Battery Bling: Our 50kW Beast and Why It’s Not Just for Show
Battery Bling: Our 50kW Beast and Why It’s Not Just for Show
(Or: How We Power Our Lives, Our Work, and Our Tea Kettle Without Fossil Fuels)
Most people look at our battery bank and think we’ve gone full Bond villain. Rows of silent, blinking units. Three powerful inverters. Enough capacity to power a small festival. And they’re not wrong — except we’re using it for teaching, editing, music, and toast.
Welcome to our all-electric, solar-powered, home-working, content-creating, music-making household. Where everything runs on electrons — and every watt counts.
💻 Why We Need Serious Battery Power
We all work from home, which sounds quaint until you do the maths:
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One computer per person? ✅
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A server for video storage and backup? ✅
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Video editing suite? ✅
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Multi-camera film studio with lights, mics, and a switcher? ✅
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Synthesisers, Wersi organ, speakers and music production hardware? ✅
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Electric cooker, oven, kettle, toaster? Naturally.
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Charging the electric car (when we get one!) ✅
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And in winter: an air source heat pump working steadily to keep us warm.
Now imagine all of that running at once — on a grey winter day when the sun is out to lunch.
📊 Doing the Maths: Why 50kWh Isn’t Excessive, It’s Necessary
On a typical peak-use day, let’s estimate:
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High-end video editing + music gear: 3–5 kWh
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Heating via heat pump: 8–12 kWh
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Computers + servers: 4–6 kWh
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Cooking, boiling kettles, laundry, lights, and charging devices: 5–8 kWh
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Car charging (if done that day): 10–15 kWh
Total peak usage potential: ~30–40 kWh/day
And remember: we mustn’t run the batteries below 10% (to preserve lifespan and avoid cutoffs).
So to run the house fully off-grid during winter (or overnight after a grey day), 50kWh becomes not a luxury, but a strategic minimum.
⚡ The Setup: 50kWh of Beautiful Blinking Power
We operate three Lux Power inverters, each managing its own bank of seven 2.4kWh batteries.
That’s:
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3 inverters
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21 batteries in total
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Total capacity: 50.4 kWh
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Usable safely: ~45 kWh
They charge during the day via 26 solar panels, provided the weather cooperates. On bright days, we can operate fully on solar energy. On dark days, we can charge from the grid — or coast on yesterday’s sunshine.
☀️ Solar Hot Water: The Unsung Bonus
While the batteries handle our electricity, the solar hot water system quietly takes care of our baths and showers. It’s a different story (and blog), but here’s the spoiler: on sunny days, it gives us free hot water before the kettle’s even boiled.
🗨️ “When everything in your home runs on electricity, batteries are the new boiler. Except you can brag about them to your neighbours.”
✅ Lessons Learned from Living the Battery Life
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Bigger is better — you’ll use more than you expect, especially in winter.
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Layered systems work — heat pump + solar hot water + batteries = full coverage.
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Plan for worst-case — if you only size your system for summer, you’ll regret it in January.
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Don’t drain to zero — protect your batteries. Think of them as marathon runners, not sprinters.
🔋 So, Is It Worth It?
Absolutely.
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We’re virtually off-grid much of the year.
We’ve significantly reduced our energy bills.
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We’re ready for blackouts, price spikes, and the smug satisfaction of running on clean power.
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And yes — it powers the organ too.
🧠 Final Thought:
This isn’t just bling — it’s infrastructure. It lets us live, work, and create without compromise, without fossil fuels, and (most days) without guilt. Our 50kWh battery setup isn’t a flashy gimmick — it’s the unsung backbone of our entire eco-powered lifestyle.
And if you're thinking of building your own energy system? Trust me — size does matter.
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