SolarEdge, the world’s #1 inverter manufacturer, has launched its SolarEdge Home Battery in Australia. The SolarEdge Home Battery is a 10-kilowatt hour lithium-ion battery that plugs straight into the SolarEdge inverter. It is part of the SolarEdge Energy Hub, a future-proof solar solution for solar panels, battery storage, EV-charging and smart appliances.
This blog explains the main benefits of the SolarEdge Home Battery:
Before explaining the benefits of the SolarEdge Home Battery, here are some quick facts about it:
Our homes work on AC (alternating current) power which is around 240 volts. Power from solar panels is DC power (direct current) which is around 600 volts. The job of solar power systems is to convert DC power into AC power for use in the home.
All solar batteries require DC power to charge the battery. The most efficient way of charging a battery is to use the DC power straight from the solar panel system.
This is how DC-coupled batteries like the SolarEdge Home Battery work. They use the DC power straight from the solar panel system to charge the battery. When power from the battery is needed in the home, it is converted to AC power – just once – by a hybrid solar and battery inverter. The key thing to remember about DC coupled batteries is that there is only one power conversion from DC to AC power. This increases the overall system efficiency and means more power for your home.
In contrast, AC-coupled batteries like the Tesla Powerwall 2 require a built-in inverter to convert AC power to DC power to charge the battery – and then back to AC power for use in the home. Whenever power is converted from AC to DC, or vice versa, there is a loss of power in the conversion process. So, the less times a solar system converts power to and from DC to AC the better.
AC-coupled battery systems have up to three power conversion processes. DC-coupled solar and battery systems have just one. That’s why a DC-coupled battery like the SolarEdge Home Battery produces more power for your home.
To get the full black-out protection, you need the SolarEdge Energy Hub Inverter installed together with the SolarEdge Home Battery system. With this set-up, homes with a single-phase power connection can continue to charge the battery from solar panels throughout a power outage.
SolarEdge Home Battery also has “an adaptive boost” feature which produces more power during an outage so you can run more large appliances – like air conditioning and dishwashers – for longer during a black-out.
Depending on where you live, your network distributor may calculate the total size of the solar system you are allowed by adding the capacity of your battery inverter to the capacity of your solar inverter in order to calculate your total allowed capacity.
For example:
Solar inverter capacity (10kW) + Battery inverter capacity (7.6kW) = Total capacity (17.6kW)
If you purchase a DC-coupled battery like SolarEdge this isn’t a problem. That’s because the SolarEdge Home Battery doesn’t include a battery inverter. Instead, the solar inverter that comes with the SolarEdge solar panel system does the job of both solar and battery inverter. What this means is that a SolarEdge 10kW solar inverter will count as a 10kW of total inverter capacity. This will pass the rules for most network distributors in Australia.
SolarEdge example:
SolarEdge inverter capacity (10kW) + Battery inverter capacity (0) = Total capacity (10kW)
However, if you purchase an AC-coupled battery like Tesla Powerwall 2 it will include a battery inverter (with a capacity of 7.6kW). The capacity of the Powerwall battery inverter (7.6kW) will be added to the capacity of your solar inverter (for example 10kW). If you happen to live in a network area that adds together battery inverter capacity with solar inverter capacity, you may find you’ve gone over their size limit (e.g., 7.6kW + 10kW), and you won’t be allowed to install the system.
Given that most network distributors only allow 5kW or 10kW of inverter capacity per phase, you can easily go over this size limit if you try to install an AC-coupled battery on your solar panel system.
To avoid this issue, there are two things you can do:
Most network distributors allow you to install 133% of solar panel capacity based on the inverter capacity. So, if the inverter is 10kW, you can install up to 13.3kW of solar panels. This oversizing of solar panels is really worthwhile as you generate more electricity, and the extra panels are subsidized by the federal government STC rebate.
With the SolarEdge Home Battery, the oversizing of solar panels is even better. Because it is a DC-coupled system with a hybrid solar inverter, you are allowed to oversize the panels by up to 200% of the solar inverter capacity.
For example, if you have a 10kW SolarEdge inverter you can add up to 20kW of solar panels (if allowed). This can be useful if you later decide to add more solar panels to charge an electric vehicle or make your home all-electric.
With SolarEdge, you can add any type of solar panel to your system down the track. Today, you may have 390-watt solar panels installed. Next year, the standard panel could well be 450-watt. With SolarEdge, this isn’t a problem thanks to their clever panel-level optimization technology. With standard string inverter solar systems, adding mismatched solar panels isn’t possible.
Temperature sensors and a fire extinguisher are built into the SolarEdge Home Battery providing an added level of safety not normally found in home battery systems. If the battery overheats, an alert will be sent via the SolarEdge monitoring system to the solar owner and installer. If the battery temperature becomes dangerously hot, the fire extinguisher will automatically activate and put out any fire.
SolarEdge are bringing out a SolarEdge fast EV (electric vehicle) charger later in 2022, which is compatible with the SolarEdge Home Battery system. You will be able to control the EV charging using from the same app as your SolarEdge Home Battery.
The SolarEdge fast Level 2 EV charger will enable you to charge your electric car up to eight times faster than a Level 1 charger (the technical term for plugging your car into an ordinary household outlet).
The SolarEdge Home Battery comes with a 10-year product warranty with unlimited cycles. It also guarantees at least 70% original battery capacity at end of ten years. Many other batteries provide a product warranty of either 10-years or a certain number of cycles – and only guarantee around 60% usable capacity at the end of 10 years.
The SolarEdge Home Battery warranty is good, particularly if you think you’ll use the battery most days and if you’d like the opportunity to join a Virtual Power Plant (which pays more for your solar exports than the solar feed-in tariff). Virtual Power Plant programs work by drawing on the stored energy in your battery, which means you battery will do more cycles. With the SolarEdge Home Battery warranty, this isn’t a problem as the VPP isn’t going to affect your product warranty.
For all the reasons outlined above, the SolarEdge Home Battery enables you to get a faster payback on your total solar power system when compared with other solar battery systems.
In particular, the fact that you are allowed to add up to 200% more solar panels when you install the SolarEdge Home Battery gives you the scope to make your home all-electric, cut your home energy bills to virtually zero and run your electric car for free.
To get a quote for a SolarEdge Home Battery for your home or business, get in touch. We’ll go through the specifics of installing a battery on your property and advise on network rules applying in your area. We’ll can calculate the percentage of your total home electricity usage that will be covered by a SolarEdge solar battery system and provide a quote with the costs and bill savings. Also, if you’re interested in sizing up your system to cater for in-home EV charging, we can do that too.
*In revenues according to IHS PV inverter market tracker, 2021
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