You compare quotes for a business battery by checking what each quote is based on before you look at the price. Ask every supplier the same 12 questions. They cover the data behind the quote, the goal, the power and usable energy, the savings, what is included and the service afterwards. A business battery sized on your own consumption data is easy to compare, because every number in the quote can be checked.
You run a production hall, a farm or a logistics site, and three battery quotes are on your desk. One supplier proposes a small battery, another one three times bigger. One promises a short payback, the next one hardly mentions savings. On a forum, a Flemish battery buyer who built his own battery calculator complained about the 'inflated figures' of installers who juggle with payback time.
The real risk is not paying a little too much. The real risk is comparing the prices of three different machines. A battery sized on a guess is too small for your peak or too big to ever pay back, and you only find out after a year of invoices. And the cheapest quote often leaves out exactly what makes a battery work: the control settings, the inspection or the service.
That is why we measure before we size. At a garden contractor in Zele, the house and the warehouse were still being built and future consumption was unknown. We first monitored the average and peak consumption for one month, and then matched the number of solar panels to the real consumption.
Why do business battery quotes differ so much?
Business battery quotes differ because suppliers start from different data, different goals and a different scope. One supplier sizes the battery on your yearly consumption, another on your quarter-hour peaks. One quote counts the inverters, cabling, control and inspection; another lists only the battery modules.
The goal changes the size too. Lowering your peak (the highest quarter-hour of the month) needs a lot of power for a short time. Keeping the site running in a power cut needs energy for hours. Storing solar power and charging on cheap hours sit in between. So your first job is not to find the cheapest quote, but to make the quotes comparable.
What a solid battery quote is built on
Which 12 questions should you ask every business battery supplier?
Ask every business battery supplier the same 12 questions, in four groups: the basis of the quote, the savings, the scope and the after-sales. Send the questions with your request, so every answer comes back in writing.
What should a business battery quote be based on?
A good business battery quote starts from at least a year of your quarter-hour data, your solar yield and your plans. In Flanders you can download your quarter-hour data from Mijn Fluvius. In Wallonia, ask your grid operator for your data or have the site measured. The first four questions check that basis.
Which data did you size the battery on?
Ask for the source and the period: twelve months of quarter-hour data from your meter, a measurement on site, or only the yearly kWh on an invoice. A yearly total hides the peaks that a battery has to cover.
What exactly is the battery for?
Ask the supplier to write the goal down: lower your peak, store solar power, keep running in a power cut, charge on cheap hours, or give you more power than your connection allows. One battery rarely does all of these at full strength.
How much power and how much usable energy do I get?
Power (kW or kVA) is how much the system delivers at the same moment. Energy (kWh) is how long it can keep that up. Ask for the usable capacity, not only the nominal capacity on the label, and for the inverter power next to it.
Does the design fit my connection and my existing installation?
Ask whether the supplier checked your connection (3x230V or 3x400V, fuse size), your inverters and solar panels, and your big motors. A battery that cannot start your compressor, or does not talk to your inverter, is a problem you only discover after installation.
The last question is not theoretical. On a British farm forum, a farmer with three-phase motors wrote that he had not found one supplier who would guarantee the system would start them. Not sure which quarter-hour sets your peak? Our article on what sets the peak demand of a business shows how to find it in your own data.
How do you check the savings in a battery quote?
Ask for the calculation behind every euro of savings, with your tariff and your assumptions written down. A payback figure without its assumptions cannot be compared with another one.
How did you calculate the savings?
Ask which tariff and energy price were used, how much solar power is stored instead of sent to the grid, and how many charge cycles per year the calculation counts. A calculation that treats all solar production as used on site makes every battery look good.
Which control software runs the battery, and who sets it?
The same battery saves a lot or very little depending on its control: a peak limit, charging on dynamic prices, or simply storing surplus. Ask which settings are included, who adjusts them when your business changes, and whether you can see them yourself. Read what an energy management system does for a business.
What happens during a power cut?
Not every business battery keeps your site running when the grid fails. Ask whether backup is included, which circuits it covers, how fast it takes over and for how long.
Be careful with income that depends on trading. One Belgian buyer described a salesman who showed an app in which a customer had earned 600 euros in three months with a 'trading mode', and who claimed the battery could be filled and emptied every hour. Ask for that income to be calculated on your own contract and data, or leave it out of the comparison. How a battery works with hourly prices is explained in our article on a dynamic energy contract with a business battery. For peak shaving, read what peak shaving is and when a battery pays off. Is backup your main goal? Then see our guide to emergency power for a business. Balancing services such as FCR and aFRR are a separate story: read whether a business battery can earn money on the balancing market.
What must a business battery quote include besides the battery?
A complete business battery quote lists everything needed to put the battery into service safely and legally, not only the battery modules. Questions 8 to 10 check the scope.
What exactly is included in the price?
Think of inverters, protection and switchgear, cabling, a cabinet or container, installation, commissioning, the inspection and the paperwork. Ask for the exclusions in writing too, for example groundwork, a new distribution board or a permit.
Who takes care of inspection, notification and safety?
A business installation must be inspected by an approved body under the AREI (the Belgian electrical safety code) before use, and again every five years. In Flanders you must also notify Fluvius of a storage system. Ask which safety standard the battery meets and where it will stand.
Who can see the monitoring and the data?
Ask whether you get your own access to the monitoring, which alarms reach you, and whether the system stays usable if you ever change installer. On one forum, owners of a failing system could not even see their own monitoring, because only the installer had access.
Watch out
Flanders only: a storage system under 25 kVA is notified in Mijn Fluvius with a valid AREI inspection; larger systems go through a grid study, which takes time. Ask the supplier to put that step in the planning. For industrial lithium batteries, the safety standard to ask about is IEC 62619. From 18 February 2027, industrial batteries above 2 kWh that are placed on the market also need a digital battery passport.
Placement, the fire service and your insurer are a subject of their own: read whether a business battery is safe. On a semi off-grid project in Wingene, the control is open source, which allows further programming, and consumption and yield are monitored in clear data. Our monitoring software shows consumption per phase, with reports per minute, hour or day.
Which warranty and service questions should you ask a battery installer?
Ask what the warranty covers, for how long, and who you call when something stops working. Warranty and service decide what the battery costs you over ten years, not only on the day you buy it. For the details, read what service, warranty and maintenance a business battery should come with.
What does the warranty cover, and who handles a claim?
The battery, the inverter and the installation work often have separate warranties. Ask which share of the capacity or power is guaranteed after how many years, and whether you claim through the installer or through the manufacturer.
Who maintains and repairs the system, and what have you built before?
Ask who comes when the system fails, how the supplier follows it up remotely, and which comparable projects you can look at. A project of a similar size or sector tells you more than a brochure.
As a reference point: our battery page states a 10-year warranty on retained power, and the semi off-grid project in Wingene came with a 10-year warranty. We monitor and control systems remotely through VRM, and also maintain and repair battery systems that are already installed. The team includes three certified battery experts, and members of the team took the Syntra battery specialist training (in Dutch).
Received quotes that are hard to compare? Call us or send your data.
How do you put battery quotes side by side?
Put the 12 answers in one table, one column per supplier, and only compare prices when the rows match. Send every supplier the same data and the same goal, so the quotes are comparable from the start.
| Question | What to write down for each supplier |
|---|---|
| 1. Data basis | Quarter-hour data (how many months), measurement, or yearly kWh only |
| 2. Goal | Peak, solar storage, backup, cheap hours, extra power |
| 3. Power and usable energy | kW or kVA; usable kWh next to nominal kWh |
| 4. Fit with the site | Connection checked, existing inverters, big motors |
| 5. Savings | Euro per year, with tariff, price and cycles written down |
| 6. Control | Which software, which settings, who adjusts them |
| 7. Power cut | Backup yes or no, which circuits, how long |
| 8. Included / excluded | Inverters, protection, cabling, housing, work |
| 9. Inspection and safety | AREI inspection, grid notification, safety standard |
| 10. Monitoring | Your own access, alarms, open or closed system |
| 11. Warranty | Battery, inverter, work: what, how long, who handles claims |
| 12. Service and track record | Who repairs, remote follow-up, comparable projects |
Tip
Ask each supplier to fill in this table themselves. How they answer, and what they leave blank, tells you a lot about how they will work after the sale.
Which red flags in a business battery quote should make you stop?
Stop when a quote gives you a payback figure but cannot show the data and assumptions behind it. That is the clearest sign that the battery was sized for the sale, not for your site.
Signs of a solid quote
- Sized on your quarter-hour data
- Power and usable kWh stated separately
- Savings with written assumptions
- Control, inspection and monitoring included
- Named warranty terms and a service contact
Red flags
- Payback without your data
- Only nominal capacity
- Trading income without a contract behind it
- No word on inspection or notification
- No access to your own monitoring
- Pressure to sign this week
A low price is not a red flag in itself. Check what is missing. Two quotes with the same scope and a different price can be compared; two quotes with a different scope cannot.
When is no battery the right answer?
When your data shows no peak worth lowering, little solar surplus and no need for backup, the honest quote says so. Then moving loads, better use of your solar power or a different contract can save more than a battery.
Even a large system does not do everything on its own. At a site in Beveren using 350,000 kWh a year, 200 solar panels and a 154 kWh battery use as much of the generated energy as possible straight away. The peak current that is still missing is planned to come from a high-voltage cabin. Do you still doubt whether solar alone pays off? Read whether solar panels still pay off on a business roof.
Our verdict
A supplier who tells you a battery does not pay off on your site is worth more than one who always finds a reason to sell one. Ask every supplier when they would advise against a battery. The answer says a lot.
What happens when you ask us for a business battery quote?
We start from your data and your goal, so every line of the quote can be checked. It goes in five steps.
- Step 1: Send us your quarter-hour data or your latest invoices, your connection size, your solar yield and your plans (machines, chargers, a heat pump).
- Step 2: If data is missing, we measure your consumption for a period first, as we did for a month at the garden contractor in Zele.
- Step 3: Analysis and sizing: which quarter-hours set your peak, how much power and usable energy you need, and whether a battery adds anything at all.
- Step 4: Technical design, installation and commissioning.
- Step 5: Monitoring and support after delivery.
Our business battery systems range from SME installations to modular systems up to 1 MW, with monitoring, control and optimisation included. We work with Victron Energy equipment as a Victron Energy Certified Partner. At the end of 2018 we delivered what was then the largest off-grid installation in Belgium, from the preliminary study to the test phase and delivery.
Frequently asked questions
How many battery quotes should a business ask for?
Two or three are usually enough, if every supplier gets the same data and the same goal. More quotes on different bases only make the comparison harder.
Can a supplier make a battery quote without quarter-hour data?
Yes, but then it is an estimate. Ask the supplier to say so in the quote, and to adjust the size after a measurement or after you send a year of data.
Should the installer be certified by the battery or inverter brand?
Ask for it. A brand certification shows the installer knows the equipment you will depend on for years. YouPower is a Victron Energy Certified Partner.
Do I need to sort out subsidies before I sign a battery quote?
Check it before you sign. Some aid schemes, such as the Walloon ADISA aid for farm investments, ask you to wait for approval before you invest. Our article on subsidies and tax deductions for a business battery lists the Belgian options.
Who can I call to compare battery quotes for my business?
Look for an installer who starts from your quarter-hour data and writes down every assumption. YouPower, based in Zele, analyses, designs, installs and monitors business battery systems in Flanders and Wallonia.
Want a quote you can check line by line?
Send us your quarter-hour data, your connection size and your goal. One of our engineers sizes the battery on your data and tells you honestly whether it pays off.
Sources
- Fluvius: notify a storage system (NL)
- Fluvius: capacity tariff and quarter-hour peaks (NL)
- FOD Economie: inspection of non-household electrical installations (FR)
- IEC 62619: safety of lithium batteries for industrial applications
- European Commission: guidance on the digital battery passport (2026)
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 on batteries
- Wallonia: investment aid for farms (ADISA) (FR)