No vat on Home Battery installations ????

[fshuk1]

I was told that
Solar PV installation was vat free.
Solar + Batteries was then also vat free.
However
Batteries on their own had 20% vat

Then I found out that batteries on their own could have only 5% vat if the material was 60%+ of the total cost

Now I found this

The Value Added Tax (Installation of Energy-Saving Materials) Order 2022

www.gov.uk

Does this mean that Batteries on their own are now VAT free??

Because I am almost sure that Batteries on their own are more cost effective than solar on it's own. Also solar + batteries has a much longer payoff time than Batteries on their own with 10p night rate (octopus Intelligent).

 

[Jomarkh]

It would have to be a big battery to last all day.
I have a 9.5kWh battery and from flat doesn't charge up in my four hour Go window.
What size battery would you need and would it fully charge from 6 hours of IO?

 

[Ayoull]

It would have to be a big battery to last all day.
I have a 9.5kWh battery at from flat doesn't charge up in my four our Go window.
What size battery would you need and would it fully charge from 6 hours of IO?

Depends on your inverter size.

A 5kW inverter would charge the 9.5kWh battery is 2.5hrs roughly taking into account losses and maintenance (balancing) by the BMS,l.

But with a 3kW inverter would take around 4hrs Inna perfect world.

 

[AdamMGEV]

Are there any grants available for solar and battery? I want one but unless you're in certain groups of society it seems there's nothing out there the average Joe.

 

[stevegus]

This is MG 4 related?

 

[siteguru]

Need to be in the General EV Chat board (probably).

@Alb

 

[Steve H]

I've just had solar and battery installed - adding solar to a battery setup is relatively small cost - it's the battery and inverter that costs the big money.

Yesterday was my first full day with it - we generated 9kWh of power, but had a really heavy day of washing, drying and baking, plus the gas central heating pump was running as my wife was at home (my office is in the garden with electric heating). So we only generated half our demand! - but usual demand is 12-14kWh. Today we've generate 2.6kWh, but our battery is now 'flat' (we have it capped to 10% minimum).

With a cheap overnight tariff (applied for), we should start every day with 100% in the battery - which has a 9kWh capacity. You do need to ensure you have the kit set to do this, though, as it's not set as standard.

No grant for us, predicted payback around 6 years.

 

[Alb]

Need to be in the General EV Chat board (probably).

@Alb

Done

 

[fshuk1]

So this is what you do,

1)Octopus does not have MG api . Therefore, the only way to get onto Octopus intelligent is to get an OHME charger.
2) Get as much battery as you nee for from 5:30am to 22:30 pm. for me about 12kwh
3) Switch to Octopus intelligent
4) Charge you car at night for 10p/kwh (about 3p per mile). Run your dishwasher at night . Run as much as you can anything at night.
5) In the morning run your house from your batteries.

This way you should be able to have a significant amount of your electricity reduced from 35ish p/kwh to 10p/kwh

Then shop for PV and see if it pays to reduce your electricity cost from 10p to zero/kwh

You are welcome

But do answer my question. Does my link mean that there should be no VAT on Batteries?

 

[Steve H]

Everyone I spoke to said the only way to avoid VAT on batteries was to install solar at the same time. I was doubtful, because most of them also assumed VAT at 20%.

However, the company that did mine DO know their stuff and confirmed battery alone was subject to 5% VAT. To be fair, that's only about 400 quid, but it did help me to decide to do everything at once.

 

[smokie]

There is no guarantee that the cheaper overnight rates will stay as (relatively) cheap as they are - or that electricity prices will remain as high as they are - so depending on them to make your business case is a bit risky.

 

[Deleted member 10041]

So this is what you do,

1)Octopus does not have MG api . Therefore, the only way to get onto Octopus intelligent is to get an OHME charger.
2) Get as much battery as you nee for from 5:30am to 22:30 pm. for me about 12kwh
3) Switch to Octopus intelligent
4) Charge you car at night for 10p/kwh (about 3p per mile). Run your dishwasher at night . Run as much as you can anything at night.
5) In the morning run your house from your batteries.

This way you should be able to have a significant amount of your electricity reduced from 35ish p/kwh to 10p/kwh

Then shop for PV and see if it pays to reduce your electricity cost from 10p to zero/kwh

You are welcome

But do answer my question. Does my link mean that there should be no VAT on Batteries?

This is not a new idea, this is pretty much what everyone with batteries does, whether they have solar or not. If it's looking like a bad day for solar, especially the winter, they charge their batteries overnight on a cheaper tariff.

 

[Ayoull]

So this is what you do,

1)Octopus does not have MG api . Therefore, the only way to get onto Octopus intelligent is to get an OHME charger.
2) Get as much battery as you nee for from 5:30am to 22:30 pm. for me about 12kwh
3) Switch to Octopus intelligent
4) Charge you car at night for 10p/kwh (about 3p per mile). Run your dishwasher at night . Run as much as you can anything at night.
5) In the morning run your house from your batteries.

This way you should be able to have a significant amount of your electricity reduced from 35ish p/kwh to 10p/kwh

Then shop for PV and see if it pays to reduce your electricity cost from 10p to zero/kwh

You are welcome

But do answer my question. Does my link mean that there should be no VAT on Batteries?

My understanding is there is only no VAT if there is an installation cost associated that is less than 40% of the total cost of installation.

You can't just buy batteries and go well it's 100% material costs

 

[Hotlush]

It would have to be a big battery to last all day.
I have a 9.5kWh battery and from flat doesn't charge up in my four hour Go window.
What size battery would you need and would it fully charge from 6 hours of IO?

Is it a lead acid battery?
I've got 2 x 5kWh PureDrive II DC and 4 hours means it only needs a rate of 2.5 kWh to the battery and it can do much faster than that.
If it's not lead acid you might want to check your settings.