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The battery is a no brainer, but not just because it stores excess solar.
If you get a low cost night time tariff, you can charge the battery at low cost during the winter, particular when solar is very minimal.
Acliff-
I want a battery for this reason, when I install heat pump. We have a dirt cheap night rate to charge it, however last time I looked the cost v Life span of batteries made It a bit of a non started in actually financial returns.
Electricity is a lot cheaper here in Spain, you pay the spot rate always. Last month on average I paid 0.13 €/kWh.
skinny
A couple of questions for anyone with knowledge of solar setups (for context we're thinking about a 10-panel setup on our SW-facing roof, to be installed during a full-house refurb):
Is it a no-brainer to get a battery? I'm trying to work out the pros and cons. Storing excess production and running stuff from a battery would obviously reduce kWh used from the grid, but is the extra initial cost, space and general faff worth it? Would a battery pay for itself fairly quickly?
The panels would be split (6:4) between two adjoining staggered roofs that have the same orientation but slightly different pitches. The initial schematic that has been worked up shows a single inverter for all 10 panels. I've read that the output of the entire array can be choked by a single panel being shaded. Is it a better idea to have a separate inverter for each roof or even for every panel?