As a homeowner who has just invested millions of dollars worth of energy-saving technology via the solar panels on my roof, I know a thing or a million about solar energy. Or at least I would like to think that I do. Solar panels are a great investment.
You get to live off of the grid from society in an electrical way–something that has been a dream of homeowners for decades.
Now, there are questions I often get from passersby who are curious about this lifestyle. For example, everyone these days wants to know if you can save power from solar panels without a wall battery. Here’s the answer to that question and a detailed explanation.
Saving Power Without a Wall Battery
A wall battery is important to homeowners and business owners who use solar panels and want to conserve the most energy. The use of a wall battery allows you to store solar energy that is more than what you need during peak times when solar energy is at its strongest. You aren’t able to use all of the energy that comes from the sun then, and a battery lets you store the energy.
But what happens if your wall battery fails or dies and stops charging and you don’t even know it? This is a common occurrence for businesses, especially where there isn’t a watchful eye monitoring individual batteries, as you see in homes where there may be only one or two solar panels.
A portable power station for a solar panel looks like a large car battery. You can also use the battery charging power station for a number of other energy sources. There are several outlets and docks where you can plug in devices demanding up to a 500W AC input.
For comparison, a small kitchen appliance needs only 10W AC input to power up safely.
You can do a ton of stuff with these batteries, but they can only work if you are able to store solar energy in them. If not, you are left with nothing more than a big dead brick. You are no longer able to save power from your solar panels with this battery and portable power station.
Saving Power On a Grid System
The system that most homes and businesses use even when powering their structures with solar is the same energy and power utilities that everyone else locally uses. This is how you pay for your power consumption, whether you are on solar or not. Well, there are exceptions.
If you choose to live in the desert, for example, where you are intentionally off of a grid and a metered system for electricity, then you are off of a grid system. However, if you pay a power bill and use a net energy metering system in your state, then you can save power from solar panels without a wall battery.
In this case, the solar panels need to be connected to the utility grid. This is where you receive credits when you send in the excess energy.
Here is an explanation, according to Solar: “You’ll probably produce even more energy than you need at midday when the sun is shining fully. If you live in a state with net energy metering, you can send that excess power back to the grid and earn credit. This is essentially “storing” that energy on the grid to use later. When you need power at night, your system kicks into reverse and pulls the power you need. Even if you don’t produce extra electricity, you can still pull from the grid if you’re connected to it.”
The solar panels must also absorb too much energy–to the point where you cannot use it all at the time. The excess energy is then absorbed by the solar equipment. In this case, the extra energy is what is stored and you want to have access to it if possible.
There are ways you are able to get this solar energy back at nighttime when the sun goes down, even without a battery.
The energy company has a way of providing credits for the energy you save during the day, which is then redeemable for free energy during the night. This is another way to save power from solar panels without a wall battery. In fact, I would say this would be the most common way to do this, and that a lot of homes and businesses do this if they are in a state that provides net energy metering.
Most Solar Panels Come With a Battery
The bottom line is you hopefully won’t have this problem when you are installing a solar panel in your house or building. The solar panel kits sold by Lowe’s, for example, include the battery and all of the accessories to get you started.
This way you avoid the issue of saving power from solar panels without a wall battery. However, if your wall battery dies or stops charging up from power stored using solar energy, then you know you are safe. The solar panels will continue charging, which allows you to use fresh energy power while sending excess energy to the energy provider where you are in a grid.
