Solar Battery

Solar battery, power wall, and energy storage system are all terms used for a battery pack. BUT they may not be the same.
Solar hardware manufactures build inverters and battery systems that may not be standard, this means that when you pick your inverter you could be locked in to expensive upgrades.

Many manufactures use standard voltages which are multiples of 12V, this being derived from lead acid batteries standards. However battery tech has come on a bit in the last 200 years and there are various batteries on the market, as in tech, not brands…

Solar Rack batteries are popular as you can buy a rack and install the battery, keeping then in a case with wheels on… and trust me they can have a lot of weight!
Solar Wall mount batteries or “power walls” are the same thing, but can be hung on the wall. this is often a choice where space is a issue.

Truck type battery is like a car battery but bigger, they come in ABS cases or metal and may have battery terminals the same as a battery you would see in a car.
EV batteries, and this covers new, used, and V2G and remakes (custom).

Battery Tech.

There are a few battery techs that you will know about, Lithium is well known but there are a few types of these. LFP ( lifepo4), Li-ion, Li-Po, LTO….
There are lead acid, FLA, GEL, AGM. VRLA.
There is also NA (sodium), NMIH, Nicad (though rare).
And water and gravity batteries.. I know I miss out many others, but we will look at the “main stream”.

LFP – Lifepo4.

What I call the rusty battery for good reason the LFP battery is one of the safer lithium battery types and has been around for a reasonable time, it became well known about 5 years ago and is in the heart of most solar installations. its fairly good but has a lot of myths about them. They are not always suitable to use.

One of the issues is UK weather. below 10oC and you start to lose capacity below 0 you cannot charge them.. so a hard winter in the UK will render these batteries fairly useless unless you add or have provisions to keep them warm.
There is another thing… they don’t like to be too warm either, 45oC+ and you start to have issues, so the summer sun could be a issue for some installations as well as loft installations where lofts will see 55+oC in summer.
How much cold capacity loss? just under 30% on a 48V 100ah battery. a lead acid stand by may help as these are fairly good to -20oC or LTO. or install heating. heating the the lower cost and space.

Battery buying is hard work, as there are thousands of suppliers world wide, there are trust worthy and well others, avoid with a long stick.
We test our batteries to make sure we don’t sell rubbish, so everything on our shop is going to work for you.

The inverter choice is key to the battery ( system voltage), we can offer higher voltage inverters (96v) which lowers the current requirements of the battery. – lowering current usually mean longer life.
we make custom batteries, we supply DIY battery cells and kits, and we sell our own battery and others too. Our hardest issue with battery is stock, we order batteries and they are sold before they arrive, so you may have to wait a week or two for them as its now just a order or group buy process.