My first proper job was at a nuclear power station. If you wanted to change anything you started with a drawing.

You marked the change up in red. An engineer reviewed it. The drawing office turned the red ink into real drawings. The work was done to that drawing. Someone checked the install against the markup, and signed off the drawing ‘as-built’.

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SolarQuotes is forever fielding questions from punters about quality of both hardware and installation, but recently we’ve seen a huge amount of interest in one fast-rising player.

So are Fox ESS batteries any good? I’ll give them a qualified yes and outline why in this article.

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Every second battery brochure that crosses my desk now has “AI-powered” stamped on it somewhere. Enphase has “AI-based energy management software.” Sigenergy promises “AI optimisation.” Even no-name brands are getting in on the act.

But what does “AI” actually mean when it’s printed on a battery spec sheet? In most cases, a lot less than you’d think.

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Batteries shouldn’t be put in the bin, and nor should bins be put into your battery – but has your home energy system been installed in a way that can handle a wheelie bin or worse of impact?

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Once again the solar and storage industry is facing some uncomfortable questions about whether the rules we work with actually line up with each other.

Finn did an excellent job of explaining this issue a few weeks back¹ but strap in and we’ll get into the weeds of wiring rules and ask, why are they being ignored by installers, inspectors and regulators and who is going to bear the cost of getting this right? [Read more…]

Images of DIY winter coats for Fox batteries – shared on FB by Australian owners: Update: a commenter has told me the middle one was done for a joke and the overcoat was promptly removed.

Fox ESS batteries recently became the most popular battery in Australia thanks to their nice stackable design and a price that undercuts most of the competition. When asked, my personal verdict on Fox has been: I don’t have enough real-world data to vouch for their quality in harsh Australian conditions, and I’ve consistently recommended waiting for a couple of summers before committing.

Turns out it’s not the summers I should have been watching. [Read more…]

That Smart Energy 2026 Conference & Expo: Australia’s leading show that isn’t All Energy.

I’m filling in for our editor, Max, who has taken himself on holiday like someone who doesn’t understand the gravity of the Smart Energy Conference. Someone had to go. So I went to Sydney. Here’s what happened. [Read more…]

We’ve been running this website for 16 years. In that time, we’ve published tens of thousands of reviews and written plenty of posts about installers and manufacturers. Shock horror, some have been critical. [Read more…]

A rush to secure home battery systems ahead of the 1 May cutoff has left many customers dealing with delays that have pushed their installs past the deadline, raising questions about pricing and eligibility. If your system wasn’t fully commissioned by 30 April, you may now be working through what that means for your agreed price, your installation timeline, and any changes being proposed by your installer. [Read more…]

Apparently a recent raft of audits showed 98% of battery installations were defective. Does that mean the entire solar installation industry is incompetent? No, but the people writing the rules…?

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