Home Batteries Now Make A Lot Of Financial Sense! - YouTube

hello and welcome back to the channel i'm EVM   and this is all about these things, home battery  

systems. This is my GivEnergy 8.2 kWh  battery and before anyone asks, yes if i was going   

to buy another one today instead of a year or so  ago i would still buy the same one. It is still

for me the best on the market in this country and  I include the Powerwall in that one as well, but  

that's not what this video is about it's not about  this particular battery system it's about battery  

systems in general and why because of the current  energy prices in the UK electricity specifically  

of course, uh these make a huge amount of financial  sense right now. In terms of how much money they  

will save and therefore the payback period it  makes more sense to get one of these than solar  

panels in fact getting one of these without solar  panels makes a ton of financial sense so that's  

what i'm going to do on the whiteboard of truth  upstairs, show you the facts figures and sums that  

i've not just experienced over the last year  but also will experience over the coming years  

and what you can as well if you're lucky enough  to be able to afford something like this. So  

ultimately these for me right now, if you've  got the money are almost a financial no-brainer.

Now to explain this whole concept to why your  battery makes sense now financially, i'm gonna  

have to explain the type of tariff that makes it  makes sense. I'm on one called Octopus Go there  

are other tariffs with other energy companies  that effectively is cheap at night but more  

expensive during the day. Now this is what i'm on  at the moment i pay 5 pence per kWh  

for 4 hours at night and of course for the  other 20 hours I pay 15.4 pence but that's only  

because I fixed mine back in May. So for the next  year, well not until next May, that's what i'm on  

If because of the current ridiculous price rises  I changed it now or i was a new customer or I just  

you know it expired, whatever. I wouldn't  be paying 15.4 pence so this highlights  

how much electricity has just gone up in the last  six months alone. It would go from 15.4 to 23.4

23.4 pence from 15. That's a hell of a  price increase and i'm not having to go  

Octopus on this one everyone has gone up a  similar amount. Now the point of this tariff  

is that this 5p stays the same it  might go up at some point in the future  

but all indications are this is where they want to  keep it, because using a lot of electricity during  

the really cheap off-peak period in the middle  of the night is beneficial for an energy company  

actually helps them out makes it cheaper for them.  So this is in their interest to keep it like that  

which is why it's ultimately designed for electric  vehicle drivers because you can tell your car to  

charge at night time every time and then it's  got its own battery to carry on, carrying on  

through the day. The house is a bit different  though because without a home battery system,

yeah you'll get 4 hours at 5 pence and  you might be able to move things into that 5p

period, like your dishwasher or washing machine,  you know stuff that are like high load appliances.  

But you have to use electricity during the day  and you're going to have to use it at this price  

so it kind of offsets the savings doesn't  it unless you have an electric vehicle.

For this purposes however there is no EV in the  calculations, not that it'd change anything, but i'm  

i'm making no EV on this one no solar panels so  you're not generating your own electricity. This is  

based on a house that has nothing versus a house  that just has a home battery system, and of course  

on the tariffs that are available from now onwards  especially after the price cap increases in the  

next what month or two or whenever it happens.  Over the next, let's face it, 6 to 12 months, 

that's going to go up again i'm sure of  that. It's all about as you can probably tell  

moving as much usage to this period the 5p not  just the high load appliances imagine if you  

can move your entire house usage to this 5p period  just like you can with an electric vehicle because  

an electric vehicle has a big battery so you get a  battery at home which has the same sort of benefit  

as an EV does and you charge it up at 5p. Then  it powers the house throughout the rest of the 20  

hours at 23.4 p. You're never going to get total  zero usage during the day because of inertia and  

various other fluctuations that you might end up  using, you know the battery might not be big enough  

to see you throughout that full 20 hour period  on every day. Remember this is about averages  

you'll use more in winter than less in summer and so forth. So let's do the sums now. So, for an  

average family house, so this is a family house not  just the UK average, I've used 12 kWh

per day so that's a family house and not a  you know whether one or two of you in a flat  

or anything like that I've come to the conclusion  that you could quite easily with an 8.2 kWh

battery use 10 kW during the cheap  period and 2 during the expensive period. In part  

that's by moving, as i said, some of the high load  appliances to the 5p, whilst the home batteries  

charging and then because of inertia and various  other blips here and there, i'm gonna say that on  

average you use about 2 at the expensive day  rate. I've done plenty of days where that's been  

very very little to next to nothing and i have  switched my solar panels off on this one so it  

was a pretty accurate test. So all we do now is (10x5p), (2x23.4p) and that will give us our  

daily cost for electricity with the home battery  system and then we'll look at the standard rate. 96,  

well let's call it 97p rather than 96.8. So 97p  would be well an average cost for that electricity  

on the for a day effectively 0.08p pretty much  smack bang on 8 pence per kWh. Having  

a home battery has meant that is my average now  and it's easily obtainable by other people. All  

you need to do is be on a time-of-day tariff  and have that battery system so now we've got  

these figures we can pick we can compare it to the  flat rate tariffs and what and you can use it to  

compare it against what you will be on, once you  have to change to a different tariff once yours  

expires once the price cap increases in before  the end of the year, i believe it is. Here we are  

8pence per kWh remember our average  daily usage is 12 kWh, so all i need to  

do now is say right well let's imagine you were on  20 p per kWh day and night how much  

would it cost you for that day and then obviously  multiply that by 365 to give us a yearly average  

i think between 25 and 30 pence is the UK average  now, it's just gone ridiculous and in another 6

to 12 months we're probably further down here. So  the further into the future we go, logically, the  

more expensive this will be due to inflation and  various other factors. I really do not think and  

neither does anybody else in the world or rather  in the UK think that we are going to drop back  

down to the prices that we used to kind of like  the 13, 14, 15 pence per kWh. It's just not going  

to happen, this is what it's like now. OK, here we  are so if you are on that 20p which again i think  

is uh fantasy land now or by the end of the year  will be you pay 2.40 per day or the equivalent  

of £876 a year. 25p £1095. £1314 if you're at  30 pence, so i think that for me is the likely one.  

£1533 per year just for electricity, if  you're paying an average of 35p. So with the  

battery we were paying, was it 97 pence per day?  Which effectively means that if i just do some  

quick calculations in my head and not on my phone  underneath here. So the with battery figure is  

(let me do that in a different  color so it's highlighted)

£354 that's how much the home  battery gives you the benefit of.  

So what are the savings? Let me now add that to  this mix just so i can talk about it easier. Here  

are the savings! So, now you need to figure out what  your average pence per kWh and therefore  

you can do all these sums, It's going to be,  let's say January, so if you say well i can get  

an average of 20p per kWh, remember  no solar, no benefits at all it's just house usage.  

Then you're still going to save £522 by  having a home battery and being on a split rate  

tariff. If you're average whether you're on a split  rate or a flat rate tariff turns out to be 25p, you  

will save £741 a year. 30p i mean when i  got onto British Gas's website I got the cheapest  

tariff, they were going to offer me, right now, it  was 30p, just over 30p per kWh!

So if i compared that against what i'm on now with  a home battery compared to not having it with home  

battery, nearly a thousand pounds a year saving!  That's astronomical! 35p, so in a couple of years,  

certainly three years maybe who can predict. 35 p  is probably going to be average the home battery  

will be saving you not far off £1200 a year.  So this is is only going to get more in favor of  

the battery the higher the price goes compared to  the cheap rate so if the 5p goes to 10p, that will  

reduce a bit but i suspect as i said because  night time usage is beneficial and makes the  

money ultimately for the energy company, because  that's when electricity is very cheap sometimes  

you'll get paid for it. I don't think that 5p is  going anyway and again i'm using Octopus Go as  

an example but there are other companies that do  this sort of type of tariff, it's just I'm familiar  

with Go. So if we look at these costs now, how  much does the home battery system, installed,  

actually going to cost somebody because ultimately  if it's a gazillion pounds for one it doesn't  

matter what you're saving does it. So let me  give you an idea of what it might cost you  

for effectively the same system i've got which is  the 8.2 kWh usable battery system. My  

installation was very straightforward because  they just whacked it on the side of the garage  

wall which was next to the consumer unit and  it was a straightforward installation. If you  

want to put yours in the loft and the consumer  units downstairs, it's of course going to increase  

your cost. So everybody's different consider  this a a fairly standard average. 8.2 battery  

plus VAT, installed, I've been given the average of,  that's a terrible pound sign, i apologize! £3900  

So, just shy of £4k. Call it £4,000 I guess if you will. For that fully installed  

battery system and these are your savings so i  guess, again, you need to figure out where you are  

on this table to know where your payback period  is. If i just quickly grab my calculator and pick  

30 pence. Remember this is only going to go up as  the years progress so if you think you're here  

now you'll be down here probably in a year or  so. So you've got to factor in inflation as well. So  

let's say we're saving £850. Let's pick  somewhere in the middle. £3,900 divided by......

4.58 years!

That's less than a five-year payback period  and if the price as i suspect does go down here  

you're looking at probably less than a four-year  payback period. It depends on how good you are how  

much you use of course there's so many variables  which is why all could go is go off is averages. 

Ultimately though i think anything with under  a 10-year payback period is, if you have that  

money to invest of course you need that in the  first place this is an awful lot of money! But if  

you happen to have that and think well i've been  umm-ing and ahh-ing about a battery for a while or should i  

get solar panels and then a battery. Personally,  i would go for the battery before the panels. 

What you're getting out of a bank? 0.1% or something? Buy one of these and look at the yearly savings  

so after 10 years you're going to have saved  thousands of pounds. Right any questions please  

do so in the comments section. I've gone through this  with the fine toothed comb, i'm pretty confident  

in these figures and based on my own  experience and again speaking to the people. 

If you are looking at a batch system i personally  would stick with GivEnergy, that's what i  

researched and bought a year or so ago myself  and that's what i would still do today. There's  

a lot of new stuff coming out with them and uh  i will show you that at some point in the future  

especially of course if i expand my array to a bigger battery size. Even if you think you're  

going to be moving soon because let's face it a  home battery system, certainly compared to solar,  

very easy to take it with you. An electrician will  come and basically unplug everything for you, make  

it safe. You move it to your new house and then  the plumb it back in again! You can do that with  

solar panels but i think very few people would. So there's a lot of people I've spoken to that  

said well i'm going to get solar panels but  we're planning on moving in a couple of years  

so there's no point! Well that doesn't exist with  the battery system. This is a conservative estimate.  

As the years progress people will pay more and  i think the gulf between that cheap night time  

and the uh more expensive daytime rate will  do that, rather than go together. As YouTube will  

probably want me to say i am not a financial  advisor this is what i chose to do a year ago.  

Partly because of the tariff savings, although  they were closer to up here than down here,  

partly because of the solar panels of  course. I feel immensely fortunate or should i  

say i have great foresight that i did that because  now my fuel bills are (without solar) closer to that  

than they are closer to these. Well when i say  fuel my electricity bills excluding the car of  

course, but with this and solar panels i'm probably  not paying much more than that including the car.  

But again i'm in a fortunate position to  have both. Has anybody got a home battery  

system and seen similar savings um have you got  anything good or bad to say about them? You know,  

let's use the comment section as a bit of a  wiki for people. As I'm an ultimate professional  

and i didn't charge all the batteries up for that  camera and I've got no charge left and i can't  

bother charging one just to literally say thanks  for watching and remember people who are members  

get this video a week early they get the podcast  early and their members on the videos as well.

Let's face it if i've just saved you £800 or  a thousand pounds a year what's 99p a month? Bargain!

okay sales pitch is over a s i said thank  you for watching and please do let me know  

if you've got any ideas or inklings about  this have you got a battery system yourself  

let us know in the comment section so  yeah thanks for watching i'll see you soon