Comparing Battery Options
Put two or three batteries in front of a customer and read the numbers for each:
- What can differthe catalogue model, the installed $/kWh, the dispatch strategy, and optionally a pinned size.
- What stays sharedroof, solar, tariff, incentives, replacement costs and financial assumptions, identical in every row.
- Real runs, not estimateseach option is its own sizing sweep, so its size, savings and payback are modelled independently.
- Modelled on demandnothing runs until you press Model options; editing Base re-models every option, editing one option re-models only that one.
- Reuse a setsave a price ladder or brand shortlist to the Library once, then load it onto later projects.
Peak demand reduction only pays on a site whose bill actually carries a demand charge. On a site without one it can make an option look worse than Base, because the battery spends charge shaving peaks that cost nothing instead of offsetting usage.
Customers often ask what happens if they spend less, or buy a different brand. Battery options answer that with modelled numbers instead of a guess. An Analysis project can carry up to three options beside its Base battery. Each one is sized and valued on its own.
What an option is allowed to change
An option is a second battery setup. It can differ from Base in three things: the catalogue model, the installed cost per kWh, and the dispatch strategy. You can also pin it to a fixed size to hold capacity still and vary only the price. Everything else is fixed on purpose.
- Shared by every row: the roof, the solar array, the tariff, the incentives, the replacement costs and the financial assumptions.
- Free to differ: battery model, $/kWh, dispatch strategy, and an optional pinned size.
That limit is the point. Nothing else moves, so a difference in NPV between two rows can only come from the battery. That makes the comparison safe to show a customer.
Each option is a real sizing run
An option is not Base's result with a different price applied. Each one is a full sizing sweep of its own, so it finds its own best size, savings and payback. A cheaper battery is usually worth sizing larger, and the matrix shows this instead of assuming it. If you pin a size, the sweep tests only that size.
Options are modelled on demand, because each one costs a sweep. Set them up on the Solar & Battery step. Then press Run beside the Options button on Recommendation. The button fills as a progress bar while they run, and Stop keeps what has finished. Editing Base re-models every option. Editing one option re-models only that one. Renaming an option re-models nothing.
Reading the comparison
The floating Options button on Recommendation opens a panel that puts Base and every option on your pick: the same scenario card and Solar only / + Battery side, or Design Your Own at the same size. An option with no figure at that size shows its Energy Ideal, labelled. The chart shows each option's NPV against Base. The table adds what the option changes from Base, the system, payback and net cost. The best NPV among freshly modelled options is marked. Picking an option puts it on the rest of the page. The scenario cards, sizing matrix, trade-off table and energy schedule all swap together, so you never read one battery's matrix beside another's cards.
An option can also carry an added load or an export limit on top of its battery. See Adding Loads and Export Limits to an Option for how those move the numbers.
Reusing a comparison set
A price ladder or brand shortlist is usually the same from job to job. Save the options on a project as a set in the Library. Load that set onto the next project and the rows arrive filled in. Sets belong to your company. Sets published globally can be loaded but not edited.
For how the underlying sizing and ranking work, see How Are the Recommendations Picked?