Plug-in home battery: is it safe, and does it pay off after 2027?

Short answer: a plug-in battery is a small home battery that you plug into a wall socket yourself. It stores the solar power you have left over during the day and releases it to your home later. With Dutch net metering (salderen) ending on 1 January 2027, that sounds attractive, but Milieu Centraal says it does not currently recommend plug-in batteries, partly because of fire risk. Whether one pays for itself has never been researched independently. A plug-in battery has no effect on your ERE payment.

What is a plug-in battery?

A plug-in battery (also called a plug-and-play home battery, stekkerbatterij in Dutch) is something you set up yourself and connect to an ordinary socket. An installed home battery is connected by an electrician to its own circuit in the meter cupboard. Plug-in batteries are usually smaller: around 2 to 3 kWh according to the Consumentengids, while a standard home battery stores about 6 kWh according to Milieu Centraal. Newer plug-in models go up to 5 kWh or more and are often expandable. Most are set to 800 W by default; according to the manufacturers, higher power is only possible on a dedicated circuit, via an electrician or after approval.

What does a plug-in battery cost?

In January 2026, CE Delft compiled prices from several suppliers for Vereniging Eigen Huis (the Dutch homeowners’ association), including VAT and installation:

System	Price incl. VAT and installation
2.7 kWh, connected via a socket	€1,400 to €2,500
5 kWh	€3,500 to €5,000
10 kWh	€6,000 to €9,000

According to the Consumentengids (2025), an average family needs 5 to 10 kWh of storage for a good balance between cost and return. A home battery carries 21% VAT; according to the Belastingdienst, you can only reclaim it if you become a VAT entrepreneur by trading electricity with the battery.

Plug-in batteries in our overview

Our home battery page also tracks plug-in batteries. They are listed below in alphabetical order, with the price as the seller published it in October 2026. Not all prices include VAT, and sellers often don’t say; so don’t compare the amounts directly.

Brand and model	Storage	Power	Price as published
Anker SOLIX Solarbank 4 E5000 Pro	5.024 kWh, expandable to 30 kWh	2.5 kW; solar input up to 5,000 W (4 MPPT)	€1,999 after a €400 discount (normally €2,399), VAT not stated (Anker SOLIX, Oct 2026)
Anker SOLIX Solarbank Max AC	7 kWh nominal; up to 42 kWh per unit, 126 kWh with 3 units	3.5 kW; up to 5 kW with Backup Auto-Switch (fixed wiring)	€1,999, appears to be a sale price (variant €2,499); VAT not stated (Anker SOLIX, Oct 2026)
EcoFlow STREAM AC 5000	5.024 kWh; up to 15 kWh per unit, 90 kWh per system	2.5 kW; 800 W to the grid, 3,000 W via a certified electrician	€1,599 for members, €1,699 for others; VAT not stated (EcoFlow, Oct 2026)
Growatt AURA 5000	5 kWh, usable not stated	800 W or 2,500 W	No Dutch retailer or price found
HomeWizard Plug-In Battery	2.7 kWh per battery, up to 10.8 kWh with 4 units	800 W per battery; 3,200 W with 4 units on a dedicated circuit	€1,195 per battery, VAT not stated; P1 Meter (€24.95) sold separately (HomeWizard, Oct 2026)
Marstek Venus E 3.0	5.12 kWh (90% depth of discharge), up to 15.36 kWh with 3 units	800 W; 2,500 W (Premium) only after approval	€1,999 per unit, VAT not stated; meter sold separately (Marstek, Oct 2026)
Marstek Venus E 4.0	5.024 kWh (88% depth of discharge), up to 15 kWh with SmartBox	800 VA or 3 kVA to the grid, 3 kVA as backup power	No price in the Marstek webshop yet (Oct 2026)
Zendure SolarFlow 2400 AC	2.88 kWh nominal per battery, up to 17.28 kWh (6 units)	2,400 W per spec sheet; Zendure elsewhere says 800 W	€969 (2.88 kWh, sale price) to €4,125 (17.28 kWh) incl. VAT (Zendure, Oct 2026)
Zendure SolarFlow 2400 AC+	2.4 kWh nominal, up to 16.8 kWh with 5 extra batteries	800 W standard, 2,400 W as Premium	€849 (2.4 kWh) to €4,194 (16.8 kWh) incl. VAT (Zendure, Oct 2026)
ZinVolt Power	1 kWh per unit (95% depth of discharge), up to 6 kWh with Mates	800 W to the grid, 1,000 W backup output	€1,099 (1 kWh) to €2,599 (6 kWh) incl. VAT, with P1 dongle (ZinVolt, Oct 2026)

Is a plug-in battery safe?

Milieu Centraal highlights a specific risk: one circuit can then receive current from two sides, from the grid and from the battery. More current can then flow through the wiring without the fuse tripping, and that wiring can overheat. Electricians follow the NEN 1010 standard and therefore connect a home battery to a dedicated circuit, not to a socket. Apart from the Buildings Decree (Bbl) and NEN 1010, there are no public-law rules for home batteries in the Netherlands, the NIPV wrote at the end of 2024.

If you still opt for a plug-in battery, the Dutch fire service (Brandweer Nederland) advises:

• Preferably a dedicated circuit used only by the battery; that is the safest connection.
• Otherwise directly into an earthed socket, without an extension lead or multi-socket adaptor, and not on a heavily loaded circuit such as the one for your washing machine.
• No more than one battery per circuit. If you want more, call in a certified electrician.
• Mark it in the meter cupboard that a home battery is connected.
• Put it on the ground floor, not in an escape route, not under the stairs and not in a small cupboard.
• Check with your insurer for any additional conditions.

Is a plug-in battery limited to 800 watts?

You’ll often read that, including in the Consumentengids. However, we found no Dutch legal text, NEN standard or grid operator rule that sets such a limit. It is mainly a common factory setting: according to the manufacturers, higher power is only possible on a dedicated circuit, via an electrician or after approval. The safety advice above applies either way.

Registration and backup power

According to grid operators such as Enexis and Stedin, registering a home battery via energieleveren.nl is a legal requirement; the Consumentenbond also calls registration mandatory. We found no exemption for plug-in batteries.

A plug-in battery is not suitable as backup power for your home’s wiring: according to the Consumentengids, it must switch off during a power cut. A few models have, according to the manufacturer, a separate backup outlet for individual appliances (see the power column).

Does a plug-in battery pay off after 2027?

There is no independent research into the payback period of plug-in batteries. You can, however, do the sum yourself:

• Value per kWh: from 2027, a stored kWh of solar power saves the difference between what you pay per kWh, including energy tax and VAT, and what you would net for feeding it back: the feed-in compensation minus any feed-in costs.
• Losses: CE Delft measured losses of around 15% between charging and discharging home batteries.
• How much you shift: that depends on the battery, your solar surplus and your evening consumption. According to Milieu Centraal, 10 panels generate around 15 kWh on an average summer day in June, and 2.5 kWh on a December day.

Milieu Centraal calculates with an electricity price of 21 cents per kWh after 2027 and net feed-in compensation of 0.5 cents, and elsewhere cites around 1.25 cents. What your supplier pays and charges is in feed-in costs 2027 by supplier and on energy suppliers. Work out your own situation with the calculator on our home battery page.

For comparison, for installed batteries: for a 5 kWh system costing €3,500, CE Delft estimated a payback period of 10 to 22 years for Vereniging Eigen Huis, with a lifetime of 10 to 15 years. Even with a battery, your energy bill goes up once net metering ends, the study concludes. Milieu Centraal expects that you very probably won’t earn back a home battery at the moment, and according to the Consumentenbond the purchase is not yet cost-effective for most households. A dynamic energy contract doesn’t automatically help: in the trial, the 5 kWh battery used only for self-consumption saved more on a fixed contract than on a dynamic one.

Subsidy for a plug-in battery?

There is no national subsidy for home batteries. Flevoland Province explicitly allows plug-in batteries in its scheme, but only at 5 to 20 kWh (modular systems count in total), with costs of at least €3,000 excluding VAT and a home with solar panels. You get 25% back, up to €1,250. The 2026 budget is used up; new funding is expected in early 2027. The municipal schemes we track are on the home battery page; check the scheme itself to see whether a plug-in battery qualifies.

Plug-in batteries and your ERE payment

A plug-in battery changes nothing about your ERE. For home charging, the NEa uses a fixed renewable-electricity share (50.5% in 2026), with or without solar panels, applied to the kWh that the integrated MID meter in your charge point measures. See also ERE and solar panels at home.

If you want to use more of your own solar power, charging your car on sunshine is the cheaper first step, because you don’t need to buy a battery for it. According to Milieu Centraal, a car battery (60 kWh on average) is much bigger than a home battery, but has roughly the same effect: your self-consumption of solar power rises from about 30% to over 50%. Read more in home battery or smart charging, when a smart charge point makes sense and end of net metering 2027. If you want to use the car itself as a battery for your home, see bidirectional charging; electricity your car feeds back earns no ERE.

In short

• You plug a plug-in battery into a wall socket yourself, and it usually stores around 2 to 3 kWh. CE Delft cites €1,400 to €2,500 for 2.7 kWh, including VAT and installation.
• Milieu Centraal does not yet recommend one. The Dutch fire service advises a dedicated circuit, or otherwise an earthed socket without an extension lead, one battery per circuit and a label in the meter cupboard.
• We found no legal 800 W limit; according to grid operators, registering at energieleveren.nl is mandatory.
• Independent payback research is lacking, and your ERE payment stays the same. Charging your car on your own solar power is the cheaper first step.