Before purchasing any battery storage it is critical that you understand what you want to do with the battery. If you only want to shift some energy generated from your solar panels during the day to be used at night and don’t mind if you don’t have power when the grid goes down it isn’t as critical that your battery needs to be able to provide all the power you need.
However, if you want to be energy independent and want to have power in times of power outages (as most people do that purchase batteries) then you need a battery that is capable of running your house for a period of time. You need to consider your appliances and what you consider essential and determine what power will be drawn down by all of them. As can be seen in the above image you may need multiples of some battery technologies to accomplish this which may greatly increase the cost of an installation.
The SoNick (NaNiCl) battery and most lead acid batteries have good drawdown capabilities and can discharge quickly. Redflow’s bromide flow battery may also fulfil your needs however its drawdown power is limited by its charge and if it is not fully charged you can draw less power from it. Lithium batteries are more limited with their drawdown capabilities, especially as most of them are smaller capacity batteries. It may take longer to pull down the power you want from them (if they have enough power to fulfil your needs).
When considering drawdown capabilities you also need to consider how long you need your battery to function for. This may be a couple of hours with limited loads but it may also be several days with enough power and drawdown capabilities to run your complete house.
It is critical that you do your homework and understand how you want to use your energy storage battery and understand the capabilities of different battery technologies.
If you would like to know more about getting safe, reliable battery storage for your own home, business or micro-grid that has a good reliable drawdown capability visit us at http://quantum.GridEdge.com.au