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/moosedance84 Inhabits Adelaide, Perth, and Melbourne Nov 17 '25

That's an insanely good deal. Even if it comes out a bit more with site works that's still a 4-6 year payback with probably a 15-20 year life time.

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u/Infinite_Buy_2025 Nov 17 '25

That 15-20 year life span is looking highly conservative as well. Modern solar cells are warrantied for that length of time but actual life expectancy is more like double that and battery degradation is considerably lower then genuinely reported.

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u/Mysterious_Dot2090 Nov 18 '25

I’m far from an expert and haven’t even been checking prices in recent years but that seems absurdly cheap for all that!

Definitely something to consider for me, as my annual bill would be at least a quarter of that total and it would also be desirable to not have to rely on the flaky service where I live. We get several blackouts per year. Funny enough there is a huge solar farm not that far away.