Battery System

Everything you need to know about batteries

Palomar Solar & Roofing waited patiently for years before jumping into installing batteries.  We are always very cautious with introducing our valuable customers to new technology and quite frankly there was not a battery we were comfortable putting our reputation on the line for.

However, that all changed once we installed our first Enphase battery in 2020 and since then have been trusted to install hundreds of them.

Up until April 14^th, 2023, and the switch to NEM 3 our stance was that batteries only made sense for someone who was concerned about the power going out.  Yes, there was a lot of companies “selling” the story of making money off of installing batteries, but the truth is it saved very little and the investment was really in peace of mind.

Now with the passing of NEM 3 in most cases solar will not financially make sense without a battery. Under NEM 3 the utilities pay you very little for the extra power you put on the grid, so you want to self-consume as opposed to making the meter spin backwards. The only way to be sure is to download your annual green button data from your online utility account and provide it to the solar contractor (If the contractor you are working with does not ask for this information run!)  This is the only way to tell how much power you are using between 4-9 pm. and therefor how big of battery or batteries do you need.

Why does the specific period 4-9 matter so much?  Under NEM 3 once you go solar you are switched to a TOU (Time of Use) plan where they charge $.85 per kWh between 4-9 pm.  It is possible if you go solar without a battery that your electric bill could go up depending on how much of your power is consumed between 4-9pm.

Under NEM 3 solar is a much more detailed technical purchase.  Now more than ever you need to do your research on the company you are considering.  Again, if the contractor you are working with does not ask for your green button data, RUN!

We have installed as many as 120 kW (12-10 kW Enphase batteries) on a single residential home all the way down to 10 kW.  Over the last three years our data shows that most homes need 10-40kW depending on their usage and what they want to back up in the even of a power outage.

No job is too big or too small and you can be sure we will not be learning on your project.