According to installers we trust, what are the best home battery brands in Australia in 2025?
Two brands tied for this year’s top spot – read on to discover the victorious duo.
How Did We Survey Our Installers?
We asked the 594 installers in the SolarQuotes installer network one question:
If installing a system on your own house today, what brand’s batteries would you use?
161 replied. Here are the results – including the two brands sharing the crown.
Best Home Batteries In Australia: 2025
Best Home Batteries 2025: First place – Tesla & Sungrow
Me and my Powerwall – going strong since 2016!
Last year, Tesla dominated with 53% of the vote, while Sungrow barely secured third with 10%.
It’s remarkable how Sungrow has closed the gap with Tesla, which won gold every year since 2021. In a way, it’s just as interesting to see how far Tesla has fallen—despite still taking first place!
Is it Elon’s transformation into a hardcore Trumper? Is Tesla’s new Powerwall 3 not as good as the Powerwall 2? Is Sungrow simply offering a great product for a great price?
I’ve had my Powerwall 2 since 2016, and I installed a Sungrow battery on my rental property in 2023.
Both have performed well, with the Tesla App being a joy to use—but it’s not without its bugs. For example, the Tesla App’s ‘Charge-On-Solar’ feature broke about three months ago and refuses to charge my car from my 20kW of solar. I’ve now given up on it and pay $7 per month to ChargeHQ for solar charging instead.
The Sungrow is an excellent battery, although the Sungrow hybrid inverter has had some teething problems. Its modular architecture is a great feature. I added an extra module —and it was as easy as advertised.
Best Home Batteries 2025: Second place – Sigenergy
Sigenergy’s Sigenstor in action
In my Best Inverters for 2025 blog, I mentioned that Sigenergy is the new kid on the block in Australia. It seems to have taken installers by storm, rocketing to second place in its first year with 17% of the vote.
I’d heard the buzz about their Sigenstore all-in-one system—especially its optional 25kW bi-directional DC EV charger—so I had to see one being installed.
I saw firsthand how easy they were to install and commission—everything worked flawlessly on the first try.
Sigenergy also appears increasingly often in quotes that my team reviews, proving it’s more than a niche player.
With their momentum, I wouldn’t be surprised if they take first place next year. I wouldn’t be too upset to see first place go from Elon’s Sieg heil to China’s SigEnergy1.
Best Home Batteries 2025: Third place – BYD.
Fronius Gen24 inverter and BYD battery install, done by DJM Electrical
Falling from second place last year, BYD has taken third with 12% of the vote.
Austrian Fronius and Chinese BYD partnered years ago. BYD batteries are designed to DC-couple with Fronius’ latest Gen24 inverter range.
From everything I’ve heard, they’re a great battery, so you’d need a pretty compelling reason to get anything other than a BYD if you’re getting a Fronius inverter.
What Do These Batteries Cost?
My battery storage comparison table shows pricing for all the winners, plus heaps of other brands.
To keep things as apples-to-apples as possible, I’ll use the 13.5kWh of storage the Tesla Powerwall 3 has as the benchmark to compare the other modular battery brands:
- Tesla Powerwall 3 (13.5 kWh) – $13,600
- Sungrow SBR HV (12.8 kWh) – $9,500
- Sigenergy Sigenstor (13 kWh) – $11,500
- BYD HVM (13.8 kWh) – $10,600
Note that these prices don’t include installation costs, which generally run around $2,000 for the typical home, or hybrid inverter costs for the Sungrow and BYD batteries. Expect to pay more for installation if something about your place makes installing a battery tricky.
What Installers Use The Winning Brands?
If you’re looking to get quotes from installers who sell the winning brands, visit my cities list, choose your city, and use the filters to select only the brands you want:
Then, select up to three installers, and hit ‘Get quotes from selected companies’.
Congratulations to this year’s winners.
For more of the best picks from the 2025 Installers’ Choice Awards, take a look at the Best Solar Panels and Best Solar Inverters category winners revealed in previous weeks. Stay tuned for Best EV Chargers next week.
Footnotes
- And I welcome all the measured comments this post will get from any remaining Elon fans ↩
About Finn Peacock
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Any thoughts on Sungrow promoting and stating in its data sheet that battery has 100% depth of discharge capability and 100% usable energy when in fact it does not; keeping 5% in a reserve that is hidden, hidden from would be purchasers?
This 5% is not something a homeowner can can over ride and change to 0% even if they were foolish enough to do so.
At least other brands are up front about this. Yet Sungrows deceptive conduct is not called out.
I encourage Sungrow to be honest with would-be customers and change the data sheet.
Hi Neil – one of our installers who does Sungrow comments
“The default State of Charge (SOC) lower limit for Sungrow batteries is set to 5%. While installers can modify this setting, and customers have the option to reduce it to 0%, we recommend maintaining the 5% default limit for several reasons:
Preventing complete discharge helps avoid the battery going completely flat
Regularly draining the battery to 0% can accelerate the deterioration of the battery’s State of Health (SOH)
Maintaining a minimum charge level is standard across all battery brands to optimize battery life and performance.”
Thanks Jonothan.
I have no problem with the reserve 5%. The fact that Sungrow “hide” it; and this is Sungrow’s terminology, from prospective purchasers is what bothers me. The fact that the Sungrow SBR batteries are stated to be 100% usable energy and 100%DoD capable was one of a handful of KPIs I used to decide to buy it, when every other manufacturer identified their reserve, not hidden but clearly stated.
I could have asked more questions, and so should every purchaser perhaps. But surely we should be able to rely on the datasheet.
This wasn’t evident to me until Sungrow included it it’s tranch of excuses why my 19.2kwh battery only powered 16kwh of loads.
The further shortfall suggests that “100%usable” means usable by the inverter, not loads, and the roundtrip inefficiency isn’t flash.
But, again, is this a reasonable interpretation to expect a homeowner to make?
Sounds like a fair point Neil,
Sungrow have been a bit creative with publishing the DC solar input data for some inverters too, and it’s caused some heartache for many.
Although this can be overridden, I agree Sungrow should a) change the datasheet to be 5% lower usable b) lock the 5%.
PS.
Even in your own solar batteries comparison table you state Sungrow’s “USABLE ” capacity is the same as its nominal capacity.
It clearly is not. I suggest, you should also change your table as it misleads purchasers into thinking that Sungrow have some technology that others don’t or the nominal capacity is understated, which is what I naively thought when deciding to buy Sungrow. Would seem this is Sungrow’s intention and even the reputable SolarQuotes fell for it.
I agree, we’ll change the comparison table. We don’t always get it right.
Good!
Thanks for this review. As an owner of two Tesla cars, I can vouch for the harm that the Elon factor is doing to the Tesla brand. Fellow Tesla owners tell me they too are uncomfortable with the Tesla brand now that Musk is showing his true colours.
We too, are uncomfortable about owning a Tesla, despite the fact we love driving it. Musk has shown himself to be a dangerous individual with scant to no regard for democratic processes. I hope he and Trump have a falling out sooner rather than later. Our next EV will not be a Tesla. As for the Powerwall, I will be considering other manufacturers.
Indeed – it’s (the Elon factor) one of the main reasons we havn’t and won’t buy a Tesla (we’re about to buy what will be our 4th BEV)
Agreed! While I’d locked into my mind about tesla cars, I’d forgotten about tesla domestic batteries.
While such a dangerous malignant entity is so deeply associated with tesla, there’s no way I’d support any of their products.
Try to keep politics out of it Finn. Your leftist ideology is rearing its ugly head.
Hi Cass,
I’m not sure if you can define “leftist” for us but as Finn mentioned we welcome the commentary.
As for ugly, it appears that special government employee Musk and his unofficial “department” has now compromised the entire US Treasury. They’ve stopped payments approved by congress, in direct contravention of US Law and the US constitution. Musk himself has been throwing salutes, that no matter how he intended they be seen, would get him arrested in Germany or in Victoria for that matter.
Personally I find it curious that people try to decouple politics from polite conversation. If you can run around brazenly breaking the law and nobody is allowed to call it out then where are we headed? Surely the free speech absolutists wouldn’t want the full and frank exchange of ideas stifled by self censorship “trying to keep politics out of it”
In the long term we are paying dearly for the lack of vision our leaders have. We have to ask ourselves, who does it best serve when we the people are busy arguing about left vs right, or busy dealing with natural disasters and “cost of living” crises?
Right now it’s Australia’s 15 years of climate/culture wars that have brought us poor planning, a lack of investment in energy infrastructure and resulting high prices.
Perhaps that’s where we can take the conversation, in a civil manner hopefully.
The department is official. USAID was established by executive order and is not under congressional purview. The head of Treasury invited the audit, the “courts” have now barred him from accessing data too. Surely you guys still think he has some power.
You need to read more widely than excerpts from Democrat statements.
Your own political “petty”coat is showing
Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act and Kennedy set up USAID as an independent agency in 1961.
US assistance in countries counters Russian and Chinese influence. China has its own “belt and road” foreign aid program worldwide operating in many countries that the US also wants as partners.
Independent oversight of USAID activities is provided by its Office of Inspector General, U.S. Agency for International Development, which conducts criminal and civil investigations, financial and performance audits, reviews, and inspections of USAID activities around the world.
Of course now that the U.S and Russia have become one and the same some money could be saved!!!
Problem with Tesla battery is their api is not made available to the end user so if you want to manage your battery yourself you can’t.
When it comes to managing all the high energy devices in the home there are no external VPP services that will do it. However to really manage energy in the home you have to have one system that can make decisions about running the pool pump or heating the pool, heating water, running aircon, charging and discharging the car, and charging and discharging the battery.
If you have a Tesla battery you can’t control all these things as one system as you don’t have access to the Tesla battery to do it.
Better off with a battery you have full control over. Then you manage them altogether. Amber will manage your battery and car but that’s it. They don’t manage any other deferrable loads in the home so they are missing half the story. You have to do it yourself with a system you have control over as you don’t want an external company deciding when to heat your water or run your pool pump.
Thanks Robert,
Couldn’t have said it better myself. I think the greatest problem with electrification going forward is interoperability.
What we’re headed for at the moment is a situation where OCPP and CSIP-AUS give the network control over EV and Solar as a regulatory stick.
Whereas the carrots, (if they’re available) are akin to having different power points in your house. If your efficient appliances aren’t branded AGL or Engie, Tesla or Enphase… they won’t plug in.
We really need some consumer focussed law that forces everything to talk. What we’ve got now is not unlike the early days of mobile phones, where your Telco held you hostage via your phone number. When they introduced law to give people portability, so they could take the same number to a different phone provider, all of a sudden there was proper competition.
Can you forward this to Choice Magazine. they are very good at running consumer protections campaigns
I’m with Neil on this. I went with the Sungrow SBR 256 (25.6kWh) battery system because of the “up to” 100% DoD claim. After a year, though, one of the modules started underperforming, dragging down the whole battery stack (I’ve got two SBR 128s in parallel). I had the reserve set at 5%, which was fine for the first year. Now, when I drain the battery, one stack drops from 25% to 0%, forcing the system to pull from the grid even during peak hours because it dips below the reserve.
Dealing with Sungrow’s support has been a nightmare. Their warranty support is lackluster, and it’s been super frustrating. My installer’s been fantastic, but there’s only so much he can do since Sungrow won’t step up.
Their “fix” was to bump the reserve to 10%, but that doesn’t really solve the problem. Honestly, it feels like they’re just increasing the reserve bit by bit to cover up the faulty module. I’ve noticed 20-25% of the battery sitting unused, that’s like 5-6kWh wasted, which could’ve really helped with my ROI!
That is shithouse mate, excuse the Francais.
Your first line of offence is actually against your installer. It is the entity that under ACL guarantees its fitness for purpose. How the installer resolves ITS problem with Sungrow is its problem.
From what I know, and will defer to the experts, its the installer who should either reinstall the system and making sure all modules are at same SoC%, voltage, etc. Or replace the whole lot and the installer would then claim on Sungrow if the modules are faulty. After a year woukd seem unlikely to be an instal issue couldn’t it.
I’m determined to get Sungrow to change that datasheet, amongst other things – I want my missing Kwhs!
Will be finalising my negotiation with installer by end of next week. And then it’s off to Office of Fair Trading – the claim is already written.
Let me know how it goes with ACL/Office of Fair Trading.
I really don’t want to put more pressure on my installer, he has spent almost 20+ hours of unpaid time at my place testing and doing whatever troubleshooting procedure Sungrow wants him to do. They probably “recalibrated/re-levelled” my system more times than I can count, my installer also tried to change the placement of the batteries around, but with little success.
At the moment, it feels like Sungrow are just doing their typical delay tactics, but the battery system does work and I get about 19-20kWh of usable electricity (out of the 25.6kWh).
I’ve already provided Sungrow and the installer with plenty of evidence. All the data is directly on their iSolarCloud portal as well. You can clearly see that one module draining faster than the other modules, and charges faster than the other modules. I feel that Sungrow doesn’t want to replace the single faulty module as they might need to replace the entire stack.
I fail to understand how Sungrow thinks this is offering me a “good service”, if anything it leaves a terrible lasting impression on the brand when it comes to any warranty or support issues.
Ironically, I was a huge Sungrow advocate and fan before my system started acting up. I have people I know that went with a Sungrow system due to my recommendation.
I’m a Tesla fan. I still have a lot of respect for what Elon is doing. That said, I recently installed a three phase SigEnergy system because it was a no brainer.
Elon Musk (in an unelected role) has hired a bunch of young misfits to demolish the american system of public administration (contrary to american law), has extreme facist and racist views that he has been bombarding on european social media sites, and has knowingly publicly made a nazi salute.
Elon Musk demanded a $56 billion remuneration package for his tesla role, when tesla has a net income last year of 7 billion.
Can you tell me what it is about Elon Musk that you respect? I’m hoping your response won’t be that musk holds the world record for gouging money from a faltering company. Is it his political views and actions?
Hi Koj,
We do try to keep the comments helpful for people navigating the solar market.
However there’s politics enmeshed in everything and I’ve seen first hand people are putting stickers on Tesla’s that read “Bought it before we knew how awful he is”
Powerwall has been a market leader for years, for good technical and customer experience reasons, but in the ideas market it seems the CEO is doing them a mischief.
I suspect the idea of buying products from Israel has also damaged SolarEdge, while anti China sentiment has seen Huawei leave Australia.
Hopefully we can concentrate more on the solar side of the discussion and get on with counting the 328 recycled beer cans that go into every Fronius inverter?
Thanks for your reply Anthony.
I note your response to my post about ethical decisions in purchasing solar equipment.
Thanks also for your information on solar edge. As someone who seeks suitable quality equipment, but not at the expense of my conscience, I’ll keep that in mind.
Welcome to the club.
In my journey, I deliberately decided against Solar Edge partly for this reason, and this well before Oct 2023.
The battery chemistry, that makes them see fit to build in a fire extinguisher, and it’s nationhood. Then throw in Sungrow’s 100% DoD and 100% Usable energy [yeah right] making it seem better value for money and the decision was easy on a number of fronts.
Musk didn’t demand $56B in remuneration. An incentive package was approved by the board and shareholders that required detailed and rather difficult success thresholds be met by the company and its share price. These were met hence he was earmarked to receive his success bonus. A single activist shareholder (who bought after the agreement) took it to an activist court who ruled against the package.
The package was then put to shareholders who once again overwhelmingly voted to approve it.
Hi Harry,
I found this interesting because you’re sort of right, but it’s not that simple, you’ve omitted some details.
: The package was indeed approved by Tesla’s board and shareholders in 2018. It was structured as an incentive plan, requiring Tesla to meet ambitious milestones, such as increasing its market capitalization to $650 billion. These milestones were met, allowing Musk to vest in the stock options.
: A single shareholder, who opposed the package, filed a lawsuit in Delaware, arguing that the approval process was flawed due to Musk’s outsized influence on Tesla’s board. In January 2024, a Delaware judge invalidated the package, citing concerns about conflicts of interest and inadequate disclosure to shareholders.
: Following the court’s decision, Tesla resubmitted the package for a shareholder vote. In mid-2024, shareholders overwhelmingly re-approved it (with 72% voting in favour). However, this vote was largely symbolic and does not override the court’s ruling.
: Despite shareholder support, the Delaware court still holds authority over whether the package will ultimately be reinstated. Tesla plans to appeal the court’s decision.
https://www.npr.org/2024/12/03/nx-s1-5214484/elon-musk-tesla-compensation
The question begs that if a CEO can run 4 companies simultaneously, plus run a whole “government department” then perhaps it’s not a difficult job, or at least not worth billions of dollars?
Do you have factual proof re your claims of “young misfits” pretty bold/slanders comment to make without having any concrete proof
Hi Jason,
I’d suggest misogyny & racism isn’t a good fit in a decent moral society.
However it doesn’t take long to find DOGE, the VP & President has acknowledged & re-hired at least one individual who fits the description.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-doge-staffer-fired-leaking-b2694431.html
If we could please get back to discussing home batteries & electrification that would be more productive.
Thanks
definitely a “no brainer”!!!
As a consumer, I have a couple of observations.
In August 2022, I got a system that involves a Goodwe GW5000-EH inverter and 19.3kWh BYD HVM BESS .
At that time, the choice was based on what was available at the time (I researched it extensively).
With what is available now, I would probably have got the Sungrow SH5.0RS inverter, and Sungrow SBH250 BESS.
When I made the selection, the Sungrow inverter online monitoring graph did not include the BESS State Of Charge, which it does now, and, the SBH250 was not available.
The Sungrow inverter can drive a larger capacity BESS than the Goodwe inverter, and, the SBH250 BESS is lesser in height, than the 19.3kWh BYD HVM BESS, so, the Sungrow components would have been able to be installed under proper shelter, with the applicable regulations for clearances around BESS’s, and, my concerns about exposure of the BESS, would be diminished, if fully installed under proper shelter.
Whilst I have had problems with Goodwe and the Goodwe inverter, requiring the first inverter to be replaced under warranty, the BYD HVM BESS has not given me any problems.
I have the system configured to charge the BESS in the middle of the day (1200-1500), at the lowest grid electricity pricing, to minimise usage of grid electricity during peak pricing (1500-2100), so as to minimise electricity costs.
For discharging the BESS, for normal usage, I have it set to retain 25% charge, to provide for emergency backup, and, to not discharge to below 5% of charge capacity, for the sake of the BESS.
Apart from problems experienced with the Goodwe inverter model, the system seems to work okay (within the stupid SWIS grid limitations), and, the BYD HVM BESS seems to work well.
Yeah, China beacon of freedom and fair play with its pacific neighbours gets your nod because you don’t like someone’s politics and awkward hand gestures.
Hopefully this level of facile judgement isn’t employed in your battery assessments.
Hi Harry,
Had Musk made those hand gestures in Germany or in Victoria, the awkward part would have been him getting arrested. It could also have prevented him, on the following day, beaming into a far right German AFD political rally and telling people there they needed to forget their past. Perhaps most illuminating of someone’s politics is their willingness to joke about the holocaust right before the 80th anniverasy of the liberation of Auschwitz.
The best batteries on this post are being judged by the people who install them, hopefully we can keep the focus on that.
Cheers
A hallmark of fascism is censorship, given what’s going on here you guys are in no moral position to judge others. Utterly pathetic.
Hi Harry,
We take some care in moderating this platform and trying to keep it on track, however I’d like to assure you this is an exception I’ve carved out especially for you, because it would appear you’re projecting fascist tendencies, and in a civilised society they really need to be called out.
USAID was originally established by Executive Order 10973, signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, under the authority of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961345. However, its status evolved over time. The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 formally established USAID as an independent agency within the executive branch, making it subject to congressional oversight and statutory requirements. Thus, while USAID’s creation involved an executive order, its current structure and operations are governed by congressional statutes. Congress plays a critical role in overseeing its funding and activities, and significant changes to the agency require legislative action.
https://www.justsecurity.org/107267/can-president-dissolve-usaid-by-executive-order/
While DOGE’s activities resemble an audit, there is no indication that this was formally “invited” by Treasury leadership. It appears to be driven by executive authority and subsequent administrative approvals.
https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/responding-to-evidence-of-a-treasury-cover-up-wyden-demands-bessent-come-clean-on-musk-infiltration-of-treasury-payment-systems
Best != Most Popular
In fact just because something is installed more often doesn’t even mean it’s what installers prefer.
Price, stock availability etc and customer choice influence popularity.
When you claim to be writing a “Best of 2025” article a reader expects a qualitative analysis, not a popularity contest.
Is it feasible for a couple of reputable industry stakeholders such as, say, Solarquotes & Rewiring Australia to partner & petition Parliament for a consumer focussed law that forces everything to talk ? It could spawn a whole new industry around home automation, let alone the benefits of soaking up all the “excess” power in the grid during the middle of the day.
Very happy with my new 10kWh (9 uasble) SAJ battery. Especially at the installed price of 8k.
Will be interesting to see if they make the list nex year.
“Is it Elon’s transformation into a hardcore Trumper?”
“first place go from Elon’s Sieg heil to China’s SigEnergy1.”
Thank you for sharing your political views Finn, very professional
Hi Jeremy,
We’re here to help people make better choices about buying solar and batteries, however the world’s richest man is now an unelected member of the US government and they’re forcing global finance to abandon the energy transition we’re all working on.
If we’re not willing to make political conversations reasonable, if those people in power can’t stand to be questioned, we’ll find self censorship only helps those with power further entrench and enrich themselves.
If we choose to ignore inequality then we as a society can’t have nice things.
You are more than welcome. My ‘unprofessionalism’ has always been a badge of honour.
And that’s why you have such a large following Finn – because you say it as it is. Us readers appreciate and value this.
Refuse to buy any Tesla products due to Musk. Ended up buying a Hyundai EV and a Sigenergy battery. The battery was a no brainer, its significatly more feature rich than the Tesla.
I don’t care what musk does. He’ll come and go. The technology in the Tesla is great so I’m happy with the car. The batteries are good but not locally manageable.
I need a battery with a fully featured API so I can manage it in coordination with all the other large deferrable load and producers in the house.
Solar PV, EV, hot water, pool pump, aircon, dish washer, washing machine, cloths dryer, all singing along under the one computer management system and taking advantage of wholesale NEM prices like the big gentailers do. Nothing stopping mums and dads doing the same thing.
That’s the next thing everybody should be looking at. How do you spot trade on the NEM and buy energy at 3 cents and sell energy at $18 until the duck curve goes flat. Kill the duck I say. Fuck American politics, that’s just another sinusoidal duck curve some people take advantage of.
You can’t get those sort of profits on the stock market but you can on the NEM and that’s why big gentailers are buying up megapacks.
And all of them are still stupidly expensive.
All this claimed innovation in manufacturing and cell pricing through the floor yet the end product price is as bad as it ever was.
Would be nice to have some more comments on specs in this article and less on the politics, unless you care more about Elon’s politics then informing people about what they are here for.
Just looking at the Sigenergy system the output of the inverter (AC output) is only 5kw for the single phase, so quite limited, compared to the Power-wall 3 which is 10kw. This is probably one of the most important things to consider, if you want true home backup, or want to take advantage of VPP or Amber electric and making more off grid export.
Hi Isaac,
I believe Sigen are bringing a 10kW single phase to market but they’re struggling to get timely approval from the CEC… it’s a battle the whole industry faces.
If you haven’t, I suggest you take on board fact that the 9.6 kwh Sungrow battery loses 5% of usable energy in its “reserve, which is hidden”. These are Sungrows word said to me. The reserve is hidden, hidden from purchasers until they wonder why their system doesn’t deliver what the data sheet says.
You might still decide on Sungrow. It could be a good choice as.long as you are.comparjng apples with apples.
The inverter is good, imo. The 10kw hybrid provides 10kw of backup, so my whole house is wired as if “essential circuits”.
Also, with 12.8Kw of pv modules. And 19.2nominal kwh battery, I frequently see 12+kw of production with say 6 going to battery 3 to loads and 3 being exported. I think have even seen 13kw production, but might have been dreaming.
The wonders of DC:DC coupling perhaps. [Anthony?]
This is a general question. We have 3 phase power with an existing 10.2 kw system with a 10kw symo inverter. Am looking at battery system, Sungrow or Sig with a 5kw hybrid invertor and around 10 KW of storage. I think the Sig is 8kw and the Sungrow is 9.6. I am looking at a system I can add to later. any advice please – we are in Melbourne. Also any idea on cost. We don’t have an EV.
Hi Stephen,
I’ve always had a great run with Fronius so I would favour them.
By keeping to the same ecosystem you keep everything under the same app & email. That makes it easy for you to know what’s going on and maintains things like earth fault & yield alerts from the same source.
Plus when you get an EV, the Wattpilot charger is also integrated seamlessly.
Sungrow are fine, they’re promising an EV charger soon and nobody is holding their breath.
Sigen are darlings of the industry at the moment, feature packed but have no real history to judge by.
The Sigen is probably the better unit in terms of being able to use your existing Fronius & connect it to the Sigen gateway, but check with the installers.
See above where I replied to wrong comment.
Storage is kWh
Power is kW
Solar PV systems are kWp (the p stands for peak as in the peak of the power output that you can expect when the panels are facing the sun at the perfect angle)
So a battery might have a capacity of 10kWh and a power output of 5kW which means at full discharge rate the battery would go from fully charged to fully discharged in 2 hours.
BTW the W is capitalised because it’s somebody’s name. Guess who.
What?
No, it’s Watt, he developed the steam engine.
Favourite Dad answer 😉
That’s him. He invented the separate condenser that turned Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine into a more efficient engine. I think he came up with the idea while he was repairing a toy version of the Newcomen atmospheric engine. And that started the Industrial Revolution which led to Brittany ruling the half the world for a while.
I wonder which country is going to rule the world with this energy revolution we are just starting into now? Doesn’t look like it’s going to be 🇺🇸. Probably 🇨🇳. They are so far ahead already.
You might be onto something there Robert.
The oil age is drawing to a close. While we were investing 10 x more money in “clean coal” than we were renewables and BP closed our only solar panel manufacturing facility, China decided they were going to own the whole renewable industry. They make 90% of the world’s PV solar now.
I went with Sungrow but was also offered a Sigenergy system. The thing about Sigenergy that gives me pause is the app’s reliance on chatgpt-esque artificial intelligence. Given that AI is such a hot button topic, locking one’s self into such a system for the duration of a solar battery’s lifespan doesn’t necessarily seem like the best idea. I’d like to see reviews of Sigenergy give more consideration to these concerns.
I had a Powerwall 3 battery installed at my home (Sydney inner west) in mid Jan 25. I have a 4.6 kW PV system with Enphase microinverters supplying AC power to the PW3. The battery is performing well, with minimal power imported from the grid since it was installed except for a couple of consecutive rainy days after it was installed and it hadn’t had time to full charge prior.
I have noticed that my home consumption has increased by about 90 kWh per month since the battery was installed. I can see this by comparing the Enphase envoy power logging compared to previous years. I have observed that the Enphase and Tesla power logging (solar generation, home consumption and export) are all very close. There is no obvious change to my home consumption pattern except for the PW3 install. Is the power consumption increase due to the PW3 self power consumption for cooling and battery management system? The increased consumption corresponds to an average power draw of about 137 W.
The battery is installed inside a garage that is fairly cool being shaded by a tree and the house for much of the day except early morning. If I listen closely right next to the PW3 I can hear a faint fan noise from inside and the battery casing is slightly warm, just above ambient temperature.
When the battery is AC coupled, does all the AC power supplied get converted to DC to supply the battery with the remainder converted back to AC for use by the house/export or is only the portion used to charge the battery converted to AC? I wondering if the power consumption increase is due to AC/DC conversion losses.
Hi Peter,
That does sound curious. I wouldn’t have thought a PW3 would burn a continuous 130 watts however there will be some losses.
As an AC coupled battery the PW3 will use some energy charging and use some more discharging, on top of the internal losses in the battery itself.
Might be worth adding some DC coupled solar if you have roof space? DC batteru charging is most efficient. Any yield is helpful, even on the South side, as well as making sure you ha e a blackstart capability.
It’s worth tracking to see if it changes seasonally.