Will a battery backup save any money?

[Jack Lawson]

Forum Members... I am new to this forum and am not very good a the workings of them, so bear with me please.

I have a 20 panel solar system installed by Solar City and subsequently taken control of by Tesla.

This system connects to the electrical grid of Arizona Public Service (APS) as my house is in Prescott, Arizona.

I inherited this system when I bought my home a year ago and the lease was paid in its entirety by the previous owner.

I have a grandfathered original APS solar program which has 15 years left. The new programs are a maximum of 10 years and a lower Kilowatt credit amount as I understand them.

Electrical bills are $14 per month in the summer and high sun months... $90 to $100 in the winter and low sun months (off season months).

I intend to install a storage battery to make my home electrical system function if the grid goes down.

My questions are...

1. Aside from the above benefit of a functioning home electrical system upon electrical grid failure, w

ill this battery back up save me any money on my electrical bill or pay for itself in any other way?

2. Can any member suggest further means of lowering my off season electrical bills.

Thanking you in advance,

Jack Lawson
Member of Las Vegas, Nevada Special Forces Association Chapter 51
Author of "The Slaver's Wheel", "A Failure of Civility," "And We Hide From The Devil"

"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand watch as our guardians in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. A soldier must seize every advantage to defeat his opponent. He must strike swiftly and strike hard... he who dares... wins. But under all circumstances those guardians must stand ready to protect the innocent and those too weak to defend themselves..."
Often spoken quote of New Zealander Martin Overbeek, Killed In Action - Africa 1979 - He was my friend.

[bcroe]

A storage system (which you hardly use) will make things far more expensive to run every
day, do not expect savings. And the capacity will be tiny compared to grid operation.

Get a generator, or even one tied to a gas line with automatic cutover. Bruce Roe

[sdold]

Hi Jack, welcome to the forum. Don't worry about learning the workings of the forum right away, it'll make sense after using it a while and if you put anything in the wrong place we'll move it to where it belongs. You posted this in another thread so I moved it to a thread of its own. Again welcome to the forum and hopefully you'll get the info you need.

[jflorey2]

I intend to install a storage battery to make my home electrical system function if the grid goes down.

My questions are...

1. Aside from the above benefit of a functioning home electrical system upon electrical grid failure, w

ill this battery back up save me any money on my electrical bill or pay for itself in any other way?

2. Can any member suggest further means of lowering my off season electrical bills.

1) It will not save you money. About the only place that batteries make economic sense is in a place like Hawaii, where grid tie is (usually) not legal and power prices are insane.

2) Absolutely the best way to save money on power bills is efficiency. Low-E windows on south facing sides, replacing A/C and refrigerators, going to all LED lighting and switching from electric to gas stove/dryer/hot water can all help.

[ButchDeal]

1) It will not save you money. About the only place that batteries make economic sense is in a place like Hawaii, where grid tie is (usually) not legal and power prices are insane.

Grid tie IS legal in Hawaii , just not feeding into the grid.
Batteries make some financial since in CA and MD as well but mostly due to the battery incentive and TOU billing

[jflorey2]

Grid tie IS legal in Hawaii , just not feeding into the grid.

Yes. I should have said "backfeed." Many areas still allow zero export grid tie.