the Web portal last night to update my charge settings. I only dropped the AMPs so I would have a mostly empty battery this morning. Filled it then from the sun. The mobile app does not work for me to chnage that setting - but im ok with that.

Agree with @slave1 double and triple check you arent enabling discharge times... should be set to 00:00 or u will waste all the cheap night rate back to grid!

Here is what it looks like on mine from the web portal:

Hi Unkel,

This is a very good price for sure, do you know a trustworthy vendor for these batteries, I will order some straight away.

Thank you.

Thanks for that Unkel, actually you and the guys here inspired me to build my own 18Kw solar array connected to 3 Seplos 280Ah DIY batteries, I definitely paid too much for the EVE cells but I'm learning something new! The system went live in January and I'm amazed to see my grid consumption occurs only at night. I've been asked by family to build a new system and I'm looking for the CALB cells right now, if you see any reputable offers please let me know 🙏

Thanks again!