Five Tests You Must Do Before Your Battery Installer Leaves

Norrie is a long-time reader who just spent $8,300 on a home battery. The install looked tidy. The installers were pleasant. Then the surprises landed after they were gone. He was told only one circuit could be backed up. Not the fridge and lights together. Not the air conditioner and lights. One. He was also told that in a blackout he must go outside to the switchboard and pull a lever to get power. None of this had been mentioned beforehand. He now feels stitched up and is wondering whether he has any recourse.

The Battery Rush Is No Excuse For Installers To Rush

I am hearing versions of this story more often. Demand is booming, rebates have deadlines, and installation crews are being pushed to move fast. Some systems are mounted, powered on, and abandoned without a proper handover. The homeowner is left with an expensive box on the wall and no clear idea of whether it is working properly or what it will do when the grid goes down.

Here is the bare minimum testing that should happen with you standing there before the van leaves. This is not advanced tuning or clever tariff setup. It is simply proof that the thing you bought behaves like a home battery and not an expensive ornament. Before any of these tests, your monitoring must be working and you must know how to open the app and interpret the power flow screen. If you cannot see where energy is going, you cannot verify anything.

Test #1 – Solar charging test: does excess solar go into the battery?

On a sunny day with the battery not yet full, your monitoring should show spare solar flowing into the battery after the house has been supplied. Charging power should climb toward the inverter’s rated charge limit if there is enough solar. If the system is exporting to the grid while the battery sits idle, something is wrong. The most common cause is a CT clamp installed backwards or in the wrong place, which means the inverter does not know how much surplus solar is available, so the battery does not know how much it should be charging.

2kW of solar, 0.4kW of home load, with the excess 1.6kW charging the battery.

Test #2 – Self-consumption test: does the battery cut grid imports?

Now turn on enough load so your house is using more power than the solar is producing. Kettle, oven, air conditioner, anything normal for your household. The battery should immediately begin discharging to cover the gap, keeping grid imports at or very close to zero. This mode is where most savings come from. If the grid starts feeding the house while the battery does nothing, the configuration is wrong, or the operating mode is not what you were promised.

7.4 kW home load, 4.4kW from the solar, 3kW required from battery to avoid grid imports

Test #3 – Automatic blackout test: does backup actually work?

Your installer should simulate a blackout by switching off the main supply to the property. The lights should stay on, solar should keep running, and every circuit you were told would be backed up should still have power. If only part of the home remains energised, confirm that this matches what you agreed to. Partial backup is common, but discovering the limits during your first real outage is not a pleasant surprise.

Grid disconnected, home and solar still operating

Test #4 – High load test with the grid connected (DC-coupled systems)

Reconnect the grid. Now switch on the appliances that sit on the backup circuits and that you would realistically run together. Lighting, fridge, kitchen gear, perhaps one air conditioner. The system should carry on without tripping or complaining. If the hybrid inverter shuts down under normal conditions, the design cannot support everyday usage and needs to be fixed before anyone signs off.

Test #5 – Failure and bypass test: what happens if the inverter dies?

Some hybrid systems cut power to the backup circuits if the inverter itself fails, even though the grid is still available. Ask the installer to isolate the inverter using its AC isolator while leaving the grid connected. If those circuits stay alive, the system can pass grid power through. If they go dead, you need a bypass switch to restore supply during an inverter fault. If a bypass exists, get a live demonstration and record it on your phone. Months later, in the dark, you will not want to be guessing.

These five checks take very little time to confirm that the system performs its core duties and that you know what to expect in daily operation and during an outage. Watching it operate properly before the installers leave is not being difficult. It is basic due diligence.

Phase Shift is a weekly opinion column by SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock. Subscribe to SolarQuotes’ free newsletter to get it emailed to your inbox each week along with our other home electrification coverage.