Money · Cost note
The running cost of having a battery
Updated
Round-trip losses, a possible monitoring subscription, and a service visit if you want one are the running costs. There is no filter to change every month as on an air conditioner.
The figure, and what it leaves out
There is also no free energy. Night units still appear on the bill. People still want a number. A fair illustration for this 10 kWh sketch is £6,880 fitted at the temporary 0% residential rate, before a new board, scaffold, a long cable or a gateway.
Take a 10 kWh pack, cycled about 280 times, at 90% round trip. Charge at 11.0p, and value what comes back at 27.2p. Export given up is priced at 6.0p. About 1600 kWh a year of the charge is treated as spare solar from 4 kWp that might otherwise have been exported. Delivered energy is about 2520 kWh. After charging cost and lost export, the sketch saves about £477 a year. Set that against £6,880 fitted, which is a September 2026 illustration at the temporary 0% residential rate, not a quote. That is a simple payback of about 14.4 years on these assumptions. Nudge the night rate up by 4p and see if you still like it.
Lines that move the total
In most single-phase houses in Britain, 3.6 kW is in the band where G98 connect-and-notify is often enough. Export can still be capped. Agree that before the inverter is ordered. The sketch uses 10 kWh and 4 kWp, which is enough to tell two quotes apart if they assumed something else.
A consumer unit with no spare way is extra. A gateway is extra, and only if backup was the brief. Exclusions are fine when they are written down. Hidden ones are why two quotes sit thousands apart.
A number I would not chase
Where the job is a qualifying install in a home, the 0% rate runs to 31 March 2027 and is due to become 5% after that. This sketch prices the work at £6,880 on that basis. It does not apply to a shop, and it does not apply to a battery you buy and fit yourself.
I would not treat backup as included on a 10 kWh quote unless the circuits are listed. Price per kWh is a blunt tool. Put inverter kilowatts and the name that honours the warranty back into the comparison.
Before a deposit, I would want usable capacity, the warranty counterparty and a G98 note for this 3.6 kW inverter. The cupboard has to be a place you can stand in, at a temperature the datasheet allows. A five-minute video is not that.
Common questions
Is the price on this page a quote?
No. £6,880 is a September 2026 illustration for a 10 kWh example at the temporary 0% residential rate. Your survey replaces it.
Will it stay on in a power cut?
Only if a gateway or essential-load board was designed and paid for. A standard grid-tied battery turns off with the grid. On this 10 kWh sketch the inverter is 3.6 kW, and backup is still a separate line.
What paperwork should I keep?
Keep the MCS certificate where the job is certified, the electrical certificate, the DNO record, the schematic, the warranty registration and a photo of the schedule. For an illustrated £6,880 job, that folder is part of what you bought.
What if the cheap rate is not 7p?
Then the sketch changes. This page used 11.0p as a charge rate and 27.2p as the rate avoided. A smaller gap means a worse payback. Read the live tariff.
Sources
Want a price for your house?
The figures above are a rough guide. An installer still needs to see your fuse board, where the battery will go, and whether you want power during a blackout.