Mr Purcell admits he initially bought his battery as a form of insurance against the volatility inherent in the spot market.
However, his thinking quickly changed when he saw the opportunities on offer, describing one instance in which he was able to fill up his 10-kilowatt-hour battery with electricity costing 1 cent per unit.
“That’s the opportunity and the risk on the very low prices,” he said.
"It cost me 10 cents to fill the battery during the middle of the day.
“And then at night-time the price went up over $10 a kilowatt hour, so I was able to export that same 10 kilowatts out of that battery for $100.”
I have spent a lot on reducing our usage, and have basically reached the limit. We have good insulation, modern appliances and overall our overnight usage is pretty good. I am not willing to start removing the things that make life pleasant, such as the TV or my gaming PC (and given how little it gets used it hardly matters), and i work until late, so can’t cook any earlier anyway (and i am still predominately on gas).
Overnight our houses idle usage is ~0.3kwh, so the battery can comfortably last the entire night and then some. But it doesnt change the fact that if there is poor weather for a few days in a row, the battery wont be charged from my solar, and then I have to draw from the grid. And if i am on wholesale pricing, that will wipe out any potential profits from the rest of the year.