Where Is Your Solar Storage Energy Going?
Build a transparent loss budget across charging, discharge, inverter conversion, standby and thermal allowances rather than hiding every loss inside one number.
Why build a storage loss budget?
A single round-trip efficiency figure may hide where energy is lost. A staged budget makes assumptions easier to audit and can show where measurements would be most useful.
Sequential losses compound
Charging, discharge and inverter losses act on different remaining energy quantities. They therefore should not simply be added together.
Standby and thermal allowances
These are scenario allowances. Real standby consumption may be better represented by a measured kWh/day or kW idle value.
Avoid double-counting
A manufacturer's round-trip efficiency may already contain several conversion losses. Always check the stated measurement boundary before adding another efficiency factor.
FAQs
Are these loss percentages universal?
No. They are user-supplied planning assumptions.
Can I use this for one-way energy flow?
Yes, provided you set only the stages relevant to your chosen boundary.
How do I validate the result?
Compare it with synchronized AC and DC measurements taken over the same operating period and system boundary.
Why multiply by annual cycles?
That converts a per-cycle loss estimate into an annual planning figure.