Who to hire for a home battery to add

Short answer

An accredited installer who is a licensed electrician and holds the battery endorsement on their accreditation, because battery installation is accredited separately from solar. Ask for your own consumption data first — a battery is sized against what you use at night, not against what your panels make at noon.

Plan itThere is time to get more than one quote, which is where the money is.

When it is someone else

Calling the wrong trade costs an attendance fee to be told so. These are the cases where this problem belongs to someone other than a Solar Installer.

  • your electricity distributor

    always. Adding storage generally requires approval and may change your export limit.

  • a builder

    the only compliant location needs a wall built or a non-combustible barrier installed.

What to do before anyone arrives

  1. Get twelve months of interval data from your retailer. It shows how much you actually use after sunset, which is the only number that sizes a battery honestly.
  2. Check what your export limit and feed-in tariff currently are. A battery is worth more where the feed-in tariff is low.
  3. Look at where it could physically go: the standard restricts locations near habitable rooms and exit paths, and a garage wall shared with a bedroom may not qualify.
  4. Check whether backup during a blackout is something you want. It is a different and more expensive installation than a battery that only shifts your own use.

What to ask when you book

  • Do you hold the battery endorsement on your accreditation?
  • Where exactly are you siting it, and does that comply with the installation standard?
  • Does the quote include blackout backup, and if so which circuits stay live?
  • What is the warranty measured in — years, cycles, or throughput — and what does it guarantee at the end?

What changes the price

No dollar figures here: this directory holds no price data and an invented range is worse than none. What follows is what makes one of these jobs cost more than the same job next door, which is the part you can actually use when comparing quotes.

  • Battery capacity.
  • Whether backup capability is included, which needs additional switching.
  • Whether the existing inverter can be used or a hybrid inverter is needed.
  • Siting — a compliant outdoor location versus building a barrier.
  • Switchboard work and distributor requirements.

Is this licensed work?

Licensed electrical work. Battery storage installation has its own accreditation endorsement and its own siting standard, which restricts where a battery may be located relative to habitable rooms, exits and boundaries. Distributor approval is generally required.

There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.

Licensing thresholds and certificate requirements differ by state and change with amending regulation, so this page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a figure. The regulator’s own page is the current answer.

Common questions

Who should I hire for a home battery to add
An accredited installer who is a licensed electrician and holds the battery endorsement on their accreditation, because battery installation is accredited separately from solar. Ask for your own consumption data first — a battery is sized against what you use at night, not against what your panels make at noon.
Will a home battery keep my power on in a blackout?
Only if it is installed with backup capability, which requires extra switchgear and usually covers selected circuits rather than the whole house. A battery installed purely for self-consumption shuts down in a blackout along with the grid-connected inverter, for the safety of anyone working on the network. If backup matters to you, say so before the quote, not after.
Can I add a battery to an existing solar system?
Usually, by either adding a battery with its own inverter alongside the existing one, or replacing the existing inverter with a hybrid. Which is better depends on the age and condition of what you already have — and an installer who does not ask about the existing inverter before quoting has not answered the question.

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Who to hire for

General information about who does what, not advice about your specific job. Licensing, consumer law and council rules differ by state and change; the regulator for your state is the current source. More guides to hiring a tradesperson.