Home battery storage guides
The topic pages cover the main decisions. These guides go deeper into the ideas behind them: seasons, units, real choices, losses, everyday life with a battery, its lifespan and the tariffs it can work with.
Where to start
New to storage? Read "kW and kWh" and "Winter and summer" first: almost every sizing question comes back to them. Already have a battery? "Living with a battery" covers the handover and settings.
- Winter and summerPVGIS June and December days per kWp, and why a solar-fed battery rests in winter.
- kW and kWhThe tank and the tap: why a full battery can still draw from the grid, and how kW sets the network route.
- What households installOfficial DESNZ figures on the sizes registered with MCS in 2025/26, and how the mix moved.
- Round-trip efficiencyWhere the lost kWh go, and why losses matter most for grid charging.
- Living with a batteryThe handover checklist, alarms, shutdown, settings and the papers to keep.
- Lifespan and warrantyYears and energy limits, working warranted kWh out against your own use.
- Time-of-use tariffsSingle rate, Economy 7 and 10, fixed time-of-use and dynamic tariffs, in energy terms.
How these guides fit together
Two of the guides are about physics: the seasons decide how much spare solar there is to store, and the difference between kW and kWh decides what a battery can run at once and which network route applies. One is about what other households have actually chosen, from DESNZ's statistics (published 28 May 2026, read 3 November 2026). Two are about the battery itself over time: the energy it loses on each cycle and how long it is likely to last. The last two are practical: living with one day to day, and the tariffs that let a battery charge from the grid.
Each guide opens with a short answer, then a table you can use on its own, then the detail. They are written to be read in any order, but if you only read two, read the seasons guide and the one on kW and kWh: between them they explain most of the surprises people meet in their first year with a battery.
All of them stay in kWh, kW and hours. For the sizing arithmetic with your own figures, use what size battery; for the energy flows behind everything, start with how a solar battery works; and for definitions, see battery terms.
What this page is based on
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