Battery storage, with or without solar panels, is a great selling point for your property, offering new homeowners an opportunity to hugely reduce their monthly utility bills. But at the same time, if you’ve invested precious time and money in setting up a battery system at your home, it’s understandable that you might not want to leave it behind if you move house. Here’s a closer look at how to ensure your investment is protected if you decide to sell your home.
Should I leave my battery or take it with me?
Though you might consider taking your battery storage system with you to your new home, that probably isn't feasible. Battery storage systems are tailored to meet the unique energy requirements of each home. This means that during the installation process, an installer will work closely with you to understand your household’s energy patterns. For example, the days and times when you use the most energy, which appliances you use most regularly and what billing plan you’re on with your utility provider.
An installer uses this data to program and configure a battery to meet your energy needs. This includes automating what days-of-the-week and times-of-day the battery charges and disperses its power, whether the battery is charged from the grid or from rooftop solar panels and what household appliances your battery feeds its power to.
Photo courtesy of Panasonic Eco Systems
This means that while moving your battery to a new location is technically possible, it isn’t always the best option, says Vincent Curcie, Chief Executive Officer of Orange County Solar, a Californian installer. Unplugging, transporting and re-wiring a battery will require a professional installer and you will also need to go through the permitting and utility inspection process again.
“You’re mainly taking the materials from the old job, which is expensive, as well as relocating the battery,” explains Curcie, which means it could cost you as much as $10,000 at the same time as potentially affecting your battery warranty. Instead, leaving your battery behind is a great selling point for your property, he says.
Can a battery increase the sale price of my property?
Battery storage can reduce utility bills by as much as 30 to 70 percent, says Curcie. Often combined with solar, it perhaps isn’t surprising that solar-plus-storage offers an attractive selling point to buyers. And in fact studies show that homes with solar panels sell for an average of 4.1% more than comparable homes without solar panels across the US. Even better—they also sell faster.
This means that you could use your battery storage system to squeeze more equity out of the sale of your property, explains Curcie. Money that you could then combine with federal and state incentives to help you significantly mitigate the cost of installing a solar-plus-storage system at your new home. Simply put, selling your solar-plus-storage system along with your home can help to finance a similar system in your new home.
How can I meet the costs of a new battery?
In addition to commanding a higher sale price for your property, there are also federal and state incentives available that can significantly lower the cost of purchasing a new system The most generous is the Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which allows you to deduct as much as 26 percent of the total cost of your system from your federal taxes, provided your battery is exclusively charged from a renewable source like rooftop solar. This incentive can shave as much as $3,000 to $5,000 off the cost of your entire solar-plus-storage system.
Additionally, many states also offer their own incentives that when combined with the ITC can shave thousands of dollars off the cost of a new system. California for example pays homeowners a dollar-per-kilowatt rebate for energy storage. And Maryland offers a tax credit covering 30 percent of your storage system up to $5,000. But bear in mind that it’s currently only available through 2022 and there’s a cap on the funding levels available each year. To make sure you offset as much of the cost of your solar-plus-battery solution as possible, take a look at the database of state incentives to find out what’s on offer in your area.
Is it worth investing in solar-plus-battery storage?
Aside from realizing significant savings on your home energy bills, solar-plus-storage offers greater independence from utility companies and more control over your energy bills by reducing your exposure to fluctuating energy prices. At the same time, it increases energy security by providing a back-up source of power you can tap into when there’s an outage. This can be especially important in a time where rolling blackouts and unexpected outages are becoming more common.
Photo courtesy of Panasonic Eco Systems
By creating your own renewable energy on-site and then being able to store it for use at a later date, solar-plus-storage ensures you always have access to a free source of power when you need it most. This might be during a storm or freak weather event, when the power goes out unexpectedly. On a more day-to-day basis, however, you can save money on power during times of peak demand, when utility prices are at their highest. These savings ensure that your solar-plus-storage solution will pay for itself over time.
What if I’ve moved into a house with solar and batteries?
If you’re lucky enough to move into a house that already has solar-plus-battery storage, there’s very little you need to do since solar and battery systems are designed to need minimal maintenance and to last the long-term. Just be sure to let the manufacturer know that you are the new owner, to protect any existing warranties. The seller should also provide you with any existing warranty documentation to help ease the transition. And for peace of mind, it’s also worth getting an installer to check your system to ensure it’s all operating as it should.
If you have additional questions about your solar battery or would like an installer to inspect the solar-plus-storage system in your new home, your Panasonic installer can help.
