The cost of electricity
Is a battery worth it in 2026? It comes down to one thing
It is the question we get asked most after price. And the honest answer is not yes or no: it is that it depends on what time of day you use your electricity. Here it is with numbers.
Let us start with the cost. In 2026 a home battery, installed, runs roughly like this: between €3,000 and €5,000 for 5 kWh, and between €5,500 and €7,500 for 10 kWh. Overall, adding storage usually increases the cost of the installation by 30 to 50%.
That is real money. Which is why it is worth being straight about the payback.
A properly sized solar installation without a battery usually pays for itself in around 5 to 7 years. With a battery the period stretches: typically between 7 and 11 years, and on some household profiles considerably longer.
If your only aim is to get your money back as soon as possible, a battery is not your best friend. Let that be said.
When it does pay for itself
Now the other side, because there are profiles where a battery pays for itself with no argument.
The main one is high night-time consumption. If a good part of your usage happens when there is no sun, without a battery you are buying from the grid in precisely the expensive hours while giving away cheap surplus at midday.
The typical cases we see here: houses with a heat pump, homes with a pool and a timed filter pump, people who charge an electric car overnight, and families who simply live at home from seven in the evening onwards.
If your tariff also has a big gap between peak and off-peak, playing the hours adds up nicely. If your tariff is flat at around €0.13/kWh at all hours, it adds little.
A battery is not decided by the price per kWh, but by the time of day you use it.
What is not measured in euros
There is one part no spreadsheet captures well: backup.
With a battery and the right equipment, when the grid goes down your home carries on. Fridge, lights, router, pump. That is not a saving, it is something else.
If you live somewhere power cuts are rare, it is worth little. If you run a business from home, have cameras, a well, or you have simply been left in the dark one stormy weekend, the conversation changes.
And one thing is worth clearing up because it surprises a lot of people: with panels alone, without a battery, a power cut leaves you just as dark as your neighbour. The inverter disconnects for safety, and it is required to. Many people find that out on the day the power goes.
How we decide
We look at your consumption curve hour by hour. Not the monthly average: the curve. It comes from your own bill or from your distribution company's website.
If most of your usage falls between ten and five, panels alone are plenty and a battery adds little. If your graph shoots up from seven in the evening, it starts to make sense.
And there is a middle path we sometimes recommend: leave the installation battery-ready without fitting one yet. A hybrid inverter costs a little more, but it lets you add one in two or three years' time, when prices will have come down and you will know better how you really use energy.
There is no answer that suits everyone. But there is a right answer for your home, and it comes from looking at your data.
