Battery strategy decision
Solar Battery Backup vs Self-Consumption Comparator — Choose a Storage Strategy
Compare a backup-focused battery policy with a self-consumption-focused policy and see the trade-off between protected energy and routine solar utilization.
Common battery assumptions
kWh
%
%
USD/kWh
Strategy settings
Backup priority
kWh of battery-delivered energySelf-consumption priority
kWh of battery-delivered energyA backup-oriented strategy intentionally keeps more energy unavailable for routine cycling. That can reduce daily self-consumption while increasing outage-ready reserve.
Enter battery assumptions and both strategy policies.
Why backup and self-consumption compete
The same battery capacity can serve two different jobs. Daily self-consumption benefits from deeper cycling, while backup planning benefits from preserving SOC for an outage.
Protected reserve energy = battery capacity × reserve SOC
Routine available energy = battery capacity × (starting SOC − reserve SOC)
Routine available energy = battery capacity × (starting SOC − reserve SOC)
How to use the comparison
Choose a strategy based on the system's real objective. A home that frequently experiences unreliable supply may rationally accept lower routine solar utilization to preserve backup energy.
What is not modeled
This tool does not calculate outage probability, critical-load duration, inverter transfer behavior or emergency load priority. Those require a separate backup-power analysis.