Most Perth homes with solar generate more power in the middle of the day than anyone is home to use, then buy it back from the grid after dark. A battery closes that gap. Bolton EC installs solar battery systems across the Perth metro area, sized around how your household actually uses power rather than a package off a price list. Every installation is completed under electrical contractor licence EC 15905.
Thinking about adding a battery?
A battery does one job: it holds the solar energy your home cannot use at the moment it is produced, then gives it back when the panels stop. The surplus generated between roughly 10am and 3pm is stored instead of exported, then drawn down through the evening peak when the oven, the air conditioning and the pool pump all want power at once.
How much surplus you have is the whole question. A house where everyone leaves at 7am and returns at 6pm exports almost everything it makes, so a battery has plenty to work with. A house with someone home all day, or ducted air conditioning running through summer, already uses a good share of its own generation, which changes the sizing and sometimes the recommendation.
That is why the first step is your own data rather than an average. We read the inverter history to see the shape of your day, then size storage around it. If the array is small for the household, expanding it can be the better first move, and we will say so. Perth's high summer generation and mild winters mean a well-sized battery cycles most days of the year rather than sitting idle. Anyone weighing up EV charger installation should factor that load in now, because a car changes the numbers more than any appliance in the house.
Want to know what your solar surplus actually looks like?
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Bolton EC installs a carefully selected range of systems chosen for their reliability in Perth conditions, long-term performance, and ongoing access to parts and technical support. We focus on proven equipment we are confident installing and supporting for years to come.
Sigenergy is our specialty and the system we install most. It brings the inverter, battery and EV charging into one modular platform, so storage can be added in stages as a household's use grows rather than committed to in full on day one.
Goodwe is the mid-range option, and a sound choice where the budget is defined but the standard of the equipment still matters. It pairs well with existing Goodwe solar and covers most standard residential retrofits.
For new systems installed alongside a battery, AIKO panels sit at the top end with built-in shade optimisation, and Fronius covers premium inverter requirements. The full range is on the products page.
Sizing is a match between your daytime solar surplus, your overnight consumption, and how much of that overnight use you want the battery to carry. Oversize it and you pay for capacity that never fills. Undersize it and you are back on grid power by 9pm. The inputs we work through before recommending a capacity:
Modular systems make this easier to get right, because capacity can be added later if your use grows instead of being guessed at now.
In most cases, yes. Which route makes sense depends on the inverter already on the wall. There are two common paths.
If your existing inverter is battery-ready or hybrid capable, the battery connects to it directly. If it is a standard string inverter with no storage capability, the choices are an AC-coupled battery working alongside it, or a hybrid inverter replacement running everything through one system. AC coupling keeps more of your existing equipment in service. A hybrid replacement usually gives cleaner monitoring and better efficiency.
Before recommending either, we check the inverter make, model and age, the array size, the condition of the existing DC work, and whether the switchboard can take the additional protection devices. That assessment is part of the quote, not an extra.
Already have solar and want to store it?
A battery adds circuits and protection devices to your switchboard, and plenty of Perth homes built before the 2000s have boards with no spare space, no RCD protection on every circuit, or ceramic fuses still in service. Where that is the case the board is upgraded as part of the job, so the battery is properly protected and the installation complies. Detail is on the switchboard upgrade page.
Where an upgrade is required, it appears on the quote as its own line with the reason stated. It is not an add-on discovered on install day.
Battery incentives for Western Australian households have changed more than once, and the amounts, eligibility rules and cut-off dates move. We do not publish figures that may be out of date by the time you read them. Check the current position at the source, on the Energy Policy WA website and with the Clean Energy Regulator for the federal scheme.
What we can do is confirm which of our systems sit on the approved product lists and set the quote out so any incentive you are eligible for is easy to claim. Ask when you enquire and you will get the current position in writing.
A battery is a 10-year-plus piece of equipment, so what happens after the install matters as much as the install itself. Product warranties come from the manufacturer and vary by system and capacity, so the applicable terms are set out in your quote rather than reduced to a headline number.
Monitoring is configured at handover, so charge and discharge behaviour, solar generation and household consumption are all visible in the app. If something looks wrong it usually shows in the data before it shows on your bill. We can review the monitoring and diagnose faults on systems we have installed.
A battery makes the strongest case where three things are true: your solar system exports a real surplus during the day, your evening power use is significant, and you plan to stay in the property long enough to get the benefit. Add an electric vehicle or a pool and the case gets stronger again.
It makes a weaker case where the array is small or the household already consumes most of what it generates in daylight. In those situations we will tell you to fix the generation side before spending on storage.
What affects the quote: the capacity you settle on, whether the existing inverter can be kept, whether backup during an outage is required, the switchboard's condition, and the cable run and mounting requirements at the install position. A written quote confirms all of it before anything is ordered.
Not sure whether storage stacks up for your place?
Bolton EC works throughout Perth metro, from Pinjarra in the south to Two Rocks in the north. The base is Canning Vale, so south of the river is the closest patch, and the northern and eastern suburbs are covered as well. Suburb detail is on our areas we service pages, including Canning Vale and Fremantle.
Larger sites and businesses looking at storage alongside a bigger array should start with commercial solar installation.
If your system exports energy all day and you buy it back at night, a battery keeps that generation in the house. The part worth getting right is the sizing, and that comes from your own consumption data rather than a package price. Bolton EC will assess what you have, tell you plainly what storage would do for it, and put the scope in writing under licence EC 15905.
Get a straight answer on battery storage.
