EFFECTIVE STORAGE SOLUTIONS
ENJOY GREEN ENERGY NIGHT AND DAY
If you are looking for a sustainable energy solution you will need a battery to complement your solar PV system. With one of our battery storage systems you will be able to use your solar energy both day and night!
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Batteries allow you to store surplus electricity generated by your solar panels for use at night and during a grid failure. Our systems are safe, compact and easy to retrofit to an existing system, or install as part of a new solar PV system.
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UPGRADE YOUR SETUP
RETROFITTED BATTERIES
Domestic:
For domestic PV installations if you are working 9 to 5, Monday to Friday then you COULD BE exporting at least 50% of your solar electricity back to the grid. If you want to make the most of your solar power and store it for night time use, take charge of your entire energy system through online monitoring/control, and have power in the event of grid failure.
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Commercial, agricultural, and industrial:
To size a battery storage system for anything larger than a domestic PV system, we will need to know what you are exporting to size the battery correctly. To get this information we need to analyse your energy bills to see if they include what exactly you are exporting (preferably hourly data but weekly/monthly will do). If you happen to have an energy consultant they may also have your electricity export data. Without the export data we can’t price, size and design the battery correctly. The last thing we want is to sell a battery that is too big, too small or does nothing at all for our customers, so this data is essential to provide the right solution for you.
ENHANCE A NEW SYSTEM
NEW RETROFITS
Domestic
If you're getting solar PV installed to your new build home, it doesn't cost too much extra to get a battery and hybrid inverter installed along with your solar PV system. The benefits of this are that you will make the most of your PV system getting you close to 100% consumption. You will also have a more complete sustainable energy system with complete control through your online app as well as back-up power in the event of grid failure.
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Commercial
For customers with existing buildings that are interested in a new hybrid solar PV/battery system, we will require your half-hourly/hourly power consumption data to price, size and design the system correctly. We do this by firstly designing your PV system and then comparing your PV output data (calculated using our PV software PV Sol) to your consumption data to see if there is scope for a battery and if so what size.
FOR LARGER PROJECTS
NEW BUILD M&E PROJECTS
Firstly, we need to know why the battery is being installed. Is it to meet building regulations? If so we always advise you to max out the PV system first as that is the cheapest and easiest way to satisfy these. If it's for BREAM, LEED or Premium Passive certifications we then need to design and size the battery correctly.
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To size it correctly we will need the energy load of the building, a consultant should be able to supply this. We can then put the specified PV system through PV Sol and find out if there is excess PV power to charge the batteries and then size and design them accordingly. If a consultant can’t supply this, we can use the PV output data calculated from PV Sol and use some educated assumptions on energy load to size the battery. We can also use BIM models if they are available. If there is no scope for a battery (due to no excess PV power being generated) and they need to save/generate more kWh for whatever reason we can advise on BIPV solutions for their project, but again we always advise our clients to max out their PV options first before thinking about batteries and BIPV solutions.
NEED A BATTERY FOR SOMETHING ELSE?
OTHER USES
Powershifting. Powershifting is when you store electricity from the grid when it is cheap and then use it when it is expensive. Power shifting can be used in conjunction with storing excess solar PV power to improve the payback of your battery. The magic number for powershifting is 24 because you need to save 24p/kWh to make powershifting using batteries financially feasible.
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Emergency back-up. A battery can be used for emergency back-up or as an uninterrupted power supply (UPS). For customers that need power 24/7 but are in an area prone to failure, this may be the option for them. To size and design the battery system correctly for this we will need to know the size of the loads that need to keep going and the length of time they want to keep them going (i.e. how long is the grid usually down), we will be happy to come to your site and conduct a site survey to gather this information if it is not to hand.
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Maximum kVa reduction. Power companies can charge customers for their maximum kWh usage on their monthly bills. An example of this is a site having one very busy weekend once a year when the maximum load on the building increases to 300kW. The rest of the year it may never go above 100kW. The power company may charge them monthly for the ability to go to 300kW. The site will have to pay this to accommodate this one weekend. A 20kWh system can reduce this load requirement and the savings will be carried over onto each bill, it may not apply to every project but it’s worth keeping in mind for big commercial retrofit jobs or M&E jobs.
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Deferred value. Deferred value is an added benefit of batteries that our team at Solmatix may never encounter. But being passionate engineers with a love for sustainable energy and electrical systems we find it interesting and have included it here just in case you happen to share our passion. The deferred value of batteries is when the installation of batteries relieves the stress on a saturated local grid and defer or avoid the need to upgrade the electrical transmission and distribution (T&D) equipment saving the grid operators money and extending the life of the existing T&D equipment.
For installations in Newtownabbey and beyond, get in touch today
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Contact us on
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028 9082 4000
or email