Home battery storage in Perth
Solar panels make power when the sun is up. A storage system holds the excess so you can use it after dark, when Perth homes use most of their electricity. Here is how storage works, what a system includes, and how to think about how much you need.
Storage is about timing, not just capacity
The point of storage is to move solar energy from midday, when you generate more than you use, to the evening, when you use more than you generate. The right size is the one that covers your evening and overnight usage, not the biggest one you can fit.
What a storage system does
During the day your panels typically cover your home's usage and produce a surplus. Without storage, that surplus is exported to the grid for a feed-in credit, which under Synergy's Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme is usually worth less than what you pay to buy power back in the evening. Storage captures the surplus instead, so you draw on your own energy after sunset rather than paying grid rates.
That gap, between the low export credit and the higher import rate, is where most of the value of storage comes from in Perth.
What a storage system includes
A home battery storage setup is more than the battery on the wall:
- The battery: where energy is stored, rated in usable kilowatt-hours
- An inverter: either a hybrid inverter that handles solar and battery, or a dedicated battery inverter alongside your existing solar inverter
- Monitoring: an app or portal showing what is stored, used, and exported
- Optional backup: wiring that keeps selected circuits running during an outage, configured at install time
How much storage do you need
Sizing comes down to how much electricity you use when the sun is not shining, mostly the evening and overnight. A home that uses most of its power before 4pm needs less storage than one where everyone arrives home at 6pm and runs the oven, aircon, and screens at once.
The most reliable way to size storage is to look at your actual usage. Most Perth homes have a smart meter, so you can see your usage in half-hour blocks through Synergy's portal. Size to cover a typical evening and overnight, and accept drawing a little from the grid on the occasional heavy day, rather than paying for capacity that sits empty most of the year. Our sizing guide walks through this in more detail.
Air conditioning: the Perth wildcard
Summer evening aircon is the single biggest variable in Perth storage sizing. A ducted system running through a hot evening can add a large chunk to your usage. One option is a bigger battery. Another is to pre-cool the house during solar hours so the evening load is smaller. Which makes sense depends on your home and habits, and is worth discussing with an installer.
"Based on my usage data, how much of my evening and overnight use would this cover?"
The answer should be specific to your home, not a generic percentage.
"Can I add more storage later, or is this a fixed size?"
Modular systems let you start smaller and expand. Fixed units do not.
"Does my existing solar inverter work with this, or do I need a new one?"
This can meaningfully change both the design and the cost.