Battery Storage for Ellon Homes from £3,500
We add home batteries to Ellon houses, including beside solar panels fitted in the Feed in Tariff years, for £3,500 to £5,000 at 5 to 10kWh, fully fitted at 0% VAT. Placed after your generation meter, a battery leaves a deemed export payment exactly as it was, and we confirm which arrangement you are on at a free survey before quoting. A fixed written price usually follows within one working day. Ring 07304 027013.
Faithful Spark Electricians fits home batteries across Ellon and AB41: £3,500 to £5,000 to add 5 to 10kWh to panels you already own, £5,000 to £7,000 for a 15kWh battery, and £10,000 to £12,000 for a new 4kWp array with 10kWh of storage. The quote names the battery and inverter (Alpha ESS, SolarEdge, Fox ESS or SolaX), where it sits against your existing meters, the SSEN paperwork, testing to BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 and the certificates you keep.
Ellon is in the Formartine area of Aberdeenshire Council, and SSEN runs the local network. We travel out from 17 Thomson Road in Peterhead; there is no office in Ellon. The work is done by our own team, led by Steven Watt with Callum working alongside him, the same firm many households already use as their electrician in Ellon. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm on 07304 027013.
Last updated 6 October 2026
Will adding a battery stop my Feed in Tariff export payment in Ellon?
Not if your export is deemed and the battery goes in after the generation meter. Ofgem's guidance says deemed export is worked out from the generation meter reading, so it is unaffected by a battery wired that way. Three things can change the answer, and we check all three before quoting.
Paid on 50% of what the panels make
For a FIT installation of 30kW or less with no export meter, export is deemed rather than measured. Ofgem sets the solar PV figure at 50% of the generation meter reading. Its worked example of a battery fitted after the generation meter, able to charge from the grid and to export, ends: "Deemed export payments are unaffected."
The meter must count solar only
The larger FIT payment depends on the generation meter recording the panels and nothing else. A battery after that meter keeps it clean. A battery before it that can charge from the grid is only acceptable with an approved bidirectional meter; without one, Ofgem says generation payments cannot be made.
Grid charging is the risk
If your export is read from a meter, a battery that can fill from the grid mixes bought units into your export, and Ofgem's example concludes no metered export payments can be made. Where the battery can only charge from the panels, Ofgem says export payments, metered or deemed, are unaffected.
Had a smart meter fitted since the panels went up?
Check your statement. Ofgem's FIT page for generators says that when a smart meter is installed, deemed export payments stop and you are paid instead for the exported units the meter records. Your generation payment is not affected. If that has happened, you are on metered export and the third card above applies, so the battery is set to charge from the panels only unless your FIT licensee agrees otherwise.
You have to tell your FIT licensee
Ofgem lists connecting battery storage as a change you must notify to the supplier that pays your Feed in Tariff. Its guidance asks for an updated single line or schematic diagram showing how the panels feed the battery and where the meters sit, and includes example declarations for the owner and the installer. Ask for that paperwork before work starts.
What a stored unit is worth on deemed export. Assume the battery keeps 1,000 kWh of summer surplus in the house that used to spill onto the grid, and about 8% is lost charging and discharging. The 920 kWh that comes back out is electricity you do not buy, worth about £220 a year at our 24p example import rate, and the deemed export payment carries on as before. A household paid for metered export gives up the export rate on every stored unit, which is why a FIT era roof on deemed export is the strongest case for adding a battery.
Panels fitted after March 2019
The FIT scheme closed to new applicants on 1 April 2019, so newer arrays are paid through the Smart Export Guarantee, which is always metered. Ofgem allows a battery as long as the export meter can still separate the panels' export from anything else. Where the meter also records grid electricity sent back out, which Ofgem calls brown export, the supplier is not obliged to pay, and Ofgem tells SEG generators to check with their supplier before changing the system.
What we do about it
At the survey we find the generation meter, read your latest FIT or SEG statement with you, and confirm whether export is deemed or metered. The design then puts the battery where the meter keeps counting solar only, and sets grid charging to suit your scheme. Ring 07304 027013 with your statement to hand.
Sources, read 6 October 2026: Ofgem, guidance for generators on storage installed alongside renewable generation (Version 6, published 2024), paragraphs 4.4, 4.8 to 4.12, 4.21 to 4.23, scenarios 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 4.6 and 4.7, Appendix 1 and Appendix 3; Ofgem FIT information for generators. FIT payments run for between 10 and 25 years from accreditation, depending on the installation.
Send us your last FIT statement
A photo of the statement, the inverter's model label and the meters beside it tells us whether your export is deemed or metered and which battery layout fits, before anyone visits.
What a home battery costs in Ellon, fitted
Adding a battery to existing Ellon panels costs £3,500 to £5,000, a larger 15kWh unit £5,000 to £7,000, and panels with a battery together £10,000 to £12,000. None of these figures has VAT to add.
Battery added to your panels
£3,500 to £5,000
- 5 to 10kWh beside a working solar inverter
- The same band for a 10kWh battery with no panels at all
- Roof and panel wiring left as they are when AC coupled
15kWh battery
£5,000 to £7,000
- Electric heating, a heat pump or an electric car
- Sized from your readings, not from a round number
- Below the 20kWh cap for a single enclosure
New panels and battery
£10,000 to £12,000
- 4kWp array with a 10kWh battery
- For a roof with nothing on it, or a failed old system
- Roof detail on our solar panel installation in Ellon page
What moves an Ellon retrofit within the band
- Keeping or swapping the solar inverter. A healthy inverter stays and the battery gets its own; an old one may be replaced by a single hybrid unit, priced at survey.
- Where the meters and the board are. A garage battery beside the generation meter is a short job; a run through the house is longer.
- Room on the fuse board. If the board cannot take another circuit, a consumer unit upgrade in Ellon from £550 + VAT appears as its own line.
- Backup circuits. Keeping chosen circuits live in a power cut adds switchgear, quoted separately.
0% VAT applied automatically on qualifying residential solar and battery installs until at least March 2027. Section 2.19 of HMRC's VAT Notice 708/6 names retrofitting a battery to existing solar panels, and a standalone battery charged from the mains, as zero rated from 1 February 2024; the relief runs to 31 March 2027 and becomes 5% from 1 April 2027. Board work is ordinary electrical work and carries VAT.
Is it worth getting battery storage without solar in Ellon?
Only when your tariff has a wide gap between its cheap and dear rates. A battery with no panels earns its keep by filling up at the cheap rate and running the house at the dear one, so the size of that gap decides everything.
Worked example: £3,500 and £5,000 batteries
| Gap between rates | Saving a year | Repays £3,500 in | Repays £5,000 in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5p | £125 | 28 years | 40 years |
| 10p | £250 | 14 years | 20 years |
| 15p | £375 | about 9 years | about 13 years |
| 20p | £500 | 7 years | 10 years |
Assumptions, not a quote: 2,500 kWh a year moved from the dear rate to the cheap one (roughly 7kWh on an average night from a battery with about 9kWh usable), savings counted before charging losses, which take a little more off. No supplier's tariff is assumed; put your own two rates in.
Reading the table honestly
Battery warranties on the brands we fit typically run 10 years, depending on brand and model. To pay for itself inside that time, a £3,500 battery needs a gap of about 14p and a £5,000 one about 20p. Some time of use tariffs also charge more than a standard rate during the day, so a house that cannot move enough of its use can end up paying more, not less.
Who tends to come out ahead
Homes with an electric car on an overnight tariff, electric storage heaters or a heat pump, and anyone at home through the day who uses a lot in the evening. If a charger is on your list too, our EV charger installation in Ellon can be planned with the battery so the two share a cable route and a board. On an overnight EV tariff, read how to stop Intelligent Octopus Go draining your battery before you set charge times.
What we do: run your own half hourly readings and your actual rates through the same sum at the survey. If the gap is too narrow, the quote says the battery would be for backup and convenience rather than savings. The longer view is in our article is battery storage worth it in Scotland.
Two ways to add a battery to Ellon solar panels
An AC coupled battery sits beside your existing solar inverter; a DC coupled one shares a new hybrid inverter with the panels. On a Feed in Tariff roof the choice also decides which side of the generation meter the battery lands.
| AC coupled, beside your inverter | DC coupled, new hybrid inverter | |
|---|---|---|
| Existing solar inverter | Stays in service | Replaced by the hybrid |
| Generation meter | Battery connects after it, so the meter keeps counting solar only | Battery sits before it, so grid charging has to be blocked or an approved bidirectional meter fitted |
| FIT effect | Ofgem's standard case: generation and deemed export payments continue | Acceptable in Ofgem's examples when set up that way; with a bidirectional meter, battery losses can trim the generation reading |
| Array check | None, the battery inverter connects at the board | Panel strings must suit the hybrid's voltage range, checked against the datasheet |
| Best when | The solar inverter is healthy | The old inverter has failed or is near the end of its life |
FIT rows from the same Ofgem storage guidance, paragraphs 4.8 to 4.10 and 4.18, scenarios 4.1, 4.4, 4.6 and 4.7.
Alpha ESS
Our usual pick for an AC coupled retrofit: a battery with its own inverter that leaves a working FIT array untouched.
SolarEdge
Suits roofs that already run SolarEdge optimisers, where the battery joins the platform and monitoring the panels already use.
Fox ESS and SolaX
Hybrid inverters with stackable lithium iron phosphate batteries, for the DC route when the old inverter is due for replacement.
Every battery we fit uses lithium iron phosphate cells. What we do: test the existing inverter and array at the survey and recommend one layout, with the reasoning, on the written quote.
Not sure how old your inverter is?
Photograph the label on the side of it. The model and date usually tell us whether a battery beside it or a hybrid in its place makes more sense.
How a home battery in Ellon differs from the grid scale sites, and what it does in a power cut
Searches for battery storage around Ellon also turn up grid scale battery sites proposed in the countryside nearby. Those are energy company projects measured in megawatts that go through the planning system on their own terms. A home battery is a single wall mounted unit serving one house, sited under PAS 63100 and capped at 20kWh per enclosure, and that is the only kind this page covers.
In a power cut, a grid connected inverter has to shut down so it cannot feed cables engineers may be working on, so a battery without backup goes off with the street. An emergency power supply output, or EPS, keeps a short list of circuits such as lights, the fridge freezer, the router and heating controls running from the battery, within the inverter's power limit.
What we do: agree the backup circuits with you, price EPS as a separate line, and write on the quote when a system has no backup at all. Call 07304 027013.
Rules that apply to a battery in an Ellon home
Where it can go. PAS 63100:2024, the fire safety specification for home batteries, keeps them out of bedrooms and out of escape routes that are not protected, which rules out most hallways and landings, sets conditions for lofts and caps one enclosure at 20kWh. On a retrofit the obvious spot beside the old inverter does not always pass, so we settle the location at the survey.
Wiring regulations. BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 adds requirements for stationary secondary batteries, the formal name for a home battery. Current flows both ways through the board once storage is connected, so protective devices are chosen for that, and we follow the IET Code of Practice for Electrical Energy Storage Systems.
SSEN. Up to 3.68kW per phase, generation is notified under G98 after commissioning; above that, G99 approval comes first. Your existing panels count towards that total, so a battery inverter added to an array notified years ago often takes the house into G99. We make the application.
Council and Part P. Ellon sits in Aberdeenshire Council's Formartine area, so any building warrant comes from Aberdeenshire Council. Most battery installs involve no building work; where one does, such as a new outbuilding for the battery, we say so at the survey. Part P is in the Building Regulations for England and Wales, and Scotland has no Building Control notification for this work.
Adding a battery to an Ellon home, step by step
- 1
A call about your scheme
When the panels went up, FIT or SEG, deemed or metered, and what you want the battery to do.
- 2
Free survey
Generation meter, supply meter, inverter label, board, cable route and a compliant battery spot.
- 3
Written fixed price
AC or DC layout with the reasons, battery size from your readings, backup and board work as separate lines.
- 4
SSEN paperwork
G98 notice or G99 application with your existing array counted in, and the fitting date set around any wait.
- 5
Installation
A simple AC coupled retrofit is usually a day on site; an inverter swap or new board adds time.
- 6
Testing and handover
BS 7671 certification, charging set to your tariff and scheme, and the monitoring app working on your phone.
Ellon battery installers with a storage qualification
Steven Watt's awards
- City and Guilds Level 3 Award in the Design, Installation and Commissioning of Small Electrical Energy Storage Systems (610/4840/9), awarded April 2026
- City and Guilds Level 3 Award in the Installation and Maintenance of Small Solar Photovoltaic Systems (610/4841/0), awarded April 2026
- City and Guilds 2391-52 inspection and testing, and an HNC in Engineering Systems
Faithful Spark Electricians Ltd is NICEIC Approved Contractor 620239 and TrustMark registered business 4205123, insured for £2M public liability. Steven leads our own team, with Callum working alongside him.
MCS through our Q-Smart partnership
Every installation we complete is fully MCS registered through our Q-Smart partnership. Q-Smart is a Competent Person Scheme. Faithful Spark Electricians carries out the installation and Q-Smart issues the MCS certificate, so your system qualifies for the Smart Export Guarantee.
Your original solar certificate stays as it is. Keep it with the new battery paperwork, because your FIT licensee may ask for both.
"From the initial meeting we were impressed with the work and professionalism. Steven turned up exactly as scheduled and kept constant communication throughout. Would have no hesitation recommending Faithful Spark."
Brian McMenemy, Google review. Across all our electrical work we are rated 5.0 from more than 100 Google reviews. Read them on Google.
Home batteries in Ellon and the villages around it
We add batteries across Ellon and AB41, through Formartine and up the coast, travelling out from Peterhead.
Comparing panels, a battery or both? Our overview of solar PV and battery storage sets out each option.
Questions Ellon households ask about batteries
Something else on your mind? Call 07304 027013 or send us a message.
Will a battery reduce my Feed in Tariff payments?
Not on deemed export with the battery after the generation meter. Ofgem calculates deemed export as 50% of the generation meter reading for solar, and its example of that layout says deemed export payments are unaffected. The generation payment also continues while the meter counts solar only.
What happens to deemed export if I get a smart meter?
Ofgem says deemed export payments stop and you are paid for the exported units the meter records instead, while generation payments carry on. A battery on metered export should then charge from the panels only, unless your FIT licensee agrees another arrangement.
Do I have to tell my energy supplier about a battery?
Yes. Ofgem lists connecting battery storage as a change to notify to your FIT licensee, with an updated single line or schematic diagram showing the battery and the meters. SEG customers should check with their supplier before changing the system.
How much does battery storage cost in Ellon?
£3,500 to £5,000 to add 5 to 10kWh to existing panels or to fit a 10kWh battery on its own, £5,000 to £7,000 for 15kWh, and £10,000 to £12,000 for a new 4kWp array with a 10kWh battery. All are fitted prices at 0% VAT.
Is it worth getting battery storage without solar?
Only with a wide gap between your cheap and dear rates. Moving 2,500 kWh a year saves about £25 for each penny of gap before losses, so a £3,500 battery needs roughly 14p to repay itself in ten years and a £5,000 one about 20p.
Can I keep my existing solar inverter?
Yes, with an AC coupled battery, which brings its own inverter and connects after the generation meter. A DC coupled hybrid replaces the old inverter and suits a unit that has failed or is near the end of its life.
Is a home battery the same as the battery sites planned near Ellon?
No. Grid scale sites are energy company projects measured in megawatts that go through planning. A home battery is one wall mounted unit for one house, sited under PAS 63100 and limited to 20kWh per enclosure.
Do I need a building warrant for a battery in Ellon?
Rarely, because most installs involve no building work. Ellon is in Aberdeenshire Council's area, so any warrant, for example for a new outbuilding to house the battery, comes from Aberdeenshire Council. Part P does not apply in Scotland.
Will the battery keep my lights on in a power cut?
Only if backup is designed in. A grid connected inverter must shut down when the mains fails, so we add an emergency power supply output for chosen circuits, such as lights, the fridge and heating controls, and price it as its own line.
Book a free battery survey in Ellon
Call 07304 027013 or use the form. Tell us your postcode, roughly when the panels went up, which scheme pays you for them (Feed in Tariff or Smart Export Guarantee), and what the inverter label says. We survey, design the battery around your meters and send a fixed written price, usually within one working day.
Request a battery survey
Faithful Spark Electricians Ltd · 17 Thomson Road, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, AB42 3FJ · NICEIC Approved Contractor 620239 · TrustMark Registered 4205123 · MCS certified via our Q-Smart partnership · City and Guilds Level 3 Energy Storage and Solar PV awards, 2391-52 · BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 · 0% VAT applied automatically on qualifying residential solar and battery installs until at least March 2027 · £2M public liability insured · Company SC821028 · VAT 503 6560 13