Posts By Ronald Brakels, Author & Fact-Checker At SolarQuotes

Drowning In Despair:  A Deep Dive Into The Jinko Solar Suntank Warranty

June 1, 2023 2023-07-17T14:21:02 by 9 Comments

jinko suntank battery and warning symbol

UPDATE JULY 2023: Jinko has updated and improved the SunTank warranty, also retroactively applying it to existing installations. Good on them! The new warranty document is available here. Summary of changes below:

Features Old Warranty New Warranty
Energy Retention 70% for the first 5 years
50% for another 5 years		 60% for 10 years
Life Cycle or Life Cycle Power Shouldn’t be over 300 per year Total energy discharged from the battery reaches 3.05MWh per kWh usable capacity
Accessories Warranty Period 1 year 2 years
Warranty if not connected with Internet 3 years 5 years
Operating Temperature -10 ～ +45 -10 ～ +50
Transferrable No Yes
Others – Applies to all previously sold systems

 

Jinko Solar launched their Suntank low-voltage home battery in July 2022.  This article is my opinion of its warranty.  While it’s possible the battery could be good, I can tell you right now its warranty isn’t.   [Read more…]

Filed Under: Battery Storage

US Study Shows EV Batteries Should Last An EV’s Lifetime

May 23, 2023 2023-05-24T12:59:24 by 35 Comments
a very old Tesla

Good news! As your EV gets old, its battery should be fine.

How long do electric vehicle batteries last?  According to a study by Recurrent — a US company devoted to helping people buy and sell used EVs — it’s a long time. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Electric Vehicles

Home Batteries Finally Taking Off?

May 18, 2023 2023-05-22T12:14:17 by 40 Comments
Fronius Gen24 and BYD battery installation, Australia

Installation by DJM Electrical

This year’s Smart Energy Conference was abuzz with news on solar and batteries — more abuzz than a bucket of Queensland prawns on a hot tin roof.  The hottest of hot topics was home batteries — not because dodgy ones were spouting flame — but because their installation rate is soaring.  If growth continues, by the end of 2027, Australia could have as many home batteries as some optimists predicted for the year 2020. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Battery Storage

A Deep Dive Into The Sungrow Battery Warranty — It Can’t Take The Heat

May 15, 2023 2023-05-12T18:57:56 by 16 Comments

a bearded man in a desert overloaded with warranty documents

I read the Sungrow Battery Warranty so you don’t have to…

Could Bad Weather Kill Your Battery Warranty?

Home battery sales are growing, with around 47,000 Australian installations last year.  One popular choice that won’t break the bank — but may still put a major dent in it — is from Sungrow.  Their High Voltage SBR battery is competitively priced and, because it’s modular, provides from 9.6 to 25.6 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of storage.  This article will be a deep dive into the details of its warranty. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Battery Storage

Budget 2023. Direct Bill Reductions: Dumb. Low Cost Loans: Smart

May 10, 2023 2023-05-10T09:05:15 by 23 Comments

hand full of cash

Last night the Treasurer gave a half-hour Budget speech.  I listened in because lately, there hasn’t been enough boredom in my life.  There is a lot I could say about this year’s budget —  but I won’t.  I’ll stick to discussing energy.  Mostly, the Government’s plan for providing cost-of-energy relief to low-income households and how they’re doing it wrong. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy

One Month: Time Between Tesla Lowering EV Prices & Raising Them

May 8, 2023 2023-05-12T13:03:07 by 13 Comments

one month on a calendar

One month after lowering their EV prices in Australia, Tesla has bounced them up again and added $400 to all Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Electric Vehicles

Federal Energy Rebates: Solar Households May Come Out Ahead

May 8, 2023 2023-05-08T14:59:06 by 13 Comments

piggy bank house with solar

Electricity Price Hikes Incoming…

If you live in an eastern state —  or that middle state called South Australia strapped to them by a couple of transmission lines — then in July, you’ll be hit with hefty electricity price increases. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Electricity Prices

Solar Analytics Ditches 3G Lifetime Subscriptions – Discover Your Rights and Next Steps

May 5, 2023 2023-05-05T10:22:43 by 52 Comments

sad solar analytics

Solar Analytics Is Taking Away My Lifetime Subscription — What Can I Do?

Solar Analytics provides a solar monitoring service for households.  It’s one of the better ones available and it’s not difficult to find people who say it is the best.  It requires a subscription and, currently, you can pay for it by the month, the year, or five years.  In the past, Solar Analytics sold lifetime subscriptions but they have decided people with older 3G monitoring hardware with lifetime subscriptions will lose them.  This will occur before either these people or the solar systems being monitored are dead. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Installation

We Want More Women Working In Solar: Here’s The Plan.

May 2, 2023 2023-05-02T10:06:11 by 19 Comments

female solar installer Australia

Image Credit: Finn Peacock and his AI helper

The solar industry’s getting serious about gender balance. The Smart Energy Council’s Gender Action Plan (GAP) sets the stage for an estrogen-fueled transformation and was unveiled in a webinar last week.

I mean, come on, a measly one-third of the solar workforce are women, and the Smart Energy Council says they’re mostly in admin, with a smaller number in sales and very few up on roofs installing systems. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy

The Net Zero Australia Report & The $7-9 Trillion Panic

April 26, 2023 2024-05-23T10:31:11 by 13 Comments

The Net Zero Australia Report came out on Friday, and I gotta tell ya, it’s a doozy!  It’s so enormous the report’s summary report is 95 pages.  It would take me a month of Sundays to get through the whole thing, but I have exactly one Sunday, so I’ll quickly say what it’s about and describe how you’re likely to see its results abused online and in the media. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Economics Of Solar
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