The power of the battery is 3.3Kw, to gain maximum usage of the battery, we only ever use 3Kw of the battery to ensure that there is enough power in reserve for the battery management system within the battery, this protects the battery.
The weight of the battery is 96Kg and needs to situated in a ventilated area, the battery cannot be in a loft area or outside unless in a water proof box which is ventilated.
The battery is separate to the solar system and is connected to the Grid similar to plugging in any other 230v piece of equipment, the unit comes with a grid monitoring box which is constantly sending information to the Social Energy cloud.
This is connected via your router and can be done using a wireless device if required such as TP link or Powerline.
The software is very clever, it profiles you as a customer, your usage pattern for the grid and in tests has shown to accurately anticipate your solar generation by incorporating the size of your solar system and the weather 24 hours in advance, this allows you to use all the power from the battery at the best possible times to give you the best savings, whilst still being available for the National Grid if they call on your battery to balance the power in your area.
We rarely see Frequency spikes as the National Grid are very good at balancing power to our homes, normally uncertain events don’t happen but a good example is we rely on France to provide power through 2 powerlines, if the fuse was to disconnect on these lines then that could trigger a frequency response event, highly unlikely are such events, hence your system is acting as a life insurance policy for the grid and you get paid to sit in standby for such events to happens.
Social Energy is working hard behind the scenes to launch its utility company for January 1st 2019, prior to then you will see numerous news articles which will be co-ordinated via a PR agency, we expect a Social Energy contract to be issued prior to your installation and as more information is becomes available we will update you on exciting news on your benefits and the product. Social energy only take a managed charge on any savings and benefits that are made which is 30%
Your payments will be represented on your new utility bill.
The battery life is approximately 10,000 cycles which represents 1 cycle to be fully charged to fully discharged, the warranty from the manufacturer is 10 years, however there is no reason why the battery cannot exceed the 10 years guarantee from the supplier.
Yes, the battery cells can be replaced within the unit for you to continue using the full power of the system should you require in the future. The approximate cell price per Kw today is approximately £350.
Yes, you can move supplier at any time, Social Energy is currently the only utility business with the ability to offer multiple services via your battery via the Social Energy Hub, we envisage there will be more utilities that will gain access to Grid services market in the future.
Social Energy fully manage your battery system for you, your billing and your credits will be all automatic, the only request is that you maintain your broadband connection to ensure the battery is visible on the cloud at least 90% of the time.(your credits could be affected if the battery is not visible and connected to the internet.)
You can still enjoy your battery savings from self-consumption by using the solar system and take advantage of the Frequency response payments, however, some of the savings come from avoiding peak cost of electricity at wholesale prices which are impossible to measure without a smart meter and the full benefit of Social Energy to measure and monitor these benefits on your behalf
The rates are still being agreed with the wholesaler, however the rates are expected to be less than the big 6 energy companies and be extremely competitive.
Yes, overtime the battery will deplete and provide less available power for you to use, As Frequency response is only using power from your battery for seconds, there only needs to be a minimum amount of capacity from your battery.