Solar Battery Storage& Retrofit Installationin Winchester & Hampshire

On a retrofit there are two routes. An AC-coupled battery has its own inverter and sits alongside your existing solar inverter, which leaves the original system untouched and is usually quicker and less disruptive. A hybrid inverter replaces your existing inverter with one that manages panels and battery together, which is more efficient and gives better control, but means changing working equipment.

Which is right depends on the age and condition of your current inverter, whether its warranty still has useful life, and how much capacity you eventually want. Where the decision is genuinely close we quote both so you can see the cost difference rather than take our word for it.

On new solar installations we fit a hybrid inverter sized for the battery capacity you may want later, not just the one you are buying now. That single decision is what makes a future upgrade a half-day job instead of an inverter replacement.

Useful capacity, not nameplate capacity, is what matters. Modern lithium iron phosphate batteries allow deep daily cycling and are warranted on a throughput or cycle basis, so a battery that cycles once a day within its rated depth of discharge behaves predictably over its warranted life.

We size around measured evening consumption, then check the array can realistically fill that capacity across the year. A 5kWh battery that fills and empties every day earns more than a 15kWh battery that half-fills: which is why the honest answer at survey is sometimes a smaller unit than you expected, with the option to add a module later.

Manufacturer warranties on supplied equipment run up to 30 years depending on brand and product; each warranty period is set out on your quote so you can compare like with like against other installers.

Batteries need a location with a stable temperature, ventilation, safe working clearance and sensible cable routes: garages, utility rooms, plant cupboards and outbuildings usually work well; sealed airing cupboards and loft spaces above habitable rooms usually do not. Wall-mounted units need a substrate that will carry the load, and floor-standing units need a level, dry base.

Cable route length affects both cost and losses, so the position of the battery, inverter and consumer unit relative to each other is part of the design rather than an afterthought. Where the consumer unit cannot accommodate the new circuits safely, we quote a board upgrade as a clearly separated line so you can see exactly what it adds.

Domestic storage is sized around the evening peak and a time-of-use tariff, and is usually installed and commissioned in a day. Commercial storage is sized around a business load profile and half-hourly data, where the value often comes from capacity charges and peak shaving rather than simple evening cover.

Workshops, offices and farm buildings frequently consume most of what they generate during trading hours, so storage is specified to catch weekend generation and to protect against expensive demand peaks. Three-phase supplies, metering arrangements and access planning around the working day are all handled in the quote.