In 2023 we decide to have our own battery storage, so we can a) store excessive solar production and b) fill our boots at night with a cheap tariff and use it the next day when electricity is expensive.

How did we go about it?

After watching excessive amounts of YouTube videos and went to several EV / Alternative energy shows we felt we had finally all the information that we needed to decide on a battery manufacturer.

Tesla Powerwalls were the best ones! So in August 2022 we put a deposit down to get on the waiting list for some powerwalls.

We heard nothing for months and in November 2022 we finally received a bill for a survey from Northern Powergrid and that all our require two were fulfilled and we count have another 10kw of export.Not sure what that meant we all handed it over to our installer and he said he still hasn’t got a powerwall for us.

So in March 2023 we finally got the call that there was a cancellation and we could have that powerwall installed next week. So they did.But they asked us the 2nd powerwall will be cheaper and more cost effective and you probably would go for a whole day on the cheap tariff.

So we ordered another one with some extra solar to save the VAT and also to cover the West side sun when the southeast side would fade out.

So in August/September 2023 all was installed and we could save money.We would save about £300-400 per month and the whole system would be paid off in 5-6 years.

However in October our smartmeters packed up and the whole of 4 months our meters could not be read and only in late December did the finally give us finally a smart meter replacement date.

In February 2024 we got our new smartmeters installed and they are excellent.No more communication errors and all working fine.We got even £800 of our £1200 overspend back.Thanks Octopus.

Why it has transformed our lives? Well we can now capture every 50 watt of solar that we produce.We can use either the excess or the charge for our washing machine, EVs or other electric machinery during the day and don’t have schedule everything during the night.Washing and driers can be run during the day and washing can be processed during the day.