A home solar battery costs roughly $10,000–$15,000 installed before incentives, or about $7,000–$10,500 after the 30% federal tax credit (which now covers standalone storage). Whether it’s worth it comes down to one question: do you need backup power, or are you just trying to save money? Here’s how to decide.
What a battery costs
Pricing depends on capacity (measured in kWh) and how many you install:
| Setup | Usable capacity | Approx. cost (before credit) |
|---|---|---|
| One battery | ~10–13 kWh | $10,000–$15,000 |
| Two batteries | ~20–26 kWh | $18,000–$26,000 |
After the 30% federal Investment Tax Credit — which since 2023 applies to batteries even if added later — knock about a third off those numbers. (See our tax credit guide.)
What a battery actually does
A battery stores the excess solar your panels make during the day so you can use it at night or during an outage, instead of sending it to the grid and buying power back later.
Two main jobs:
- Backup power during grid outages (the battery keeps key circuits running).
- Bill optimization — using stored solar at night, or avoiding expensive peak-rate electricity.
When a battery is worth it
✅ You have frequent or long power outages. This is the #1 reason batteries pay for themselves in peace of mind and avoided losses (spoiled food, medical devices, working from home).
✅ Your utility has poor net metering. If your utility pays you little for exported solar, storing it for your own use is worth more than selling it cheaply. Check whether your state has retail-rate net metering — where it’s limited, batteries make more sense.
✅ You have time-of-use rates. If power costs much more at peak evening hours, a battery lets you dodge those rates by using stored solar.
When to skip it (for now)
❌ You have strong retail-rate net metering and a stable grid. In that case, the grid effectively acts as a free “battery” — you bank credits in the day and draw them at night at the same rate. Adding a physical battery rarely pays for itself purely on savings.
❌ You’re optimizing for fastest payback. Batteries lengthen the payback of a solar project. If money is the only goal and your grid/net metering are good, panels-only is usually the better return.
Rule of thumb: buy a battery for resilience, not for ROI. If outages aren’t a problem and your net metering is good, you can always add storage later — the tax credit still applies.
Does storage change the solar math?
It adds cost and lengthens payback, but it also adds value a spreadsheet can’t fully capture (keeping the lights on). Our savings calculator models a panels-only system by default, since that’s the apples-to-apples baseline; treat a battery as an optional resilience add-on on top of that.
Bottom line
Budget $10,000–$15,000 per battery before the 30% credit. If you face outages or weak net metering or peak pricing, a battery is genuinely worth it. If your grid is reliable and net metering is generous, start with panels alone and add storage later if your needs change.
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