The Hidden Load That’s Killing Your Battery Payback

CATCH Power
Apr 30
2 min read

If you’ve invested in solar and a battery, chances are you’re expecting lower bills and a better return on your system. But what if something in your home was quietly wasting your stored power every single day — and you didn’t even know it?

It’s happening more often than you think. The culprit? Your hot water system.

Anthonee’s Story

Anthonee recently had a solar system and battery installed. Everything seemed to be working fine — sunny days, power flowing, battery charging. But then he noticed something strange: his battery was draining faster than expected.

After some digging, he realised:

His hot water system had been shifted by the energy provider to turn on during the day.
His battery was powering the hot water instead of saving energy for the evening.
Because he was using stored energy instead of off-peak, the effective cost was now closer to $0.35/kWh — not the usual $0.20/kWh off-peak rate - He was losing $0.15/kWh in savings!

“I noticed my battery was draining way faster than usual, even on sunny days. Turns out my hot water was kicking in during the day and chewing through my stored energy — I had no idea it was even happening.” – Anthonee

Why This Happens

Some energy providers now trigger off-peak loads during the day, right when your solar is producing. While this sounds smart, if your system is not properly set up, your battery could be feeding that load — draining your storage unnecessarily.

What Are Your Options?

When it comes to managing hot water, you really only have three choices:

Leave it on off-peak, with visibility If your monitoring system can see the hot water load, your battery will discharge into it — wasting energy you might need at night.
Leave it off-peak and invisible This keeps it separate from your battery, but you lose all control. Most Aussie families already spend $700/year on hot water — leaving this load unmanaged is a missed opportunity.
Oversize your battery - Sure, you could buy a large enough battery to cover the hot water demand… but with stored energy averaging $1,000/kWh, and the average family using 8–10kWh/day to heat water, this becomes a very expensive exercise.

The Smarter, Simpler Option: CATCH Control

With CATCH Control’s Exclusion Zones technology, you can do what others can’t:

✅ Control any visible load

✅ Stop your battery from discharging into non-essential loads

✅ Offset your hot water load with solar during the day

✅ Avoid costly rewiring or over-sizing your battery

All it takes is a simple CT clamp to monitor the load — and CATCH Control does the rest.

No surprises. No waste. Just smart energy management.

Why This Matters Now

With a battery rebate looming and feed-in tariffs falling and DNSPs limiting export, every kilowatt needs to count. Your solar and battery system should work with your hot water, not against it.