myenergi launches libbi battery to complete home energy ecosystem

myenergi, the eco-smart technology manufacturer recently recognised as one of the UK’s top 10 fastest growing companies, is continuing its growth into new markets with the launch of its own home battery, called libbi.

A new product for the Lincolnshire-based company, libbi will sit alongside eddi (the smart solar diverter) and zappi (the world’s first solar EV smart charger) in myenergi’s eco-smart product line-up, and crucially, will allow customers to complete their home energy ecosystem, helping them to maximise self-consumption from their own renewable generation and significantly reduce energy costs.

Jordan Brompton, co-founder and CMO of myenergi, said: “We are incredibly excited to bring a smart home battery to the UK market. Around one million homes in the UK now have solar panels, and as electric vehicles sales continue to rise and the transition to electric heating accelerates, we know that there will be huge growth in domestic renewable generation and demand for battery storage to maximise it.”

The myenergi libbi home battery solution incorporates the battery, inverter and controller, allowing customers to complete their domestic energy ecosystem. Like all myenergi products, libbi is eco smart, making intelligent decisions about when it provides and stores electricity based on how much energy is used, how much is generated from solar and the customer’s electricity tariff. The hybrid battery system can adapt to a wide range of installation setups, accepting both solar and grid charging.

Unlike other home storage batteries, libbi will allow customers to prioritise loads as they wish within the myenergi app, for example to avoid the battery discharging automatically when they plug in their electric car, or conversely, to charge their EV directly from their home battery when their zappi is in ECO+ mode.

The modular design uses 5.1kWh battery packs, scalable up to a total of 20.4kWh of storage, with either a 3.68kW or 5kW inverter. Customers can choose whether to charge the libbi from solar, grid energy, or a mixture of both – with the latter being optimised around a time-of-use or agile tariff.

Not only can storing cheaper off-peak electricity save customers money, by avoiding using more expensive energy at peak times; it also lessens the strain on the grid. In addition, the libbi is available with optional Blackout Backup, providing instant energy to a dedicated circuit in the event of a power cut.

While a study from the University of Oxford showed that average self-consumption – the amount of solar generation that a household actually ends up using – is around 45% in the UK, modelling by myenergi shows this rising to closer to 100% for a home energy ecosystem encompassing the eddi solar diverter, zappi EV charger and libbi home battery.

Lee Sutton, co-founder and CEO of myenergi, added: “We are committed to innovation and are excited to deliver technologies that help our customers gain more autonomy over their energy. Our libbi home battery will help our customers complete their own energy ecosystem, enabling them to become less reliant on electricity supplied from the grid and become more energy independent, in order to both reduce energy costs and reduce their own carbon footprint.”

A 4kW domestic solar array would typically generate around 3,500kWh of electricity per year – enough energy to drive more than 10,000 miles in an electric car – so if more of this energy can be stored and used by the household, it will have significant benefits in decarbonising vehicles and homes.