11 June 2026 · 4 min read
Home battery payback time: what does it depend on?
By Stefan Douw · Maker of Stekkerkompas
There is no fixed payback time for a home battery. In the field test by the Dutch homeowners' association Vereniging Eigen Huis, CE Delft calculated 10 to 22 years for a household with average consumption, and 6.5 to 14 years for a large household with many panels. If you only count on self-consumption you sit at the long end of that band. If the battery trades on the power markets you can land well under it. The four factors below decide where you end up.
What the field test shows
Vereniging Eigen Huis had thirteen households run a home battery for a year and CE Delft analysed the data. Self-consumption of solar power rose sharply: for a family with twelve panels and average use from 33 to 68 percent with a 5 kWh battery, for a family with 36 panels from 6 to 35 percent with 10 kWh. On average a battery adds about 30 percent self-consumption. That is real money, but not enough: on its own it easily means ten years or more to break even. The wide range comes mainly from uncertain power prices and from the type of contract.
Until 2027 net metering does the job
As long as the net-metering scheme (saldering) runs, exported power offsets your consumption. The grid is effectively a free battery, and a real battery adds almost nothing on a fixed contract. Only from 1 January 2027 does storing your own power become properly valuable, because exporting will then pay far less than self-use. If you buy a battery now, base the maths on the years after 2027.
Trading makes the difference
The biggest income is not self-consumption but smart charging and discharging on a dynamic contract, especially on the imbalance market. We model that as a band of 40 to 95 euro per usable kWh per year, with 70 euro as the central figure. For a 10 kWh battery that is 400 to 950 euro a year, before tax and costs. Two caveats: you need a supplier that actively steers your battery, and the payments decline as more batteries join. Do not extrapolate from the peak years 2023 and 2024.
What you pay decides the other half
A plug-in battery of about 5 kWh costs roughly 1,000 to 1,400 euro in June 2026, around 200 to 280 euro per kWh. Larger configurations are often cheaper per kWh. Every euro you pay less comes straight off the payback time, so compare per size: the same model differs by hundreds of euros between shops. And never buy through an unsolicited sales call; those prices sit far above the market.
Run your own numbers
The calculator works with your usage, panels and contract, and shows the result as a band instead of one neat number. That tells you whether a battery in your situation sits at the short or the long end of the payback range.
Sources
Run the numbers for your home
Keep reading
9 Jun 2026 · 4 min read
What is SCOP, and what does it tell you about a heat pump?
SCOP is a heat pump’s seasonal efficiency. What the number means, what pushes it up or down, and how it sets your electricity use.
6 Jun 2026 · 4 min read
How many kWh of home battery do you need?
For most households 5 to 9 kWh is enough, and smaller is often smarter than bigger. How to pick the right size from your usage and your solar.
3 Jun 2026 · 4 min read
Dynamic energy contract: how it works and who it suits
On a dynamic contract your electricity price changes every hour. When that pays off, and when a fixed contract is the wiser choice.