Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer has launched a range of solar panels and home battery packs in the UK. Partnering up with Solarcentury, the country’s leading provider of solar technology, the company hopes to simplify customers’ efforts to make their homes more eco-friendly.
Ikea claims people who sign up to the system can save up to £560 a year. An online tool can estimate the savings based on geographic location (postal code), based on measurements of the roof taken from satellite imagery.
While Ikea’s furniture is generally self-assembly, solar panels will be installed by experts. Interested parties can get a free quote, which is verified by a home survey before engineers install the hardware. They will also be installing supersized batteries on home walls which will store the power generated by solar panels. Ikea says around 60 per cent of the energy generated by panels is returned to the grid instead of being used by households, and more if a property is unoccupied during the day. By saving energy in batteries for use at night, it claims that bills can be cut by up to 70 per cent.
Ikea is a tried-and-true brand, and the convenience of its installation process will appeal to a lot of consumers. If its solar range proves to be popular in the UK, they might expand the program to other countries.
Ikea has started selling the systems on its website