Solar batteries are the key technology allowing you to benefit from the electricity generated by your solar panels during daylight hours right throughout the evening so you have a 24-hour self-generated electricity supply.
Like all modern appliances – such as vehicles, phones, computers, and fridges – solar batteries have a limited lifespan and will eventually need to be replaced.
You should expect your lithium home batteries to last between 10 and 15 years under normal conditions. Some other types of solar batteries will not last this long as they use different chemistries. All batteries – in all appliances – lose their efficiency as they get older, regardless of the type.
There are several factors that can affect the useful life of a solar battery, including the number of cycles the battery has completed (that is, discharge and re-charge, which is the total amount of energy which has passed through it), as well as the overall age of the battery since it was manufactured.
This is very similar to vehicles; for example, a car with 10,000km on the clock is still new according to the odometer; however, if that car is also 20 years old, it affects how “new” the car really is.
Running a battery flat or over-charging it can also cause damage to a battery, leading to a reduced lifetime (RedEarth uses intelligent batteries, with software to protect the battery cells from these situations).
The most popular solar batteries are now lithium-ion based batteries, and higher consumer demand in recent years has made these an affordable, efficient solution in home electricity storage, with a longer lifespan than other energy storage systems.
RedEarth systems are designed so that individual batteries can be replaced as required without changing the whole system, ensuring the customers’ initial investment is never lost.
