LG Chem Battery

With volatile energy prices and frequent power power outages, more homeowners are looking to battery storage for lower their energy costs and provide backup power.

LG Chem makes some of the most reliable and cost-effective batteries on the market in the RESU10H Prime and RESU16H Prime. In this article we’ll dig into pros, cons, and cost of LG Chem solar batteries.

Get multiple quotes for battery storage solutions here.

LG Chem Solar Battery Basics

LG is one of the leading companies in the home battery industry. While most homeowners are familiar with LG’s electronics and home appliances, fewer are aware of the industry-leading home battery storage products that LG offers. 

LG Energy Solution is a subsidiary of parent company LG Chem, which has extensive experience manufacturing lithium ion batteries. LG Chem supplies battery packs for some of the most popular electric vehicles in the world, including the Chevy Bolt.

Launched in 2021, the LG Chem RESU10H and 16H Prime are the company’s best battery to date, and they offer compelling alternatives to the Tesla Powerwall.

Fun fact: RESU stands for Residential Energy Storage Unit.

The LG Chem products provide all the standard advantages of solar batteries, including backup protection against grid outages, time-of-use load-shifting, and greater energy independence.

Use the product specifications below to help you compare with other solar batteries.

LG RESU10H and 16H Prime Battery Specifications

LG Energy Solution Battery Pros and Cons

The RESU10H Prime and RESU16H Prime are some of the highest-quality and well-received solar batteries on the market. Even so, there are pros and cons to this battery storage system.

DC vs AC

Unlike the Tesla Powerwall, the LG Chem is a DC battery. One of the biggest advantages of a DC battery is that it has better round-trip efficiency than an AC battery.

In other words, less energy is lost when the battery is charged and discharged than with an AC battery, since some power is lost to heat when DC power is inverted to AC.

Inverters

Being a DC battery also means that the LG Chem requires particular inverters that allow it to pass through DC power from the solar panels directly into the battery.

The best of these inverters on the market today is the SolarEdge StorEdge, which provides a single-inverter (DC-coupled) solution for both a solar PV system and a home battery, reducing energy loss and overall system costs.

But since it is a DC battery, many inverters will not be compatible with the LG Chem RESU 10H, including all microinverters.

As a result, DC batteries like the LG Chem RESU10/16 Prime are more difficult to retrofit to existing solar systems, as doing so requires replacing the existing solar inverter. If the existing system uses microinverters, then it won’t be possible at all. Consult with your installer to make sure your proposed equipment is compatible.

You can read more about solar inverters here. 

Stack output

Being a DC battery also means that the LG Chem’s output cannot stack, so the system’s output is limited to 24 amp circuits and below, even with multiple batteries.

Therefore, while buying two batteries will increase the system’s backup duration in an outage, it will not increase the amperage of the circuits that can be backed up. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – if you know that you only want to back up basic essentials, then the LG Chem can be a great solution!

Cooling

The LG Chem is also passively cooled, as opposed to some other options like the Tesla Powerwall that are liquid-cooled.

As a result, the thermal management in the LG Chem isn’t quite as strong, so it’s best to have this battery installed inside a garage and/or out of direct sunshine and heat. That said, LG’s batteries are extremely reliable and well-made, so it will still meet homeowners’ needs just fine.

LG Chem Battery Cost

Finally, we come to the LG Chem’s biggest competitive advantage — price.

The LG Chem RESU 10H typically runs about $9,000-$11,000, fully installed and before the 30% federal tax credit for battery storage. That includes all of the ancillary components needed to make the battery function — see our article on solar battery pricing for more information about the factors that contribute to battery pricing.

Given that the Tesla Powerwall typically runs about $12,000-$14,000, the LG Chem can undercut Tesla’s pricing by 20-30%. While it does have less capacity (9.3kWh vs. 13.5kWh), it will still meet most homeowners’ backup and load-shifting needs just fine, and do so at significantly lower cost than the Tesla Powerwall.

This pricing makes it the most affordable mass-market solar battery in the industry, so for the value-oriented shopper, LG Chem batteries are a standout option!

If homeowners buy multiple batteries at the same time, installers will typically reduce the cost of the subsequent batteries, since some of the equipment can be economized.

Beginning in 2023, the 30% federal tax credit applies to battery storage whether it’s connect to solar or not. That’s in addition to state and local incentives like California’s SGIP program with rebates up to $1,000 per kWh of battery storage installed.

The Bottom Line

Overall, the LG Chem (aka LG Energy Solution) RESU10H Prime and RESU16H Prime are among the best solar battery options in the entire industry.

LG Chem is one of the largest lithium-ion battery producers in the world, so their products are extremely vetted and manufactured to the highest standards. The pricing on the RESU 10H Prime also undercuts every competitor by a significant margin, so from a value perspective, LG’s offering is unbeatable.