With fuel prices and energy prices on the rise, there has never been a better time to look at green energy solutions such as solar PV panels. UK Green Energy Installations can work with you to ensure you invest in the best panels for your business or household. Consider battery storage and electric car charger installation at the same time, so you can absorb it, store it, and use it!
Future-Proofing your Electric Car Charger
If you’re thinking of installing a car charger soon or in the future, it is worth considering future-proofing it. This means ensuring that the charger can be integrated with both solar panels and battery storage.
Why?
Charge your car directly from the energy generated from your solar panels i.e. with the Zappi car charger.
If you don’t have solar panels, you could charge your battery storage solution during off-peak and charge your car anytime of day or night i.e. during peak rate and only pay off-peak rate.
With energy prices on the rise, it is worth taking extra steps to save money and decrease your carbon footprint even further.
You're in Control with the GivEnergy app
Making those fine adjustments to maximise both your cost savings and flexibility around your daily routines has never been easier, with the user friendly app from GivEnergy, a British battery storage manufacturer.
The mobile app
The mobile app from GivEnergy (shown above) is mainly for monitoring usage anytime of day including:
Checking how much energy is being produced from your solar panels (if you have them installed)
How much charge the battery has
What it’s status is i.e. whether its charging or discharging
What proportion of energy is being generated from green energy
What energy is currently being consumed
The desktop app
The desktop app is designed to provide additional functionality including:
Setting the battery for charging and discharging
Grid reliance
and any alarms and information from the inverters
Three Different Ways to Utilise Battery Storage
The technology for battery storage is continually evolving and most associate battery storage with storing energy produced from solar panels. However, that is not the only way to benefit from battery storage and this short blog post outlines three ways in which battery storage can be leveraged.
1) Storing low peak energy
With energy prices rising, taking advantage of any reduction in the tariff price is very tempting. With battery storage, you don’t need solar or a car charger, you can just use the battery for extracting the energy during off-peak times. You can then utilise the stored energy whenever you like, including during peak times. With some peak rates three times that of off-peak rates, the savings could be significant.
2) Using battery storage with a car charger
With the increase in electric car usage, more and more of us are exploring electric car charger installation for the home or for business premises. Using battery storage means you can store off-peak energy and use it to charge the car during peak rate times.
3) Using battery storage with solar panels
If you have ever thought about getting solar panels installed, battery storage can be utilised to store the energy from the solar panels, which can then be used for charging your electric car or contributing towards your household energy usage.
UK Green Energy Installations can install the complete pack including solar PV panel, battery storage and electric car chargers.
Battery Storage 101
In this blog we aim to provide some of the fundamentals of battery storage.
What is a Battery Storage System?
A battery storage system is a system that can safely store usable electric on your premises, which is ready to be utilised upon request. This can be electric generated from green energy such as PV Solar or wind turbines, or even your regular electric supply from the national grid.
How Can I Use a Battery Storage System?
A good example might be where PV Solar is installed and producing energy, but unless its utilised instantaneously it’ll go to waste. Using a storage system will enable the energy to be safely stored until its needed. A couple of different examples of how battery storage can be used are outlined below.
Scenario A)
You are out of the house working and your children are at school and there is no use for instant energy. The solar is producing energy as it is a bright sunny day, but as there is no instant requirement, the battery storage system will store this energy until you are home and ready to use it.
Scenario B)
If you don’t have solar panels installed, you can still use this very versatile storage system to make the best use of cheap rate electrical tariffs. By charging your battery system at low rate tariffs and using the stored electric during the more expensive times, you can still make significant savings.
The Battery Storage System
With the British company GivEnergy, the battery storage system comprises of an inverter (that will convert D.C to A.C power), and the battery itself.
The batteries from GivEnergy come in a variety of sizes (2.6, 5.2, and 8.2) that can be tailored to requirements, with the option to link batteries together and add more in the future.
The control of the charging and discharging can be done via the GivEnergy App, available on Android and Apple devices, allowing for total control of usage and storage.
Advantages of using an independent electric car charger installer
Whether you’re looking to install an electric car charger for your home or for the office, it’s important to consider using an independent installer for several reasons which we’ve listed below:
Range of products – independent installers such as UK Green Energy Installations often work with a range of manufacturers of car chargers to bring the best solution to the table. As they’re not restricted to using a particular brand, they can focus on ensuring the product chosen meets with the exacting requirements of the customer.
Integrated green packages – this means installers such as UK Green Energy Installation often diversify which means they don’t just install chargers, but other solutions such as solar PV and battery storage solutions can also be installed at the same time. Not only does it ensure the charger, solar and battery operate seamlessly, but it can work out cheaper than getting it installed separately.
Long-term value – rather than rushing to do the install to move onto the next job, independent installers take pride in ensuring the job is done to perfection. This is because they rely on word-of-mouth recommendations, but also because they want to ensure the product remains reliable in the short and long-term. Most installers will offer a service / maintenance package, ensuring there is no downtime so you get the most our of the install.