this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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122
'Suddenly energy independence feels practicalโ€™: Europeans are building mini solar farms at home (www.euronews.com)
submitted 2 days ago by Blaze@piefed.zip to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
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[โ€“] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Who sells good parts for this? Looking at a lot of batteries and it's like ยฃ1 of energy storage for ยฃ3k. Would need to fully charge and discharge it well over 3000 times to pay for its self and that doesn't count the solar panels either.

I have heard of people talk of much shorter payback periods so I assume better must exist and I am just looking at the wrong things? Or go for a smaller battery and just make use of the solar power during the day and the battery only holds a fairly small capacity but balances loads a bit.

[โ€“] fonix232@fedia.io 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

You're forgetting that those batteries are super useful in case of power outages and to time your energy release to the grid when it's most valuable for you. It's also beneficial to switch to an electric plan that has on/off peak rates, so you can charge the battery during off peak, and utilise it during peak periods. kWh pricing can be as much as 2-3x difference (depending on how you look at it, e.g. Octopus offers 0.11ppkWh off-peak and 0.35ppkWh peak rates, but they have a solar package too that offers optimised export rates).

I'd also say, go for a smaller, modular battery, and upgrade bit by bit as you need, that way the investment returns are visible sooner.

[โ€“] wewbull@feddit.uk 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You're forgetting that those batteries are super useful in case of power outages

  1. The last power outage I had was over 10 years ago.
  2. Batteries only work in that case if the inverter isn't "grid-following". Most inverters are, and so when the grid goes down, so do your batteries.
[โ€“] fonix232@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago

  1. Lucky you. Does nothing to prevent an accident tomorrow down the road, where a worker may cut the mains cable by accident, which will take a few days to restore.

  2. hybrid inverters and transfer switches (even automatic ones) do exist...

[โ€“] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I know about off peak rates but that makes it even longer to pay for its self as you are only saving some of the energy cost rather than all of it. Does eliminate solar panel needs but still looking at a decade or more and panels are comparably cheap.

Power cuts are so rare here that it might be dead before the next powercut, and never had one last for more than minutes.

[โ€“] fonix232@fedia.io 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No no no, you got me wrong.

You're saving a lot more because:

  • you redirect your "whenever" power usage (car charging, other high power use like dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, etc.) to that period, thus reducing your expenses, while allowing the battery to still charge (solar generates power at night too, unless it's pitch black, albeit considerably less than you would during the day)
  • during the peak time, you use the battery and solar and supply the system back, essentially bringing your peak usage expense to near 0.

At the end of the day you're balancing out your incoming and outgoing power - and with the battery you can be even completely grid-free (albeit still connected as a backup), if needed.

[โ€“] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't really have many of those whenever power usages though. I don't need to charge a car, don't have a dishwasher, washing machine runs on low heat so doesn't really use that much power. My heating/hot water is done by a heat pump which would require a house battery as I can't just plug it into something myself.

Pretty sure a lot of my usage is from long continuous things. I could plug my home office into a portable (or barely portable with the size of some of them) battery and charge that with some solar panels in the garden. Use some extension leads to connect up at least the bedroom and living room too. The problem is that I haven't found a cost effective way to do so even though I otherwise want to.

[โ€“] porcoesphino@mander.xyz 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If this is as you say, your power needs are minimal so your battery needs are too and your complaint is a bit odd. You're making it sound like your overnight needs are basically lights and then you could almost get by with the minor batteries I had in my van (that were excessive). I suspect you're not being clear with your situation

[โ€“] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

There are different setups I have thought of and tbh mostly looked at battery only. So 4kWh = ยฃ1 normally or ยฃ0.20 off peak then you are saving ยฃ0.80/day.

But yeah, solar you can also use power while the sun is shining and the batteries are 100%. Mostly looked at stuff like jackery, anker solix, ecoflow. Can you have them plugged into the mains but they will only use the mains when the battery is empty rather than using the mains to charge the battery? Then the battery doesn't have to be as large to still benefit from it and it can balance it out a bit through the day.

Downside is that the benefits of it might be harder to calculate.

[โ€“] pdqcp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

I know this is a Buy European community, but when it comes to batteries, aliexpress is still your best bet. You can build your own or buy a pack that is ready to plug and play