Panasonic Evervolt Residence Battery Evaluation: A Modular and Highly effective Method

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Panasonic Evervolt Residence Battery

Like

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  Modular design
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  Suitable with new and current photo voltaic panel methods
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  May be put in with out photo voltaic panels
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  Good guarantee
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  Strong efficiency and effectivity

Don’t love

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  Decrease depth of discharge
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  Customer support considerations

Putting in a photo voltaic battery along with your photo voltaic panels might help you hold issues working when the ability goes out. However discovering the fitting photo voltaic battery on your dwelling may be difficult. Should you’re searching for energy and suppleness, Panasonic’s new dwelling battery may be price trying into.

The Evervolt Residence Battery was introduced again in June and is about to launch later this 12 months. The Evervolt system combines a modular battery design with a robust hybrid inverter. Vitality wants range from home to deal with, making discovering the fitting battery on your particular wants a problem. Top-of-the-line issues the Evervolt has going for it’s flexibility for quite a lot of vitality wants and makes use of. 

“All people’s wants are totally different. Among the homes are huge, some are small. Some need extra energy for air-con or working different heavier masses. So now we have flexibility for no matter they’ll get or need, and cargo administration capability,” Mukesh Sethi, director of photo voltaic and vitality storage at Panasonic, informed CNET.

We didn’t conduct any hands-on testing for this evaluation. Photo voltaic batteries are a part of a posh dwelling vitality system that varies between houses. As an alternative, this evaluation is predicated on publicly out there info on-line from Panasonic and an interview with Sethi to get essentially the most up-to-date info doable. 

Here is what you must know concerning the Panasonic Evervolt Residence Battery. 

What do you get with the Panasonic Evervolt Residence Battery?

The Evervolt Residence Battery provides a modular design, making capability choice and upgrades simpler. Smaller battery modules additionally are inclined to make for a neater set up course of. You may additionally get a hybrid inverter with a strong 7.6 kilowatts of steady backup energy. However the actual great thing about the hybrid inverter lies within the set up choices it provides you. 

With a hybrid inverter, your battery can both be AC-coupled or DC-coupled, which means it is appropriate with a brand new photo voltaic panel system or a photo voltaic system that you have already got put in on your house. Don’t desire photo voltaic panels? That is superb. The Evervolt Residence Battery may also be put in as a standalone vitality storage system with out photo voltaic. 

Listed below are the Panasonic Evervolt Residence Battery’s specs at a look.

System elements

There are 4 major elements that make up the Evervolt ecosystem:

• Battery cupboard 
• Battery modules
• Hybrid inverter
• Evervolt SmartBox

It could sound like quite a bit, however you may solely have two containers on the wall: the precise battery enclosure and the Evervolt SmartBox. The battery cupboard is a big enclosure that homes the battery modules, that are small lithium-ion batteries that may be added or faraway from the battery cupboard to extend or lower storage capability. As an alternative of 1 large battery, you could have a number of small batteries that join collectively to incrementally enhance storage capability. 

The Evervolt comes with a hybrid inverter, which means the system may be AC- or DC-coupled. A DC-coupled system will provide you with higher efficiency and effectivity. This setup works finest should you’re putting in photo voltaic and storage on the identical time. You additionally will not have to purchase a separate photo voltaic inverter, which generally prices round $2,000 or extra.

Anyone who’s getting photo voltaic and storage on the identical time can fully keep away from the PV inverter and save some huge cash. One inverter does all the pieces, Sethi stated

If you have already got photo voltaic put in, you may nonetheless set up the Evervolt. You may simply be going with an AC-coupled system as an alternative of DC. Your battery’s efficiency will not be nearly as good as a DC-coupled setup, however the lack of effectivity is just not a complete dealbreaker. 

If in case you have a number of Evervolt batteries, you may even have an AC-coupled system and a DC-coupled system on the identical time. 

There’s additionally the Evervolt SmartBox. That is basically an vitality administration system that gives a centralized place for all of your wiring, connecting the battery, photo voltaic panel system and grid energy multi functional field. You’ll management as much as six electrical masses. The SmartBox additionally comprises the switch swap, which flips your system to backup energy when it detects a grid outage. 

Capability and modularity

The Evervolt Residence Battery is a modular system made up of some small 4.5 kWh battery modules which might be positioned into the battery cupboard. Capability may be elevated by including battery modules. Modular battery designs make it simple to dimension your system to one thing that is “good” on your vitality wants. 

The Evervolt’s battery cupboard holds two, three or 4 battery modules. Every battery module has a usable capability of 4.5 kWh. This offers you three sizes to select from: 9 kWh, 13.5 kWh or 18 kWh. If 18 kWh is not sufficient vitality storage, you may set up as much as 4 extra models for a complete of 72 kWh of space for storing.

Efficiency and effectivity 

The efficiency specs you get with the Evervolt are fairly strong. What stands out most concerning the Evervolt’s efficiency is its wonderful energy capabilities. The Evervolt can output 7.6 kW of steady backup energy at any capability dimension when put in with photo voltaic. If put in with out photo voltaic, you may get much less backup energy with the 9 kWh Evervolt mannequin (5.5 kW).

Battery capability could be a little bit difficult. You usually aren’t in a position to make use of all of a battery’s capability with out shortening the lifespan of the battery. The quantity of your battery’s capability that you should use safely known as its depth of discharge, and lots of we have seen have figures of a minimum of 95%. The Evervolt’s depth of discharge is a little bit bit decrease, at 90%, which means you will not have the ability to use as a lot of its whole capability. The figures we have used listed here are the battery’s usable capability, which means we aren’t factoring in that 10% of unusable capability.

We additionally want to speak about round-trip effectivity, which is a measure of how a lot vitality makes it into battery storage with out getting misplaced. How environment friendly this battery goes to be relies on the coupling setup you could have. DC-coupled methods are usually extra environment friendly, and the Evervolt isn’t any exception. When DC-coupled the Evervolt has a round-trip effectivity of 94% — fairly good. As an AC-coupled system, the Evervolt’s effectivity is far decrease (89%), which is according to the everyday round-trip effectivity of dwelling batteries (about 90%).

Guarantee

Batteries are usually coated beneath a 10-year guarantee, with a cycle lifetime of 6,000 cycles and an end-of-warranty capability assure of 70%. The Evervolt’s guarantee is a bit higher than the typical. It comes with a 12-year guarantee, however its cycle life and capability assure is the typical described above, in keeping with the spec sheet. That is not essentially a nasty factor although. Every Evervolt battery module has an approximate vitality throughput of 13 MWh, which is greater than different particular person battery modules we have seen. 

The Evervolt’s 12-year guarantee applies to your entire system too, so the SmartBox and inverter are coated too. Sethi stated labor is included within the guarantee as effectively, which is uncommon relating to battery warranties.

Years coated: The size of time your battery is roofed beneath guarantee. 

Cycle life and throughput: Most battery warranties cowl a certain quantity of battery cycles. That is additionally generally known as a battery’s cycle life. A battery cycle is the act of draining and recharging your battery. Generally, as soon as your battery hits the cycle rely listed within the guarantee, your guarantee expires. Alternatively, you may additionally come throughout throughput. That is the anticipated quantity of vitality {that a} battery will ship throughout its lifetime, set by the producer. It is usually measured in megawatt hours.

Finish-of-warranty capability assure: Battery capability retention decreases the extra you utilize it. A capability assure is the producer’s assure that your battery will retain as much as a sure share of its unique capability by the point your guarantee ends. 

Buyer help

The Evervolt Residence Battery hasn’t been launched to the general public as of proper now. However buyer critiques relating to help for Panasonic’s family merchandise could possibly be an indicator of what sort of service you would possibly expertise sooner or later. 

Prospects on Panasonic’s Higher Enterprise Bureau and Trustpilot pages have been unhappy with the standard of Panasonic’s merchandise and buyer help. Some prospects making an attempt to get help from Panasonic’s help quantity or stay chat could not appear to get a response, whereas different prospects submitted emails, however by no means obtained a response.

“Panasonic is dedicated to serving to extra householders make the swap to dependable clear vitality and residential vitality storage,” Sethi stated in a press release. “As one in every of America’s most trusted manufacturers, Panasonic addresses every photo voltaic buyer’s service inquiry individually and stands behind our dwelling batteries with a 12-year guarantee when put in by a certified installer.”

How a lot does the Panasonic Evervolt Residence Battery price?

The Evervolt Residence Battery has not hit the market but, so pricing particulars are nonetheless unclear. However Panasonic informed us that the price of the Evervolt Residence Battery System is aggressive with comparable merchandise. 

In terms of battery pricing, you may usually anticipate to pay someplace between $1,000 to $2,000 per kilowatt-hour of storage. You may probably additionally pay between $2,000 to $3,000 for the set up of the battery. 

To get essentially the most correct worth estimate on your dwelling, you may want to talk with a Panasonic-certified installer in your space after the battery’s official launch. Or communicate with a Panasonic consultant. You may additionally wish to discover a number of battery choices from numerous installers in your native space. 

Is the Panasonic Evervolt Residence Battery my most suitable option?

Batteries aren’t a one-size-fits-all sort of product. The most effective battery on your house is one which meets your vitality wants and price range. If energy, modularity and an extended guarantee matter to you, then the Evervolt Residence Battery is a strong alternative. The Evervolt additionally works with quite a lot of setups. It is appropriate with new and current photo voltaic methods, or you would set up it with out photo voltaic panels. 

However keep in mind, you could have extra choices than simply the Evervolt. There are a ton of different battery choices in the marketplace that may be proper on your dwelling. And most installers are licensed to put in a number of battery manufacturers. Discover battery choices from a number of installers in your space earlier than finalizing your choice. We additionally suggest gathering a minimum of three quotes from installers in your space to get the most effective worth doable.

How we evaluated the most effective photo voltaic batteries 

Every battery is totally different and is not going to be the fitting match for each dwelling. With out an on-site inspection, it is tough to find out which photo voltaic battery is the “finest” battery. Due to the complexity of photo voltaic panel methods, we aren’t in a position to do any type of hands-on testing of any of the photo voltaic batteries we evaluation. Nevertheless, there are goal methods to guage and examine these batteries. Here is how we consider photo voltaic batteries.

First, we created classes to guage the battery’s effectivity, efficiency, capability and worth. We additionally gave every class its personal weight. Every class’s weight displays the significance we felt was related to the typical client. Listed below are the classes and their weights:

• Battery modularity (stackability) – 20%
• Guarantee – 20%
• Spherical-trip effectivity – 15%
• Depth of discharge – 10%
• Energy output – 10%
• Value – 10%
• Buyer critiques – 10%
• Battery capability – 5%

We checked out greater than 15 of the commonest batteries in the marketplace and picked up the information for every class to check the numbers. Every battery was given a tier-style score (from 1 to five) for every class to see which metrics of every battery have been above common (amongst these on our listing), common or beneath common.

Often requested questions