Importance of Residential Energy Storage Systems

When solar panels were first being installed in neighborhoods nationwide, forty years ago, the relationship with the local utility was simple: they sent electricity down the wires, homeowners sent money up the phone lines. But as energy prices have soared higher than ever before, and grid reliability has sunk to an all-time low, we’re starting to demand more.

Your home should be protected against rolling blackouts that can last for days. Your family needs power during peak hours when electricity prices are at their highest. 

We want to store electricity when it’s plentiful, so we can use it when we need it most — and those systems aren’t going to be wired up and correctly configured on their own! That’s where the RESS comes into play. Let’s look at what residential energy storage systems are — and how they can benefit you and your family.

Residential Energy Storage Systems | RESS Defined 

In the simplest terms, a residential energy storage system (or RESS) is a box of batteries that store the electricity used in your home. These systems are commonly used with solar panels on the rooftop, but they can also be charged from your utility grid when energy prices are at their lowest.

Most residential energy storage systems have four main components that function together seamlessly:

• Battery Bank: The batteries themselves. Most installers offer customers Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries due to their high-temperature tolerance, safety, and life expectancy.

• Inverter: Remember, your battery stores energy as DC power, but your appliances use AC power. That extra conversion is handled by the inverter.

• Battery Management System (BMS): The internal computer that constantly watches over your battery cells to ensure they aren’t overheating or overcharging.

• Energy Management System (EMS): The software brains that tells your battery when to charge from the sun, when to store energy, and when to discharge back into your home to save you money.

The Self-Reliance Opportunities of Energy Storage Systems 

When you acquire an energy storage system, it’s typically not for one single reason. You may be looking to harden your home’s grid resilience, save on electricity, or help the environment — or all of these at the same time! Let’s discuss the increasingly primary motivation for most American homeowners today: energy security.

If your solar panel system is connected to the grid, then your panels will shut off during a power outage. This is standard procedure to ensure no power is “back-fed” into the lines, putting utility workers at risk. Simply put: if the grid goes down, your solar panels go down with it. But if you add energy storage solutions to your setup, you essentially create a safe island, or microgrid, for your home.

Once your sensors recognize that the grid has gone offline, they signal your solar energy storage system to temporarily disconnect from the utility and start powering your home. With the right battery capacity, you can keep powering your refrigerator, Wi-Fi network, and other necessary circuits indefinitely. Every situation is different, but there are a few key ways your home and family can benefit from an energy storage system.

• Use more of the solar energy your roof produces instead of sending it back to the grid for pennies on the dollar

• Reduce your carbon footprint by relying less on “peaker plants” that burn fossil fuels to meet high demand

• Help stabilize the grid at the macro level by allowing individual homes to reduce their total demand

Do You Have the Space and Resources for a Home Battery?

Ask yourself these three questions before making a purchase.

• Do you need your battery to support your whole-home load (including central AC) or just your essential load (lights, fridge, etc. )? 

• Can your current solar inverter natively connect to a battery, or do you need an AC-coupled (battery-backed) system?

• Do you have the garage or outdoor wall space to install a NEC-compliant battery storage system?

Using Intelligent Batteries with an Energy Management System

A solar battery sitting in your garage can’t think for itself — that’s why you need an intelligent energy management system (EMS) to get the biggest return on your investment. With artificial intelligence and advanced predictive monitoring, your EMS can predict how you’re going to use energy throughout the day.

For instance, if your EMS knows a hurricane is about to hit tomorrow (thanks to your local weather API), it may decide to keep your battery at full charge just in case. On a hot summer day, your EMS may choose to discharge your battery in the evening hours to avoid your utility’s high Time-of-Use (TOU) rates. That’s smart energy management at work! 

Cutting Costs With Residential Energy Storage Systems 

The value proposition for solar batteries has drastically changed over the last decade as utilities update their rate structures. Gone are the days of flat-rate pricing, giving way to tiered systems that charge you astronomical fees if you so much as look at your kWh meter between four and nine p.m.

Save on Time-Of-Use (TOU) Pricing 

With the right energy storage solution, you can charge your battery overnight, when electricity prices are low, then discharge your battery back into your home during the peak hours your utility is charging the most! Arbitrage away those expensive “peak hours,” and watch your system pay for itself.

Earn Money as Part of a Virtual Power Plant (VPP)

Utilities are deploying new programs that pay you to support the grid. By letting your utility draw up to 1 kW of power from your solar energy storage solutions during times of extreme demand, you can qualify for annual performance payments and/or lucrative up-front rebates. Rather than costing you money each month, your home can actually make you money!

SolarBridge Technology | Your Partner in Home Energy Storage

Going off-grid and onto a fully domestic-made energy platform isn’t something you should take lightly. You need a company that has kept pace with the changing regulations and technology to guide you through the process. 

The cutting-edge SolarBridge Technology facility in Dallas, Texas, takes pride in manufacturing NON-FEOC products and ensuring your investment is safe from global embargos.

Whether you need help upgrading your old Pantheon microinverters or you’re looking for a Texas-made, AI-powered energy management system for your new solar+storage project, we’ve got you covered. Let’s help bring America back to energy independence together.