How David Cut His Electricity Bills With Solar Battery Storage
In 2023, David Duncan opened a power bill for over $3,000 in a single quarter. His most recent bill was $58. That’s thousands in solar battery savings.
David and his family live near Trangie, in western NSW. Solar on its own halved their bills. The battery did the rest, because they were rarely home during the day to use the power their panels were making.
This is David’s story, of how installing a solar battery is saving him thousands of dollars. It covers:
- What his power bills looked like before, and how far they climbed
- Why solar on its own only got him halfway
- How a home battery turned wasted export into real savings
- What choosing and working with Lenergy was actually like
What were David’s power bills like before?
“Our power bills became excessive,” David says. “Over the last 10 or 15 years, power bills have crept up from something that was affordable, $300, $400 a bill, and then it crept up into the thousands of dollars a quarter.”
The worst of it came in 2023, when adult children were living at home and the household grew. “We actually had a power bill for a quarter that was over $3,000,” he says. For a family that wanted to stay put, that was the tipping point. “We like living where we live,” David says. “If we’re going to keep living there, we need to get this to a manageable point. It became unmanageable.”
Why didn’t solar on its own fix it?
Solar helped, but it did not finish the job. “We put the solar on and that reduced our power bill in the order of probably half, or a bit better,” David says.
The problem was timing. David and his family were out during the day, exactly when the panels were producing the most. They tried to work around it. “We tried having timers on the dishwasher or the washing machine, tried all those sort of tricks, but it didn’t really change things,” he says. The power the panels made while nobody was home went straight to the grid for little in return. “We were generating power that was going back to the grid that was worthless,” David says. It is a common gap for solar households, and it is worth understanding why the grid no longer pays much for exports and how it currently operates.
How did the battery turn solar into real savings?
“What changed for us was getting the batteries on,” David says. That is the heart of his solar battery savings.
A 38.4kWh home battery let David store the power his panels made during the day and use it at night, instead of buying it back from the grid at peak rates. “By generating it and having a battery store that, we could gain the full benefit of this solar system,” he says. The result showed up quarter after quarter. “The last three power bills have come back to probably $150 a quarter, then $120, and the last one the other day, I think, was $58 a quarter,” David says. “We’re starting to get used to it.”
For a household that is out during the day, adding a battery to a solar system you already have is often what turns modest home battery storage savings into the kind of drop David saw. Getting the size right matters, which is why it helps to understand how to choose a battery size for your home before you commit.
Why did David choose Lenergy?
Before Lenergy, David had heard plenty of pitches that did not fit his life. “There was a bunch of door-to-door salesmen, and I just wasn’t interested in the story they were telling us,” he says. “The story they were trying to tell us was wrong for us. There’s no way that we could use 80% of our power through the day, because we simply weren’t at home during the day to do that.”
Lenergy started somewhere different. “When we talked to Lenergy, they got the message straight up,” David says. “That was comforting.” The plan was staged and simple: solar first, then the battery, then the right energy plan to match.
What was it like working with Lenergy?
“Stressless,” is how David puts it. “They had the confidence in what they were putting forward, and it followed logic. It made sense.”
For David, the proof was that the plan held. “They’ve been able to supply and deliver, and what they said would happen did happen,” he says. Asked if he would recommend Lenergy to others, his answer was short. “Absolutely.”
If you are weighing up a battery of your own, it is worth knowing the mistakes worth avoiding when you buy a solar battery before you sign anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money can a solar battery save you each month?
It depends on your household, your usage and your current plan, so there is no single figure. David’s own numbers give a real example. His bills went from over $3,000 in a quarter at their worst to about $150, then $120, then $58 across his three most recent quarters, which he puts down to solar and the battery together. The biggest savings tend to go to homes that generate plenty of solar during the day but are not there to use it, since the battery stores that power for the evening instead of sending it to the grid.
Is a home solar battery system worth the investment?
For David, the value was clear once the battery was in, because it let the family keep their lifestyle without the bills that came with it. A residential solar battery system makes the most sense when you already have solar exporting a lot of unused power, or when your household uses most of its electricity outside daylight hours. The return depends on your usage, your tariff, and how much of your own solar you can store and use rather than buy back at peak rates.
How long does it take for a solar battery to pay for itself?
There is no fixed answer, and it is worth being cautious about anyone who gives you one. Payback depends on how high your bills are to begin with, how much solar you export today, and your time-of-use rates. Households with large bills and a lot of wasted daytime export, like David’s, generally see the fastest return, because every kilowatt-hour stored and used at night is one they no longer buy at peak prices. A good installer will model this for your home before you buy.
