Save £560 a year on your power bills with solar panels... from Ikea!

IKEA is charging into the renewable energy market by selling solar panels and supersize batteries for the home.

The Swedish furniture giant claims its system could cut electricity bills by 70 per cent. The rechargeable lithium iron batteries use the same technology as those powering mobile phones and are small enough to fit on a kitchen wall.

They start at £3,000. Along with a simple panel system on the roof, homeowners will have to spend at least £6,925.

Combined with bill savings, households that sell excess solar power back to the National Grid could be up to £560 a year better off. As a result, the system could pay for itself in just over 12 years.

Ikea’s service – selling solar panels, batteries and installation – is being done in partnership with the firm Solarcentury.

Ikea’s sustainability manager for the UK and Ireland, Hege Saebjornsen, said: ‘With energy bills already going up, there’s never been a better time for customers to take back control of their electricity bills and maximise their savings by switching to solar and solar storage.’

Solarcentury’s Susannah Wood said: ‘The cost of solar installations has dropped considerably in recent years and is in fact 100 times cheaper than it was 35 years ago.’

The smaller batteries are 18in by 16in and can power a house for six hours fully charged. Larger batteries last 12 hours.

The move brings solar power and batteries into the mainstream and heralds a revolution in how the nation will keep the lights on. The Government is investing £246million in the development of more efficient and powerful home batteries.

It is claimed the Ikea system could cut household electricity bills by up to 70 per cent a year. A 75-day trial on a home in Hampshire last year produced a lower, but still impressive, saving of 57 per cent.