Does a home battery pay off in 2026?

A home battery earns money three ways: more self-consumption of your solar, arbitrage on dynamic prices, and shaving peaks. They all draw from the same cycle budget, so you cannot simply add them up.

The two deductions Round-trip efficiency costs you about ten percent of what you store. And if you charge an electric car on dynamic prices, it already eats the cheap hours, which lowers your battery's arbitrage value.

A realistic payback Never use year one times ten. Arbitrage margins shrink over time as more batteries compress the spread, and the battery itself degrades a few percent per year.

In the calculator you see the three streams separately, plus an honest payback based on declining savings.