Solar Battery Storage & Inverters

Store excess solar energy and manage your home's power more effectively with reliable battery storage and inverter systems built around your usage.

HIES Consumer Code member · NAPIT registered · MCS certified · Trustpilot reviewed

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EnSmart SolarAll battery and inverter cabinets on a completed Home Comfort Enterprises installation

A battery is the piece that makes solar work around your life rather than around the weather. Panels generate most at midday; most homes use most in the evening. Storage bridges that gap — and it can also charge from the grid at cheap overnight rates, which is why batteries increasingly make sense even on cloudy weeks.

HCE Ltd installs battery storage and hybrid inverters as part of new solar systems and as retrofits to existing ones. We're MCS-certified, NAPIT-registered and HIES Consumer Code members, and the equipment on this page isn't a stock photo — it's an EnSmart SolarAll system photographed on a real HCE installation.

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Quick answer

Solar battery storage:

Stores your daytime generation so it powers the house in the evening, when homes use most
Battery and inverter warranties are bounded — typically around a decade from the manufacturer, never “lifetime”
0% VAT until 31 March 2027 — including standalone and retrofit batteries, zero-rated since 1 February 2024
Pairs with Smart Export Guarantee income: Ofgem data shows exporting households averaged 13p per kWh in 2024–25
We install EnSmart SolarAll systems, with Sigenergy, Tesla Powerwall 3 and EcoFlow compared across our product pages
Fitted by a HIES Consumer Code member, NAPIT registered and MCS certified

Figures: Ofgem / HMRC VAT notice 708/6 / manufacturer datasheets, July 2026.

Why add battery storage?

Three honest reasons, in the order they usually matter.

Use more of what you generate

Without storage, any solar power you're not using at that exact moment is exported to the grid — and export rates are almost always lower than the price you pay to buy electricity back in the evening. A battery captures your midday surplus so it powers your kettle, oven and washing machine at 7pm. That gap between the export rate and the import rate is where most of a battery's value lives: every stored unit you use yourself is a unit you didn't buy at full price.

Play the tariff game

Time-of-use tariffs price electricity differently through the day — cheap in the small hours, expensive at teatime. A battery can charge from the grid overnight at the low rate and discharge through the expensive peak, whatever the weather did. In winter, when solar generation is at its lowest, this is often the battery's main job. If you drive an electric car, the same off-peak window can charge the EV too.

Backup — with an honest caveat

Here's the part many sales pages skip: a standard grid-tied solar system, with or without a battery, shuts down during a power cut. That's a mandatory safety feature that protects engineers working on the lines. Keeping selected circuits running in an outage needs a system specifically designed for backup. Some hardware supports this — the EnSmart SolarAll-H inverter range we install lists a built-in UPS function with a 10-millisecond switchover on its manufacturer specification — but whether backup makes sense for you depends on the system design, and we'll give you a straight answer at the survey rather than a vague promise.

How batteries pair with solar

Plain-English version. There are two main routes, and which one suits you mostly depends on whether you already have panels.

Hybrid inverter (usual for new installations)

A hybrid inverter does two jobs in one box: it converts your panels' DC output into usable AC power, and it manages battery charging and discharging. One unit, one installation, tidy wiring. This is the arrangement in our SolarAll installation photo — cabinets housing the inverter and battery storage together. The SolarAll-H units are IP65-rated on the manufacturer's specification, meaning they're sealed against dust and water jets and are suitable for indoor or outdoor mounting, which gives real flexibility over where the kit lives.

AC-coupled battery (usual for retrofits)

If you already have solar with a working inverter, an AC-coupled battery system adds storage with its own built-in inverter alongside your existing setup. Your original system carries on untouched — including any legacy feed-in-tariff arrangement — and the battery catches what would have been exported.

Neither route is “better”; they're tools for different starting points. What matters is that the sizing and control settings match how your household actually uses power — which is design work, not catalogue shopping.

Adding a battery to an existing solar system

If you had panels installed years ago, a retrofit battery is often the single biggest upgrade available to you. Systems installed under the old feed-in tariff typically export a lot of what they generate; a battery redirects that surplus into your own evenings.

The tax treatment recently improved, and plenty of older articles are out of date on this: since 1 February 2024, battery storage qualifies for 0% VAT even when installed on its own — retrofitted to existing solar or as a standalone grid-charging battery — not just when it's fitted alongside new panels. The zero rate on energy-saving materials runs until 31 March 2027, after which it reverts to 5%. (HMRC's VAT notice is in our sources.)

A retrofit survey covers your existing inverter's age and health, your generation and usage pattern, where the battery can physically and safely be mounted, and whether AC-coupling or a hybrid-inverter swap is the more sensible route. If your existing kit is nearing the end of its life, replacing the inverter and adding storage in one job can be the tidier answer — and if a battery genuinely wouldn't pay its way on your usage, we'll tell you that instead.

The equipment: EnSmart SolarAll, photographed on a real HCE job

The storage cabinets pictured on this page are EnSmart SolarAll units installed by HCE — real equipment on a real UK installation, not a manufacturer render.

EnSmart Power is a UK-headquartered power-electronics manufacturer (Braintree, Essex) specialising in energy storage and power protection. Their published SolarAll-H hybrid inverter range spans 3–6 kW single-phase models for typical homes and 10–20 kW three-phase models for larger properties, with a stated maximum efficiency of 97.5% and that IP65 indoor/outdoor rating. The inverters pair with EnSmart's modular ELV lithium battery packs, which the manufacturer lists from around 5 kWh upwards — the wall-mounted ELV-W units come in 5.12 kWh and 10.24 kWh sizes and are rated for more than 6,500 charge cycles, using lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) cells certified to recognised battery-safety standards (UL1973, IEC62619, UN38.3, UL9540A).

Modular matters in practice: storage can be sized to your usage now and expanded later, rather than forcing a single oversized purchase on day one.

See the EnSmart range we install

What size battery do I need?

The honest answer: the right size is set by your evening and overnight usage, not by the biggest number on a brochure.

A useful reference point: Ofgem's typical household figure is 2,500 kWh of electricity a year — roughly 7 kWh a day, much of it outside daylight hours. That's why mid-single-figure battery capacities suit many homes: enough to carry a typical evening, small enough to actually get filled by your panels most days. Households with high evening usage, an EV charging at home or a heat pump often justify more — and modular packs like the ELV range make "start sensible, expand if needed" a real strategy rather than a sales line.

Geography shifts the pattern too: solar and battery systems across Surrey tend to be designed around commuter homes that sit empty until evening, battery storage for Sussex homes can lean on the coast's strong summer generation, and for Hampshire's off-gas-grid homes stored power displaces oil or LPG heating rather than just peak-rate electricity.

Oversizing is the classic mistake. A battery that your panels rarely fill, and your evenings rarely empty, is capital sitting idle on a wall. At the survey we look at your actual bills and usage pattern and size accordingly — and we'd rather quote you a smaller system that works hard than a bigger one that doesn't.

Curious what a battery changes for your bill? Flip the battery switch on our savings calculator and watch the self-use number move.

Start with a conversation

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Warranties: what's actually promised

Battery and inverter warranties are bounded, and you should treat any "lifetime" language you see elsewhere with suspicion. A typical manufacturer battery warranty runs for a fixed number of years or a stated amount of charge cycles or energy throughput, whichever comes first — the written document is what counts, not the headline.

On the EnSmart kit specifically, we'll be precise about what's published: the ELV-W battery datasheet states a cycle rating of more than 6,500 cycles and a 15-year design life — a design-life figure, which is not the same thing as a warranty term. EnSmart's product pages don't publish standalone warranty periods for the SolarAll-H inverters or ELV packs, so the warranty terms that apply to your installation are confirmed in writing with your quote, and we'll walk you through exactly what's covered and for how long before you sign anything.

That's also worth remembering when comparing quotes from anyone, including us: the question isn't "how long do batteries last" in the abstract — it's "what does the written warranty promise, and who honours it".

Battery storage FAQs

Will my battery keep the lights on in a power cut?

Only if the system is specifically designed for backup. Standard grid-tied systems — panels, battery and all — shut down in an outage as a mandatory safety measure. Backup capability needs hardware that supports it (the SolarAll-H range lists a built-in UPS function on its specification sheet) plus a design that wires selected circuits to stay live. If outage protection matters to you, say so at the survey and we’ll design and price for it honestly.

Can I add a battery to my existing solar panels?

Yes, in almost all cases. An AC-coupled battery works alongside your existing inverter without disturbing it, or the retrofit can replace an ageing inverter with a hybrid unit and add storage in one job. Retrofit batteries also now qualify for 0% VAT (until 31 March 2027), which meaningfully changes the sums on older systems that export heavily.

Can the battery charge from the grid, not just from solar?

Yes — and in winter that’s often its main role. On a time-of-use tariff the battery fills at the cheap overnight rate and covers your expensive peak hours, working alongside whatever your panels contribute. It’s the same logic that makes overnight EV charging cheap, applied to the whole house.

How long do home batteries last?

Battery life is measured in charge cycles rather than years alone — one full charge and discharge is a cycle, and the ELV-W packs we install are rated by their manufacturer for more than 6,500 of them. Real-world lifespan depends on how hard the battery works daily. The honest yardstick is the written warranty: a bounded promise of years or cycles from the manufacturer, which we’ll show you before you commit.

Where will the battery actually go?

Common homes for storage are a garage, a utility room, under the stairs or — with appropriately rated equipment — an outside wall, as in our installation photo (the SolarAll-H cabinets carry an IP65 rating, per EnSmart’s specification). Placement has safety and performance rules around ventilation, temperature and cable runs, so the exact spot is agreed at the survey rather than guessed from a brochure.

Is a battery worth it without solar panels?

It can be, if you’re on (or willing to move to) a time-of-use tariff: the battery buys cheap overnight electricity and spends it during peak hours. Standalone batteries also qualify for the 0% VAT rate until March 2027. Whether the arithmetic works depends on your tariff and usage — bring us a recent bill and we’ll tell you either way.

See our FAQs

Curious whether a battery would actually pay its way in your home?

Send us a recent electricity bill and we'll give you an honest read: sizing, siting, realistic figures and a written quote with the warranty terms spelled out. If it doesn't stack up for your usage, we'll say so. No pressure, just clear advice.

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