Battery storage — Sussex
Battery Storage Crawley
Home batteries for Crawley homes, with or without solar panels — sized from your actual usage, with the costs, the seasons and the power-cut reality explained before you commit to anything.
Battery storage in Crawley is shaped by the New Town plan. Since 1947 the town has been built in planned neighbourhoods, from Three Bridges and Ifield to Maidenbower (begun 1987) and Forge Wood (begun 2014), so whole streets share the same house type, and where a battery goes in one house is usually where it goes next door. If you have not yet looked at the roof, start with solar panels in Crawley; this page is about the battery: where it fits in Crawley's terraces and flats, who has to be told, and what it does in a power cut.
Car charging is part of the local picture. DVLA records 2,310 privately kept plug-in vehicles across Crawley borough at the end of June 2026, up from 1,619 a year earlier, about 43% more in a year. A car changes the evening load, and so the size of battery worth paying for. Our battery storage guide explains how we size a system from your usage and tariff, and we will tell you when a smaller battery, or none, makes more sense.
Quick answer
Battery storage in Crawley:
- Cost: the Energy Saving Trust puts home battery storage at £1,500 to £10,000, with a 5 kWh system at around £4,600; your own figure comes from a survey of your usage.
- Seasons: PVGIS estimates a 4 kWp south-facing array in Crawley makes about 493 kWh in June but about 139 kWh in December — size the battery for your evenings, not for summer.
- VAT: residential battery installations carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, then 5% from 1 April 2027.
- Grid: central Crawley is on UK Power Networks's South Eastern Power Networks network; the installer notifies or applies to the operator depending on the system's size.
- Power cuts: a standard grid-tied battery shuts down when the grid does; backup needs to be designed in from the start, and we will tell you whether it is worth it.
- Who fits it: HCE is a NAPIT member (73495), MCS-certified for solar PV and battery storage via NAPIT, and a HIES Consumer Code member.
Figures: Energy Saving Trust (batteries, updated 19 August 2026) · HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 · PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission Joint Research Centre) · Ofgem RIIO-ED2 annual report 2024/25. Each is cited in full further down this page.
Where a battery fits in Crawley's homes
Crawley is a terrace town: at the 2021 Census 37.4% of its 45,500 households lived in terraced houses, 22.7% in semis and only 14.2% in detached homes. That matters for a battery more than for panels. A semi or end-terrace in Pound Hill or Tilgate usually has side access or an attached garage, so the unit goes on the side wall near the meter or in the garage. A mid-terrace in Broadfield or Ifield often has neither, so the unit is carried through the house to a rear wall or a shed with a supply, which adds cabling. Lofts are a last resort here as anywhere, because of heat, cold and access.
A quarter of Crawley's homes, 25.1%, are flats or maisonettes, and 22.9% of households rent from a social landlord: for both, the battery is the freeholder's or landlord's decision before it is yours. In the borough's 13 conservation areas, which take in Ifield Village and Worth as well as New Town precincts such as Queens Square and The Broadway, an indoor or rear-wall unit is the sensible choice, and a listed building needs a word with Crawley Borough Council before anything is fixed to it. At Forge Wood, built from 2014, check any estate rules on external equipment before a unit goes on a front wall.
What a Crawley roof generates through the year
A battery earns its keep by moving daytime generation into the evening, so the shape of the year matters more than the annual total. We ran the European Commission's PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission Joint Research Centre) for Crawley itself, for a 4 kWp array at 35° facing due south with 14% system losses:
- 4,020 kWh a year in total
- 493 kWh in June and 495 kWh in July
- 139 kWh in December and 153 kWh in January
In summer a modest array fills a battery most days; in midwinter it rarely will, and the battery's job shifts to storing cheaper off-peak electricity if your tariff offers it. That is why we size storage from your evening usage and tariff, not from the sunniest month. East- or west-facing roofs and shading change these figures more than the town does — which is what the survey measures.
Method: PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission Joint Research Centre), 4 kWp, 35° tilt, due south, 14% system losses, building-mounted, PVGIS-SARAH3, 2005–2023, monthly output, run 15 October 2026.
The grid and power cuts in Crawley
Crawley sits well inside UK Power Networks' South Eastern Power Networks licence area, so the network operator for your battery is UKPN, not SSEN and not your supplier. Your installer notifies UKPN under G98 for a system rated up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW), before commissioning or within 28 days after; a larger system, such as one on a 5 kW hybrid inverter, needs a G99 application approved before work starts. UKPN says it approves automatically where the maximum export after any export limitation is under 5 kW, and it charges nothing for the connection unless the supply to your Crawley home needs upgrading.
In a power cut a standard grid-tied battery shuts down along with the grid. That is deliberate, and it surprises people who assumed the battery was a backup supply. Keeping lights, broadband or a fridge on in a Three Bridges semi needs a backup-capable inverter or gateway and a separate circuit for the essentials, planned before installation and priced as extra. For many Crawley households it is not worth the money; for someone working from home or relying on powered medical equipment it might be, and we will set out both sides.
Ofgem's reported 2024/25 figures for South Eastern Power Networks show about 42.2 supply interruptions per 100 customers and about 30.4 minutes lost per customer over the year, against 39.7 and 35.1 across Great Britain. Source: Ofgem — RIIO-2 Electricity Distribution: annual report 2024 to 2025, supplementary datafile, sheet "Ch2 outputs - reliability" (CI and CML performance, planned and unplanned).
Local facts, sourced
Crawley and home batteries in numbers
Every figure below comes from a named public source.
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DESNZ records about 2,264 solar PV installations of all sizes across Crawley borough at the end of 2025, with 11.06 MW of capacity.
Source: DESNZ, Renewable electricity by local authority 2014 to 2025 (published 29 September 2026), solar PV sites and capacity at the end of 2025, as first published
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DVLA records 2,310 privately kept plug-in vehicles across Crawley borough at the end of June 2026, up from 1,619 a year earlier (about 43% more).
Source: DfT and DVLA, VEH0142 licensed plug-in vehicles by local authority, privately kept, end of June 2026 against end of June 2025 (published 23 September 2026); percentage change is our arithmetic
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DESNZ estimates that 8.67% of homes in Crawley borough have no mains gas connection (2024).
Source: DESNZ, Subnational estimates of properties not connected to the gas network, 2024 (published 18 December 2025)
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PVGIS puts a 4 kWp south-facing array in Crawley at about 139 kWh in December against 493 kWh in June: December is about 28% of June, roughly 4.5 kWh a day.
Source: European Commission JRC, PVGIS 5.3 (4 kWp, 35°, due south, 14% losses, building-mounted, PVGIS-SARAH3 2005–2023), run 15 October 2026; ratio and daily averages are our arithmetic
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Crawley is in UK Power Networks' South Eastern Power Networks licence area, with the town-centre point about 13 km from the nearest other licence area, so G98 and G99 paperwork for batteries goes to UKPN.
Source: UK Power Networks, licence boundaries (Open Data Portal, December 2024); NESO, GIS boundaries for GB DNO licence areas (May 2024)
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Census 2021: terraced houses are the largest type in Crawley borough at 37.4% of 45,500 households; flats and maisonettes are 25.1% and detached houses 14.2%.
Source: ONS Census 2021, TS044 accommodation type (censusdata.uk)
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55.7% of Crawley borough's households are owner-occupied, 22.9% social rented and 19.8% private rented, so many battery decisions sit with a landlord.
Source: ONS Census 2021, TS054 tenure (censusdata.uk)
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Crawley Borough Council reports more than 130 public EV charging sockets in the borough through the West Sussex Chargepoint network.
Source: Crawley Borough Council, Reducing our emissions
Data last reviewed: October 2026
What a home battery costs in Crawley
The honest national anchor is the Energy Saving Trust's: home battery storage ranges from £1,500 to £10,000, a 5 kWh system costs around £4,600, and a typical home system might be 10 kWh. Energy Saving Trust also says there is no exact formula — sizing comes from your own consumption, that a battery's typical lifespan is about 10 to 12 years, and that fitting storage at the same time as panels costs less than a separate visit later.
Residential battery installations carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, reverting to 5% from 1 April 2027. Export payments under the Smart Export Guarantee are set by each supplier and must be above zero — they change on short notice, which is why we never print one. Our own price comes from a survey of your usage, tariff and wiring, and arrives itemised — the battery, the inverter or hybrid unit, the network notification, commissioning and warranties as separate lines.
When we would tell you not to: if your evening usage is low, if your tariff gives you little difference between peak and off-peak, or if a smaller solar array would already cover what you use in daylight, a battery can take a long time to pay its way — and we will say so rather than sell you one.
Sources: Energy Saving Trust — Battery storage (updated 19 August 2026) · HMRC — VAT on energy-saving materials and heating equipment (VAT Notice 708/6) · Ofgem — Smart Export Guarantee.
More for Crawley homes
Most batteries are fitted alongside panels, so start with what solar panels in Crawley would generate on your roof; for the wider picture, see how we approach homes across Sussex, or our main battery storage guide for the products and how sizing works. For a longer local read, see Crawley’s conservation areas: panels, batteries, planning.
We also cover battery storage in Horley, home batteries in Horsham and Haywards Heath battery installation advice.
Crawley battery questions
Can I fit a battery in a Crawley flat or maisonette?
Only with permission. Flats and maisonettes are 25.1% of Crawley's homes (Census 2021), and a battery needs the freeholder's or management company's written agreement for a leaseholder, or the landlord's for a tenant; 22.9% of the borough's households rent from a social landlord. A shared stairwell or bin store is rarely acceptable, so the options are a private garage, a ground-floor maisonette's own wall, or not at all. Without panels, a battery only pays if your tariff has a meaningful off-peak rate.
Will a battery keep my Crawley home running in a power cut?
Not by default. A standard grid-tied battery switches off when the grid does. Backup needs a backup-capable inverter or gateway and a separate circuit for the essentials, which costs more and has to be designed in before installation. Crawley's network operator is UK Power Networks (South Eastern Power Networks), the people to call about a cut. If you want backup, tell us at the survey and we will price it as its own line, with an honest view of whether it is worth it.
Is a battery worth it with an EV in Crawley?
It depends on your tariff more than the car. DVLA counts 2,310 privately kept plug-in vehicles in Crawley borough (end of June 2026), up from 1,619 a year earlier. Most owners charge overnight on a cheaper rate where their tariff offers one, so the battery's job is the house's evening use, not the car. A home charger installation carries 20% VAT, unlike the battery's lower rate set out above. On a mid-terrace, the battery and charger also have to share a route from the consumer unit, which the survey checks.
Can existing solar owners in Crawley add a battery?
Yes, and Crawley has a history of it: when Solar Together Sussex returned in 2023, it opened registration for battery retrofits on existing solar systems. The scheme has since rebranded as Switch Together, whose Crawley page said on 17 September 2026 that it was not active in the area yet. Adding a battery later usually means a battery inverter beside your solar inverter, or replacing it with a hybrid, and a new G98 or G99 notice to UK Power Networks. The Energy Saving Trust notes that fitting storage with panels costs less than a separate visit later.