The battery in the results

Cali-Graf runs the battery hour by hour through the year in the mode you picked and compares the bills with and without it.

Where it shows

• The bills at the top add With battery. When the battery changes the savings, the top line becomes Estimated savings with solar and battery.
• In All numbers, under Annual savings, a line gives the total with the battery and what it adds — or Battery doesn’t change the bill — backup value.
• For SCE, How solar is used shows how much more of the solar the home uses with the battery.
• The 25-year tab adds With solar + battery.

SCE

A battery in Time-of-use (hold for 4–9 PM peak) mode stores midday solar that would earn little as export and uses it in the expensive evening hours. That’s real money each month.

LADWP

With LADWP net metering, every kWh sent to the grid already counts 1:1 against usage, so storing it saves nothing — and the battery loses a little energy on each cycle. The result can even show the battery’s losses as a small cost. Sell it for backup during outages, not for savings.

What’s counted

The battery’s usable energy, its charge and discharge power, the round-trip losses, and a 20% reserve kept for outages. The battery’s price is in Price & settings and counts in the payback.