3 Considerations When Determining True Cost of a Solar Battery
When buying solar batteries for your solar power system, it’s essential to consider the cost—and that means looking at more than just the price tag. The true cost of virtually any piece of solar equipment should be looked at in terms of cost per watt. How do you determine this final, true price of a solar battery? Here are a few important factors you should be looking at.
Lifespan
One way to measure the lifespan of a battery is, of course, in years. However, the more accurate measurement is in terms of cycles. Think of it as you would a car; most people hope a car will last them a certain number of miles and last a certain number of years. And, of course, the more miles you put on it in a year, the fewer years you’ll get out of it. Naturally, the amount of time a piece of equipment works will directly impact its actual, long-term cost.
This is similar to battery cycles. A cycle refers to the battery discharging and recharging its stored energy. If you’re cycling your battery more often, you won’t get as many years out of it, but you’re still getting a lot of use out of it. Typically speaking, you want to look for a battery that can provide you with 6,000+ cycles to ensure that it gives you the amount of use you deserve.
Efficiency
Electricity in any system is not like water in your home’s plumbing. If your pipes lost a certain amount of water every time water cycled through them, that would mean there was a leak, and it needed to be fixed. But in electrical systems, including solar power systems and solar storage batteries, some energy loss is expected. As your battery charges, maintains that charge and discharges electricity, some power is lost to heat. Though this is natural, you want to minimize that loss to get more usable watts from your battery in its lifetime.
The good news is that modern solar batteries can be incredibly efficient. While old models may have been only 80% efficient at best, more recent models boast as much as 98% efficiency per cycle. You can imagine how that difference can add up to a lower cost per watt.
Depth of Discharge
Many people don’t realize that solar batteries cannot actually provide you with all of the energy they store; doing so damages the battery and shortens its lifespan. This means that, even though you’re paying for a 10kWh battery bank, if it only has a depth of discharge (DoD) of 70%, you can actually only get 7kWh from it without risking damaging your battery. The higher the DoD, the more you actually get from a battery.
If you want a solar battery that offers the lowest cost per cycle, meaning a low “true” cost for your investment, consider the Fortress Power LFP battery.
