Solar inverters and batteries and so many choices

[Isetech]

My first choice was to go with the blue stuff, they have been around for a long time and seen as the rolls Royce of inverters. I was offered free training and a pricing structure from tier 1 - 4, at the time R500k seemed an unreachable limit (boy has that changed). I can kick myself for not taking up the offer. the other thing that put me off was all the bits and pieces required to make up a system.

Another option was an inverter which is highly rated down under.

I decided to focus on a brand which was proving to be the fastest growing units in SA.

[Isetech]

As more and more products flood the market, which product do you support and why?

Has anyone installed less well known brands and have success stories.

I am hoping that as the market gets more and more saturated, there will be more choice and with more choice more competition, better pricing and better service.

The biggest challenge at this point in time, especially being a supplier and installer of products is the warranty and if these product with 10 year warranties are going to survive the 10 years.

Being around for as long as I have, I see the trends, the generator rush in 2008, now the solar rush which started in 2021/22.

My concern is what is going to happen when properties are sold, people think their solar project has added value to their property, some have sold properties to others who thinking they have inherited a state of the art system which by the way looks good, but it doesnt take long for them to realize that is may not be the case.

Buying a property with a COC is a dime a dozen, finding one that the COC is worth the paper it is written on, could be a challenge, boy have we identified a few duds.

How do you know what is right..................

[GCE]

The biggest challenge at this point in time, especially being a supplier and installer of products is the warranty and if these product with 10 year warranties are going to survive the 10 years.

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A large amount of manufacturers will not need to be around as the warranties on a large proportion of installs will have already fallen by the wayside as the terms and conditions are not been adhered to .
Everyone reads the spec sheets and not the warranty documents
It may be classed as 1C for discharge but charge is often 0.5 C
Also temperature ranges that you can charge in at 0.5c will be marginal with regards to SA weather patterns and should be on 0.2C charge .
Some refer to " average discharging" at 0.5C so if you have set up to be on average above 0.5C warranty is gone.

These are popular batteries being used in SA market - We continually inform potential clients but unfortunately few listen and refer to price only and what the other installer says the system will be capable of.
They must learn the hard way

I had a classic with a regular client that told me " You just sour " - 6 months later system needed further upgrading to handle loads as the system was installed using maximum possible output of battery and inverter - way above what you could refer to as Average .