SolarKobo Score: 4/5
Manufacturer's Profile
SolarEdge is an Israeli company that was founded in 2006 in Herzliya, Israel. They opened their first international office in Germany in 2009, reached $100 million dollars in annual sales in 2013 and were listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015.
Since debuting its first single phase inverter in 2010 in the US, along with Enphase with whom it revolutionized the industry with their power optimizers that can serve as alternatives to string inverters, SolarEdge has dominated the US and Canada inverter markets. Best known for manufacturing solar inverters and power optimizers, in 2021, and as part of SolarEdge’s home energy solution called SolarEdge Home, designed to easily integrate solar-plus-storage with a number of SolarEdge smart home devices, including the SolarEdge Home Electric Vehicle charger, it branched out into manufacturing battery storage offering its Home Energy battery.
Key Highlights of the SolarEdge Energy Bank
Chemistry
The SolarEdge Home Battery uses lithium-ion battery chemistry. Specifically, the 400V battery is a lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) battery and the 48V battery is a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery. NMC batteries are known for their high energy density making them capable of storing a significant amount of energy relative to their physical size, while LFP batteries have a high power rating ensuring they can deliver energy quickly when needed. Both NMC and LFP batteries are common in the lithium-ion battery market, each excelling in specific areas, making them suitable for different applications.
DC-Coupled
The SolarEdge Energy Bank is a DC-coupled battery. It can be charged directly by solar panels without needing a solar inverter.
Compatibility
The SolarEdge Home Battery works exclusively with SolarEdge's Home Wave and Hub inverters. It is however, compatible with all brands of solar panels.
Modular Design
They can be stacked together to reach higher output capacities. The 400V model can be stacked up to 3X on one inverter while the 48V up to 5X on one inverter.
Performance and Depth of Discharge
The SolarEdge Home Battery has a usable capacity of 9.7kWh and can crank 5k of continuous power. It has a depth of discharge of 100% and a roundtrip efficiency of 94.5%.
Efficiency
The roundtrip efficiency of the SolarEdge Home Battery stands at 94.5 percent. This metric measures the electrical losses involved in charging and discharging the battery. A higher roundtrip efficiency percentage indicates that the battery can efficiently convert incoming electricity into stored energy and vice versa.
Models
SolarEdge offers two battery options: the Home Battery 400V and the Home Battery 48V. The Home Battery 400V integrates with a single-phase inverter and the Home Battery 48V integrates with a three-phase inverter.
400V
This model integrates seamlessly with SolarEdge's single-phase inverters, providing an efficient solution for residential setups. It can be scaled up to 3 times per one inverter. It includes a maximum power rating of 7.5 kW to go along with 9.7 kWh of usable capacity. It offers 5 kW of continuous power to allow more or higher wattage devices for longer in the event of an outage.
48V
Designed to work with SolarEdge's three-phase inverters, this variant is suitable for larger residential systems and some commercial applications. It can be scaled up to 5 times per one inverter. It offers 4.6 kWh of usable capacity. It also offer 5 kW of continuous power to allow more or higher wattage devices for longer in the event of an outage.
Warranty
The SolarEdge Home Battery has10-year warranty with unlimited cycles and throughput. This means that SolarEdge guarantees that the battery will maintain at least 70% of its capacity to hold a charge at the end of the warranty period.
In summary, the SolarEdge Home Battery offers an impressive combination of energy storage capacity, efficiency, and warranty coverage. Its however, priced well above the market average and for the majority of users, price is often the chief consideration. Also, backup functionality requires extra equipment and therefore extra cost and it does not support backup functionality. The SolarEdge Home Battery is designed to be grid-tied and is not recommended for off-grid use. Moreover, its lack of compatibility with other inverters in the market makes it a rather poor option for flexibility.
Otherwise, for quality, sophistication, longevity and performance, there are very few brands in the ESS market that can match them. They compare favourably with the benchmark of home energy storage systems, Powerwall. SolarKobo is always happen to recommend them to our clients, especially where price is not a major consideration.