Frequently asked questions about home batteries

For an average household, usually just not. With 3,500 kWh of consumption and 3,500 kWh of solar power a year, a 5 kWh battery saves about €242 a year. At a purchase price of €3,500 that is not earned back within 15 years.

A home battery does pay off if you buy it cheaply (up to about €2,290 for 5 kWh), if you export a lot of solar power and use a lot in the evening, or if your electricity price is high. Run the numbers for your own home: the differences between households are large.

Without net metering, the payback period of a fixed home battery is usually between 10 and well over 15 years. A family using 4,500 kWh with 5,250 kWh of solar power earns back a 7.5 kWh battery (€4,500) in about 13.3 years. An average household just misses the 15-year mark.

If you pay €2,000 instead of €3,500 for the same 5 kWh, the payback period drops to 8.7 years. The purchase price is the factor that matters most.

Expect about €160 a year for 2.5 kWh, €242 for 5 kWh and €293 for 10 kWh, for an average household with solar panels, an electricity price of €0.30 per kWh and a net feed-in compensation of €0.035.

Every kWh you store instead of exporting earns the difference between those two prices, minus the losses in the battery. A bigger battery saves more, but each extra kWh of capacity earns less than the one before.

In 2026 a fixed home battery costs roughly €550 to over €800 per kWh, including inverter, installation and 21% VAT. The calculator uses a guide price of €3,500 for 5 kWh and €5,500 for 10 kWh. Plug-in batteries that you connect yourself are cheaper: about €250 to €500 per kWh.

Quoted prices vary widely. Divide the total price by the usable capacity to compare offers fairly.

Dutch net metering (the salderingsregeling) ends on 1 January 2027. Until then, electricity you export is offset against what you consume. After that you pay for all electricity you take from the grid and only receive a feed-in compensation for what you export.

Until 2030 that compensation must be at least 50% of the bare supply rate. Suppliers may also charge feed-in costs. At large suppliers you keep roughly 3 to 4 cents per kWh, while grid electricity costs around 30 cents. That makes using your own solar power far more valuable than exporting it.

As a rule of thumb: 1 to 1.5 kWh of usable capacity per 1,000 kWh of yearly consumption. For an average household that is 4 to 5 kWh, which raises the share of solar power used at home from about 31% to 64%.

A battery twice the size earns far less than twice as much: 10 kWh saves €293 a year against €242 for 5 kWh, because the extra capacity stays empty on most days. With a heat pump or an electric car, 7.5 to 10 kWh can be a good fit.

No, in most cases it is not. With a flat electricity price there is no cheap electricity to store and the battery only adds standby consumption. With a dynamic contract you can charge in cheap hours, but for a 5 kWh battery that earns about €88 a year.

The reason: from 2027 you pay energy tax on every kWh you charge, even if you export it later. Only shifting your own consumption to cheap hours still earns something.

For households with solar panels it makes little difference from 2027. In our example the same battery saves €242 a year on a fixed contract and €223 on a dynamic contract.

In both cases most of the saving comes from keeping your own solar power for the evening. Trading on hourly prices adds little, because you pay tax on electricity charged from the grid. Income from the imbalance market is not part of the calculation; it is uncertain and can be entered yourself as extra income.

Manufacturers usually give a 10-year warranty or about 6,000 charge cycles, with a guaranteed remaining capacity of 70 to 80%. A home battery makes about 197 full cycles a year, so age rather than the number of cycles is the limit.

By default the calculator assumes a 15-year lifetime and 2% capacity loss a year. If the payback period is longer than the warranty, you carry the risk of replacement yourself.

Of every kWh you put into the battery you get about 88% back. The rest is lost converting alternating current to direct current and back. The system's standby consumption comes on top.

In our example that adds up to 205 kWh a year, about 18% of the electricity charged. The calculator includes these losses in the saving.

There is no national subsidy for home batteries in the Netherlands and you pay 21% VAT. The 0% rate for solar panels does not apply to batteries. Some municipalities or provinces temporarily run their own scheme; check locally.

Reclaiming the VAT is only possible in specific situations, for example if you trade electricity as an entrepreneur. The Dutch tax authority decides case by case. If you are entitled to an amount, enter it under 'Subsidy or VAT refund'.

Often it is. You connect a plug-in battery to a wall socket yourself, so there are no installation costs. Its power is limited to about 800 watts, so it cannot fully cover peaks such as cooking.

In our example a 5 kWh plug-in battery saves €218 a year, slightly less than a fixed system (€242). At a price of €1,800 it pays for itself in 8.5 years.

Usually not. Most home batteries switch off when the grid fails, just like solar panels. Only systems with a backup function and an adapted fuse box can supply (part of) your home during an outage. Ask about it explicitly if that matters to you.

The calculator simulates a whole year hour by hour: solar power, consumption and the charging and discharging of the battery. The profiles are tuned to public figures from KNMI and TenneT and checked against measurements from the literature: about 30% direct self-consumption without a battery and about 60% with one.

It remains a model. Your actual hourly consumption, the weather and future tariffs will differ. The most accurate result comes from entering the purchase and feed-in figures from your annual statement. All assumptions and formulas are on the method page.