Home Batteries Sold on Exaggerated Savings

Home batteries can be worth it, but rarely for the savings reason they’re often sold on. A typical 13.5 kWh battery costs about $15,000 installed at EnergySage’s H1 2026 average of $1,130 per kWh. On bill savings alone, that’s a long payback in most places. Batteries make the most financial sense where exports earn little and evening power is expensive, or where a utility pays you to share your battery. They also provide backup power, which is valuable but separate from savings.

Why salespeople push batteries

Battery add-ons raise the contract size a lot, and outage fear sells. Interest is high: EnergySage reported 76% of shoppers interested in batteries in H1 2026. Fear plus a vague “pays for itself” claim is an easy combination.

The federal homeowner tax credit for batteries also ended with the solar credit after 2025. An owned battery installed in 2026 gets $0 federal credit. Batteries in leases can still qualify for a business credit the company claims.

A worked example: check the savings claim

A rep says a 13.5 kWh battery will save $150 a month ($1,800 a year).

• Usable energy per daily cycle: 13.5 kWh × 89% round-trip efficiency ≈ 12 kWh
• Over a year, cycling fully every single day: about 4,386 kWh shifted
• To save $1,800, each shifted kWh would need to be worth about 41¢ more than it would have earned otherwise

That’s possible only with a very large gap between your evening rate and your export credit. At a 15¢ gap, the same battery saves about $658 a year. That’s a payback of about 23 years on $15,255, longer than many battery warranties, which commonly run about 10 years. Most homes also won’t fully cycle every day of the year.

When a battery does make sense

• Net billing with time-of-use rates. In California, exports earn a few cents and evening power costs much more. Storing midday solar for evening use is where battery savings are strongest. See California net billing.
• Paid battery programs. Mass Save’s ConnectedSolutions (Eversource and National Grid) has paid about $275 per kW of average summer performance, so a 5 kW contribution can earn about $1,375 a year. Confirm current rates with the program.
• Frequent or long outages where backup protects health, medical devices or a business.
• No net metering at all for new customers in your area.

How it shows up in a quote

• One combined savings number for solar plus battery
• A battery line with “ITC” or “tax credit” applied
• A “whole-home backup” claim without a list of which circuits are covered
• No mention of the battery warranty’s throughput or capacity limits

Questions to ask

• “What are the battery’s savings alone, per year, and what rates did you use?”
• “How many full cycles per year does that assume?”
• “Which circuits will it back up, and for how long during an outage?”
• “What is the warranty term and the guaranteed capacity at the end of it?”
• “Am I eligible for any utility program that pays for battery use?”

What to do next

Run your numbers in the battery calculator. Our guides on whether solar batteries pay off and generator vs. battery backup compare options. If you only need to keep a fridge and phones running, a portable power station may cover it for much less. See cheaper first steps.

Bottom line: Buy a battery for backup or for a rate structure that rewards it, with honest numbers. Not because someone said it pays for itself.

Where to report it

If battery savings were presented as guaranteed or a tax credit was claimed that doesn’t apply, report it to your state attorney general and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.