Can a home battery make money without solar panels?
Yes, by filling when power is cheap and using or selling it when it is dear. With no panels, a 9.5 kWh battery filled each night on Octopus Go and sold on Agile Outgoing made £252.08 over a year in North West England. Used in the house instead, each kWh it covered saved about 20p.
What these figures rest on: the prices Octopus published for Go, Agile and Agile Outgoing in North West England, 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, through a modelled 9.5 kWh battery with no panels and no home, losing the 17.9% one real home measured going in and out. They leave out the battery’s cost and wear. How Orza is tested.
Where it fills matters as much as where it sells.
The same battery, filled and emptied at most once a day, in whichever half hours paid most that day, after the 17.9% a battery loses going in and out.
Selling is the supplier’s call: Ofgem’s guidance doesn’t oblige a supplier to pay under the SEG for export that may have come from the grid, and Octopus’s export terms ask for panels or other generation.
A 9.5 kWh battery, no panels, a year
- Filled on Go, sold on Agile Outgoing: £252.08Go’s night rate was 6.5p to 8.63p, so selling paid on 364 of the 365 days.
- Filled on Agile, sold on Agile Outgoing: £134.78Worth doing on 193 days. On the rest, the gap between the cheapest and dearest hours was too small.
- Filled on Agile, sold at Outgoing Octopus’s fixed rate: £78.99Worth doing on 108 days, when Agile dropped well below the fixed export rate.
Orza plans a battery with or without panels, from your tariff’s own prices.
Free, with no card: an email and a password, and you look round an example home first. Connect your battery through its maker’s cloud when you’re ready, or never. It starts in Monitor only, and nothing is sent to it until you choose.
Using it yourself is worth more than selling it.
Selling a kWh earns the export price. Using it saves the import price, which is usually higher. So a battery with no panels earns most where the house can use what it holds.
For each kWh the battery covers in the house
- On Go: about 20.2p savedFilled at the night rate and used in place of Go’s day rate of 28.13p to 31.23p.
- On Agile: about 22.9p savedFilled in each day’s cheapest half hours and used in its dearest.
- Up to about 7.8 kWh a dayWhat a full 9.5 kWh battery gives back. A home using all of that outside the cheap hours would save up to £574.35 a year on Go and £651.62 on Agile. Ofgem’s typical home uses about 6.8 kWh a day in all, so most homes would save less.
A fixed night rate made it steady. Agile made it seasonal.
What selling on Agile Outgoing made each month, filled each way.
- Filled on Go: £13.79 to £34.70 a monthLowest in February and December, highest in September, and never below £13 in any month.
- Filled on Agile: £2.35 to £25.15 a monthOnly £2.35 in February and £3.00 in January, against £22.36 in April and £25.15 in September.
- Agile can go below zeroOn those days a battery is paid to fill. How often it happened, and when.
Octopus Go (GO-VAR-22-10-14), Agile (AGILE-24-10-01) and Agile Outgoing prices as Octopus published them for North West England, with VAT, 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. Outgoing Octopus paid 15p a kWh to February 2026 and 12p from March. A 9.5 kWh battery at 5 kW, filled and emptied at most once a day, planned on each day’s published prices, losing 17.9% going in and out (measured on a real home). Standing charges are left out.
Three things to check first.
What decides whether the figures above are open to your home.
- Whether you will be paid for export from the gridExport tariffs are written for homes with panels or other generation. Ofgem’s guidance says a supplier isn’t obliged to pay under the SEG where stored power may have come from the grid, though it may choose to, and Octopus’s export terms ask for panels or other generation. Ask yours before planning to sell.
- Whether the tariff is open to youEach Octopus tariff has its own conditions, such as a smart meter, and some are for electric car owners or homes with panels. Check the tariff’s own page.
- What the battery costAt £252.08 a year, a £5,000 battery takes about 20 years to pay back from selling alone. Using what it holds in the house brings that down. How long a battery with panels takes to pay back.
Before you buy a battery on its own.
What changes the answer for your home.
All our guidesGet more from your battery
How Orza is tested
Is a battery without solar panels worth it?
It depends on the price you pay and the tariff. Over this year, a 9.5 kWh battery filled on Octopus Go saved about 20p for every kWh it covered in the house, and made £252.08 selling on Agile Outgoing. Panels add free power to store on top.
Can I sell power from the grid back to the grid?
Only if your export tariff pays for it. Ofgem’s guidance doesn’t oblige a supplier to pay under the SEG for export that may have come from the grid, though it may choose to. Octopus’s export terms ask for panels or other generation. Check before you count on it.
Does filling and emptying it every day wear it out?
A little, with every cycle. One cycle a day is 3,650 in ten years. How hard each tariff works a battery, and what warranties allow.
Should I store power or sell it?
Using it in the house was worth more than twice as much a kWh as selling it, in this year. The same question for solar.
What does Orza cost?
Nothing right now: everything is free while we spread the word, and no card is needed to join. Paid tiers will come later, and there will always be a free version.
Filled cheap, used or sold dear, every day.
Free, with no card. Look round an example home first, and connect your battery when you’re ready.