The factors that actually decide it
Six things separate a battery that pays its way from one that disappoints, and none of them is the logo on the front.
- Usable capacity (kWh): enough to cover your evening and overnight use, without paying for capacity you never fill.
- Chemistry: most home batteries now use lithium iron phosphate (LFP), valued for its safety and cycle life.
- Warranty: look at the years and the throughput or cycle guarantee, not just the headline number.
- Blackout backup: not every battery keeps your home running in an outage, and the ones that do may need extra hardware.
- VPP-readiness: whether it can join a Virtual Power Plant, which can add value and, in some states, an incentive.
- The installer: accreditation, licensing and workmanship warranty matter as much as the cell inside.
Match the battery to what you want it to do
If the goal is cutting your bill, size the battery to store your surplus solar and cover your evening peak, when power is dearest. Oversizing past that just adds cost you may never recover.
If the goal is keeping the lights on in a blackout, the priority shifts to backup capability and which circuits it protects, not raw storage. Many households want a bit of both, which is exactly the trade a good installer helps you weigh from your actual usage rather than a brochure.
Why the installer matters as much as the battery
A battery is a long-lived, high-value piece of electrical equipment wired into your home, so who installs it shapes both safety and how well it performs. The markers worth checking are SAA accreditation, a valid electrical licence, and a real workmanship warranty alongside the manufacturer's.
Apollo Energy Group is one SAA-accredited Australian installer (Electrical Licence 400672, 10-year battery warranty) that sizes systems from your real usage and applies the federal rebate at the point of sale. Refer Labs readers get $500 off their quote through our link, on top of the rebate.