Plug-in solar kits with a battery

Who these kits suit

Kits with a battery suit people who want more of a small kit’s generation to be available after sunset or during short outages. The calculator shows this effect: for an 800 W kit in Los Angeles at a 100 W base load, adding 1 kWh of battery raises kWh used at home from 315 kWh to 579 kWh (the calculator gives these numbers).

They are less useful when your daytime consumption already uses most of the kit’s output. For example, in Houston with a 300 W base load an 800 W kit without a battery already supplies 85% of its generation to the home, so adding battery capacity gives only small extra savings.

• Good if you need evening use or limited backup and have low to moderate daytime loads.
• Poor fit if daytime use already consumes most solar output (see the 300 W examples).
• Run the calculator for your address and load to see the trade-off.

What to check before buying

Battery capacity in Wh and whether it is expandable are the primary specs. Zendure lists 1,920 Wh battery, expandable to 7,680 Wh; Craftstrom lists 3,000 Wh. Use Wh to compare usable energy between kits.

Panel DC watts and inverter AC output are separate numbers and both matter. Both Zendure and Craftstrom list 2,000 W of panels; Zendure lists inverter output up to 900 W AC and Craftstrom up to 2,000 W AC—match inverter output to the appliances you expect to run.

Certifications and published listings matter for safety and some grid-connection rules. Craftstrom’s store lists UL 1742 (as written, ETL) and IEEE 1547; Zendure’s UL 3700 status is not published. Also compare seller prices and $/W: Zendure was $3,932 on the official store (checked October 14, 2026), $1.97 per watt; Craftstrom was $8,199 on the official store (checked October 14, 2026), $4.10 per watt.

• Battery Wh and expandability (usable energy).
• Inverter AC output (continuous power available).
• Panel DC wattage and seller $/W.
• Published certification listings (UL, IEEE).

Calculator example: battery vs no battery

The calculator gives these sample outcomes for an 800 W kit in three cities with different base loads. Los Angeles (33.25 cents/kWh) at 100 W base load: 0 kWh battery → 315 kWh used at home (38%), $105/year; 1 kWh → 579 kWh (73%), $192/year; 2 kWh → 674 kWh (86%), $224/year (the calculator gives these numbers).

New York (29.38 cents/kWh) at 164 W base load: 0 kWh → 416 kWh used at home (57%), $122/year; 1 kWh → 601 kWh (84%), $177/year; 2 kWh → 670 kWh (95%), $197/year. Houston (16.06 cents/kWh) at 300 W base load: 0 kWh → 565 kWh used at home (85%), $91/year; 1 kWh → 640 kWh (97%), $103/year; 2 kWh → 655 kWh (100%), $105/year.

These results show a small battery (1–2 kWh) can materially increase self-use when daytime load is low to medium, but it gives smaller incremental monetary savings where retail electricity is cheap or when daytime load already consumes most production. Use the calculator and compare kits on the kits page.