Australian Premium Solar solar panels reviews

As at late 2024, and for at least the last decade, there's only been one active manufacturer of solar panels in Australia - and it's not Australian Premium Solar.

Company Contact Details

Address: 301, 3rd floor, Satyamev Eminence, Science City Rd, Science City, Sola, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Phone: +91 1800 313 5052
Email: [email protected]
Website

Company Info

When I updated this page in early 2017, halfway down the (now defunct) Australian Premium Solar site homepage was a large heading saying, “SOLAR PANEL MANUFACTURER” with no supporting text. This was interesting because I never saw any evidence they owned or operated solar panel production facilities at that point. As far as I could tell, they only imported panels produced by other companies. On their products page at the time, it did state the solar panels were made in China.

Fast forward to late 2024, and no Australian Premium Solar panels are approved for use in Australia by the Clean Energy Council. The company appears to have exited the Australian market at some point - I missed when that happened. Australian Premium Solar still appears to be operating; from India with a factory in that country. But there's no remaining connection I could see to Australia aside from the firm continuing to use the word in its name.

Warranty Information

When Australian Premium Solar was active here, in 2017 the company stated their panels came with a 12 year product warranty and a 30 year performance warranty. But in practice, if you treated your solar panels in the same way as the vast majority of Australian households do, Australian Premium Solar could declare their warranty to be void after one year.

The Australian Premium Solar Warranty stated:

“The warranties in PART B are subject to regular or periodic maintenance being carried out to achieve optimum performance of the PV Modules and parts. The minimum recommended maintenance required is set out in the APS Maintenance Schedule. Failure to conduct regular or periodic maintenance may void the warranties in PART B. Notwithstanding, APS may at its discretion apportion or allow all or part of any such warranty claim to proceed subject to an inspection of the PV Modules or the parts.”

The Australian Premium Solar maintenance schedule recommended yearly maintenance as a minimum. This yearly maintenance included actions that could only realistically be performed by an electrician or solar installer. As a result, it would not take long for the cost of having your panels maintained each year to exceed what they are worth.

The warranty also said:

“After a warranty claim has been lodged, APS may request that the Customer provide proof of all maintenance work done to the PV Modules as per the APS Maintenance Schedule. Failure to provide proof of the scheduled maintenance may void the warranties provided in PART B.”

So unless you have had your panels maintained each year * and* kept records of it being done, Australian Premium Solar could declare your warranty void.

The Australian Premium Solar warranty also stated:

“The warranties provided exclude the transportation and handling costs or any other costs for the return of the defective item(s) or the shipment of the replacement item(s) to and from the ASP’s stores to the Customer’s or authorised distributor’ site unless the consumer is taking advantage of their statutory rights. All such costs including the cost of the removal and re-installation of the replacement item(s) must be fully borne and paid for by the authorised distributor or by the Customer before APS ships the replacement item(s).”

This led me to believe any attempt to get Australian Premium Solar to honour their apparent commitment to replace or repair defective panels would result in them sending you a hefty bill.

Australian Consumer Law provides far more consumer protection than what was given by the Australian Premium Solar warranty. But what about if a company is no longer in Australia? Then the installer or distributor is on the hook for warranty. If both have disappeared, then you're out of luck.

We wrote more about the Australian Premium Solar warranty here. And if your mind is set on buying Australian-made panels, check out Tindo Solar.