Choosing the right battery for you

There are plenty of battery options out there – and more coming to market every day! As you’re comparing one option to another, pay attention to these metrics to ensure you get the best battery for you:

• Power rating (kilowatt, kW): can the  battery power your critical appliances at the same time? If you want to power more of your home at once, look for a battery with a high power rating.
• Battery size/usable storage capacity (kW): how long will the battery power part of your home? If you want to keep your appliances running for a longer period of time, look for a battery with a higher usable capacity.
• Roundtrip efficiency (%): how much electricity will you get out of the battery, relative to what you put into it? If you want to get the most energy out of your battery, look for batteries with higher roundtrip efficiencies.
• Throughput / cycles: how many times can you expect to charge/discharge your battery during its lifetime? How much electricity can you expect to move through it? In most cases, the higher throughput, the more cycles, the better. If you want the longest battery lifetime, look for lithium-ion nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries.
• Quality: how does the battery rank on EnergySage’s unbiased equipment rating scale? Make sure you’re paying a fair price given the equipment quality.

These are just a few of the most common decision criteria for installing a battery. You can learn more about the decision factors above, plus a few others, in our article about picking a solar battery.

Other resources for comparing batteries

• EnergySage Buyer’s Guide – compare aesthetics, performance, and warranty across battery products.
• Review of the best solar batteries – see how the top solar batteries stack up against one another
• Most popular batteries on EnergySage – find out which solar batteries are fan favorites on our Marketplace