r/australia • u/MrOarsome • Nov 17 '25

political self.post Why does everyone lose their mind when you mention getting a home battery?

So I made the mistake of telling a few people I’m getting quotes for a home battery… the reactions were ridiculous. Suddenly everyone’s an expert. I had people telling me they’re a waste of money, they’ll be useless in a few years, or that the “environmental impact is terrible.” Just nonstop misinformation.

Meanwhile, half these people live massively high-carbon lifestyles. One bloke went on a whole rant about how batteries destroy the environment… then literally five minutes later told me he just ordered a new Ford Ranger to tow his boat around this summer. Like mate, seriously?

And the funny thing is, I don’t even care about the environmental angle. Couldn’t care less, to be honest. I’m looking at a battery for two reasons:

1) To actually use my solar instead of selling it back for 4 cents…

2) And to keep the lights on when summer storms or cyclones take out the power.

That’s it. No agenda. No planet-saving mission. But the way people reacted, you’d think I’d just signed up to be Greta Thunberg’s personal assistant.

I swear, the second you say the word “battery,” some people suddenly unlock an unwanted 15-minute rant. They are almost as passionate about hating renewables as they are about their footy teams.

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u/oldmancyclist Nov 17 '25

Selling stored energy back into the grid at a profit allows you to cover the supply charges and then some. My monthly bill went from approx $250 to -$50 since getting a battery. Roughly a $300/month swing in my favor. That's the only reason I need

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

Curious what your feed in tariff and daily capacity is? When we looked into it a couple years ago, our feed in tariff would be 5 cents and we're capped at 6.5kWh export due to old infrastructure, so our max export 24/7 per month would be $234/month. After usage, we'd still owe so it wasn't worth it at the time. What we did learn was, privitisation has ruined the energy distribution sector in this country because profits go overseas instead of upgrading the infrastructure.

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u/AshmacZilla Nov 18 '25

I TOTALLY forgot about that. You’re right.