Everyone buying solar wants lower bills, but adding expensive batteries should be about a more reliable supply than straight-up bean-counting.
The solar industry has, for a long time, glossed over a pretty basic point in battery-backed systems, so strap in while we explain the difference between series and parallel-connected supplies, and why it matters.
Most of us want to believe the best in people.
If your solar installer says they’re waiting on stock, you’ll probably accept it. If they ask for a few more weeks, you’ll give them a few more weeks.
But when does patience stop being reasonable?
That’s the question NSW homeowner Mark Barnes eventually found himself asking after seven months of delays, a missed installation date and, after cancelling his battery order, still waiting for the return of his $6,500 deposit. [Continue reading…]
A fortnight ago, 7.30 aired an investigation into Solar Power Nation, a retailer the ABC reports is under investigation by authorities in Queensland, NSW and South Australia after hundreds of complaints. One customer, Amin Khorram, paid $13,000 for a battery system. Only one of the two inverters was installed, so he got 5 kW of […]
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From 1 September, NSW businesses are able to cut the upfront cost of a new battery by around 20–40%, with the biggest discounts available when new solar is installed alongside it. The battery incentives aren’t new, but with today’s launch, the NSW Government has now put some numbers around the savings, and confirmed they can be […]
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On 1 July 2026, it became much cheaper to permanently disconnect from gas in New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Like many regulatory changes, this news was tucked away in a PDF that most people never read.
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In the colder months of the year, your heat pump hot water system may need adjusting. Heat pump hot water systems are highly efficient because they don’t generate heat in the same way as traditional electric hot water systems. Instead, they draw heat from the surrounding air and transfer it into the water.
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Western Australia’s government-owned Synergy has an unusual position in the electricity market: it owns some of the state’s biggest batteries, as well as generators selling electricity into the same market. New analysis has found its batteries sometimes charging at surprisingly high wholesale prices in the middle of the night, helping push those prices even higher. […]
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Heat pump hot water systems continue to grow in popularity as more Australians look for ways to get off gas. To find out which heat pump installers trust most in 2026, we asked Australian installers a simple question: “Which heat pump hot water system would you choose for your own home?” The result wasn’t even […]
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I first wrote about this back in 2012. Fourteen years later, I’m still writing about it. That should tell you something about how sticky this confusion is.
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Choosing a reverse cycle air conditioner can feel overwhelming. There are dozens of brands available, all claiming to offer excellent performance, efficiency and reliability. Given we’re in winter, we’ll focus this article on the best brands for heating, to keep us toasty warm.
[Continue reading…]
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