What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025

Post by LordDragonfang » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 7:49 PM UTC

magicalhippo wrote: post #144

benoliver999 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electric car battery degradation has been super interesting, in that they are going way further than people thought they might. Jonny Smith on youtube bought a 300k+ mile Tesla and the battery is at like 75% health. As far as I can tell if your battery isn't air cooled, it can go a very long way

There was some research[1] that strongly suggested that varied use makes them last much longer than the steady use that most battery tests do. That is, bursts of high-current draw followed by moderate draw etc vs the constant current load typically used when evaluating battery performance. From the paper: Specifically, for the same average current and voltage window, varying the dynamic discharge profile led to an in…

Post by coryrc » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 7:51 PM UTC

syncsynchalt wrote: post #111

domh wrote: post #91

> The batteries can fill up on the off-peak rate overnight at £0.07/kWh, and then export it during the peak rate for £0.15/kWh, meaning any excess solar production or battery capacity can be exported for a reasonable amount. Honestly I didn't know this was allowed. I recently got a heat pump and am on a time-of-use tariff ( https://octopus.energy/smart/cosy-octopus/ ) and have been thinking about pulling the plug on…

It benefits the grid to have people consume extra power when there's an oversupply, store it and give it back when there's undersupply. Why shouldn't it be allowed (even encouraged)?

Post by port11 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 7:53 PM UTC

greycol wrote: post #222

jillesvangurp wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's going to be a bloodbath in that market in the next years. There are a lot of battery producers and most of them are not producing at full capacity. At the same time, manufacturing cost is dropping as well. Some battery makers are producing batteries at a cost level of around 60$ per kwh. At that cost, the 16kwh battery would come out below 1000$ (not the same obviously as the product price). Sodium ion might…

One thing to remember is as it becomes more widespread line costs will go up (assuming they are subsidized by kwh use, which they generally are) and no-sun power prices will increase as it's the only time when the grid needs power from non solar producers and they still need to cover cost incurred while they're not producing. That will push the economics towards completely off grid systems as more people adopt solar,…

Post by domh » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 7:57 PM UTC

dabeeeenster wrote: post #174

domh wrote: post #91

> The batteries can fill up on the off-peak rate overnight at £0.07/kWh, and then export it during the peak rate for £0.15/kWh, meaning any excess solar production or battery capacity can be exported for a reasonable amount. Honestly I didn't know this was allowed. I recently got a heat pump and am on a time-of-use tariff ( https://octopus.energy/smart/cosy-octopus/ ) and have been thinking about pulling the plug on…

I just had Solaredge battery installed in my house in the UK (Had a solaredge PV and inverter so made sense even tho it was more than other setups). If you are up for a challenge https://springfall2008.github.io/batpred/ is AMAZING and basically optimises when to charge and discharge your battery. I've got a heat pump and think my paypack period is going to be about 6 years. Hit me up on bluesky (in profile) if you w…

Post by port11 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 7:59 PM UTC

Aromasin wrote: post #184

UltraSane wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is still an enormous amount of electricity for a single family to consume.

He mentions that he has a server. It wouldn't surprise me if that consumes the majority of that.