Posted by So back at the start of 2025, I wrote an article arguing why I didn’t think it was worth getting a home battery in Tasmania.
But then the federal battery rebate was announced, and I just had this question in my head around whether a battery was or wasn’t worth it to reduce carbon emissions, and so I went out and got some quotes to see how a home battery install would cost.
Interestingly, out of the three companies I approached (using SolarQuotes recommendations), one company I approached basically told me that they’d looked at my house on some database and there was nowhere that a battery could be added, and even if it could, there were no batteries offering home backup which were compatiable with my solar system.
The second company, actually sent someone out to visit, but again told me a battery was a waste of time and instead said I should spend about $4,000 putting more insulation in my ceilings.
This actually sounded like good advice, except when I mentioned that I had a FLIR thermal imaging camera and it was showing me that all my heat loss seemed to be through my windows, doors and up the stairs and skylight, I just didn’t get any sense they were listening to me. It felt like they had a hammer, so the whole world was a nail. Added to that the fact our house has an extension on top which I strongly suspect would prevent access to a lot of the ceiling space, I decided not to go down this option.
This the led to Alex’s visit from IWantEnergy and that went great.
He identified a number of different places I could potentially install the battery around the house for me to consider, left me with his thoughts on a few different batteries with different pros and cons and also priced an option with extra solar and why he thought that was a good idea.
I decided to go with a FranklinWH battery (the other option I was looking at was the SigEnergy battery, but as I already have a car charger installed, the main benefit I saw from them was nullified) and I also added an extra 7 solar panels to my roof which would lift my total solar capacity from around 4Kw to 7Kw.
Total cost was around $17,000 (incl GST) after the rebate (which was roughly $17,000 for the battery install and $5,500 for the solar panel install noting I have a very complex, and two story roof less total rebates of $5,500).
September 15 2025 was install day, and that went smoothly. Now we see how it goes …
