4 home battery misconceptions PV installers must debunk for homeowners

In 2022, the residential solar market set its fifth consecutive quarterly growth record in the United States. This shows that homeowners generally recognize the benefits of solar panels. While encouraging, the same cannot be said for residential batteries – yet. In fact, a recent FranklinWH survey of 1,000 U.S. adults revealed that more than half (56%) of consumers will admit they aren’t familiar with the benefits of residential energy storage.

Setting the stage: Identifying the common misconceptions

While the responsibility to educate homeowners falls on the entire industry, installers and solar professionals must be prepared for kitchen table conversations about battery storage. Being able to educate homeowners on energy storage will help to boost sales.

The benefits of energy storage will change depending on the homeowner’s state and utility. The first step for installers should always be to understand a homeowner’s motivations for wanting home batteries, since their personal goals will influence what they hope to gain from investing in this technology and how the conversation should be approached. Don’t be surprised if you run into one of the misconceptions below.

Misconception 1: Battery storage doesn’t offer a return on investment

The most common myth homeowners believe is that a battery energy storage system (BESS) is too expensive and doesn’t offer a strong return on investment (ROI). First off, battery storage prices have decreased in recent years, which makes batteries more cost-competitive than ever before. It’s likely that homeowners may have preconceived prices in mind that are higher than what today’s market offers.

A BESS enables demand charge management and time-of-use (TOU) optimization. Demand charge electric rates penalize homeowners for using a lot of energy in a short amount of time. The utility will examine a home’s energy consumption for the full month and find the interval (typically between 15 minutes and an hour, depending on the utility) when a home’s energy usage was at its highest. This interval is used to determine the home’s electric bill. The only way to lower the bill in this rate structure is to reduce peak usage, not the total volume of electricity consumed for the month. In this scenario, if you run the dishwasher, dryer, washer, lights, air conditioning and charge an EV all at once, it will be extremely costly. Home batteries can shave any peaks in usage to keep utility prices low at the end of the month.

TOU is a different rate structure that is not based on peak usage. Instead, each kilowatt-hour is priced differently depending on the day and time of day it was consumed. Home batteries allow homeowners to buy and store when prices are lowest and consume it when the price of energy would be most expensive (typically during the evening, when there’s more total demand).

While batteries alone can generate ROI, they can also increase solar returns. California recently implemented NEM 3.0, which moved homeowners in PG&E, SCE and SDG&E territories to a TOU pricing structure that impacts the cost of energy from the grid, but also made the amount homeowners can sell energy back to the grid based on time of day. Batteries store generated energy to be sold to the grid for the highest return possible.

Misconception 2: Battery storage technologies are one-dimensional & generic

Many homeowners think battery storage systems are just useful for backup power. On the other end of the spectrum, a separate set of homeowners may have only been exposed to a narrow class of TOU batteries and might think that sacrificing backup power capabilities is necessary to capitalize on TOU pricing.

The common theme is that homeowners vastly underestimate the capabilities of true home energy management systems featuring battery storage that have both backup and TOU capabilities, along with the intelligence to manage electricity usage, store energy and optimize output.

Home energy management systems enable production and load to be balanced and optimized in outage situations. For instance, FranklinWH’s Smart Circuits help shed load when needed to keep critical loads running longer (an example is shutting off a pool pump in favor of a fridge with perishable items and medicines). Advanced systems also can charge batteries in outage situations from generators.

Misconception 3: I have solar, so I don’t need a battery

If misconception 1 already came up in conversation, then this misconception is somewhat busted after discussing how battery storage can maximize ROI for solar systems. But homeowners might also think that if they have solar, they will be able to tap into it during power outages to keep the lights on.

Let’s start with the core of that misconception, the fact that solar only produces during the day but peak usage is typically in the evening. If solar works alone, it stops providing power during the most expensive part of the day. Storing excess solar energy in batteries increases the efficiency and ROI of a PV system by using solar energy at night.

Residential solar systems without batteries send excess electricity back to the grid. This is a hazard when the grid is down and line workers may be actively trying to make repairs. To sell energy back to the grid, one needs a grid-tied system linked to the utility meter – which automatically shuts down residential solar systems in these scenarios. The only way to use solar during an outage is to be completely off-grid, which is a scenario that would need battery storage anyway or have battery storage as part of the solar system, which allows homes to use their solar while insulating it from the utility grid.

Misconception 4: Battery storage systems are dangerous

There’s a consumer perception that lithium batteries can be dangerous which we’ve seen perpetuated in the news, especially when Samsung recalled 2.5 million smartphones due to overheating in 2016.

Battery technology has rapidly evolved since then and modern home batteries use an innovative lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry that has proven to be much safer and more suitable for homes, alleviating concerns about uncontrollable, self-heating state, also known as thermal runaway.

The power of education: Clearing up confusion for consumers

From lower confidence in the reliability of the power grid to consistently rising energy prices, there are many reasons that homeowners should be interested in adopting energy storage for their homes. Avoiding these misconceptions is a key to accelerating adoption and unlocking energy storage’s full potential. Installers and solar professionals who are good at handling energy storage conversations will have a strong advantage over competition.