‘We decided to go ahead with buying a home battery when we made the decision to get an electric vehicle’.
Abi thought they would just buy one battery but when they realised the federal government rebate was a one-off and they would not be eligible if they got a second battery later, they decided to get two 10KwH batteries at the same time.
They got a quote from SEA Solutions, one of Electrify Bouddi’s partner installers. Abi says, ‘it was SEA that installed our solar panels a year previously, so they knew our installation.’
SEA Solutions installed the two batteries and home EV charger at the same time. It took less than a day.
As part of the transition to using batteries, Abi and Swanny also switched electricity provider to Amber energy, who SEA recommends if you want to trade energy to maximise your potential cost savings. Just 7 days after switching and the installation, Amber automatically started trading energy for them. Abi says ‘the process was seamless and there were no problems. It has only been five weeks, but we have been watching our electricity costs and comparing them to prior months, and despite low solar generation from our panels we are saving money on electricity and have made 5 less trips to the petrol station’.
Abi loves Amber’s really simple phone app that allows them to see at a glance what they are paying for electricity at any 30 minute interval in the day. The app has enabled them to be much more aware of when they are using energy, so they can make sure they are using appliances and charging the car when the price of energy is lower. Abi says, ‘our clothes dryer is now out of bounds after 2.30pm!’
They didn’t realise that as well as the federal government rebate that is factored into the cost of the batteries, they also get a state government rebate if they join up to a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) and they would like to know more about what this is and how this works.
Two days after their batteries were installed, Abi bought her Hyundai Inster EV at Hyundai North Gosford. She just uses it for running around the peninsula and the occasional trip to Sydney and says, ‘I absolutely love it, so quiet and peaceful to drive and the feel good factor that it is using mostly renewable energy is wonderful’
Abi says, she and Swanny have made these changes – to get solar panels, two batteries, and an EV – because they needed a new car and they care about the environment. Living on the peninsula with 2 children Abi does a lot of driving and felt she wanted to off-set her emissions. With the ever increasing energy costs it also felt right to invest upfront to have more control over our energy bills into the future.
Abi & Swanny have the following equipment:
Hyundai Inster EV purchased in 2025
2 x 10kW SolarEdge Home Batteries and
SolarEdge Home EV Charger installed by SEA Solutions in July 2025
Installed by SEA Solutions in July 2024
Solar panels – 6.6kW panel to grid System (15 Jinko Tiger Neo N-type (54HL4R-B) 440W ALL BLACK panels, with individual SolarEdge Optimisers)
SolarEdge 10kW Home Hub Inverter
SolarEdge Smart Energy device to divert solar to the hot water system
Find information about rooftop solar and home battery systems.
Read all about electric vehicles.