Have you heard the Whispr?

Andrew Reither from PowerPlus Energy getting the hang of commissioning

Have you heard the Whispr?

Australian battery maker PowerPlus Energy has a stackable battery inverter combination now available to fully support 3 phase systems.

So is it any good? In my humble opinion yes. Read on while we explain why in this installation review.

For many years PowerPlus Energy have been beavering away in Melbourne, making some venerable 48 volt batteries that work brilliantly with inverters like Selectronic SpPro, CT&E, and Victron. On a tight budget you could also use a cheaper Deye/NoArk, possibly even GoodWe or Solis inverter to pair with them.

The physical format is a “server rack” style so there are a number of indoor or outdoor rated enclosures to house them in, with Amphenol connectors to make the connections plug and play.

However the 48 volt standard used traditionally in remote area power isn’t favoured by modern lightweight grid hybrid systems. Sungrow gave up on it a few years ago, Fronius never tried. It’s simply more efficient to use higher voltage and less copper for the same¹ power output.

PowerPlus Enter The Grid Hybrid Market With Help

Facts are that 90% or more of the world’s battery cells come from China.

So to be competitive, PowerPlus Energy have teamed up with Renox² to deliver a fully imported, stackable solar and battery inverter. However it’s been tested, CEC approved, branded, monitored and most importantly supported locally by PowerPlus.

Simplicity Is The Ultimate Refinement

I’m not waxing on about the appearance of these whitegoods – it looks fine and should do for years, as there’s no tacky plastic covers.

However there’s some Tesla elegance to the offering, in that you get a choice of one size (13.37kWh) or you buy up to four more complete units to reach 53.5kWh.

They will work in unison while the grid is up, however during an outage the backup circuits cannot be combined together in parallel.

Now a 7kW inverter shouldn’t be sneezed at. It’ll cover most average houses but isn’t king of the kids when others offer 8 and 10kW units. However it can be commissioned as a 5kW machine if your poles and wires people demand a modest connection capacity.

More recently though, new firmware has been released to make the Whispr work with a 3 phase supply, using 3 units to deliver balanced output which keeps the network boffins happy.

Unlike Tesla though, Whispr now offers true 120° synchronous backup for 3 phase loads.

It’s a pretty clean installation.

Trading Experience For Current Knowledge

While I’m no longer “on the tools” installing solar every day, I regularly help out at Solar Training Center as they put students through their paces. Supervising the practical day at the end of the week means I can have detailed conversations with 20 different electricians who are on the coal face.

Some are fresh faced and yet to lose their lunch on the solar coaster, others are old and wisened but finally doing the paperwork to have their solar qualifications endorsed for battery or off grid work.

Unboxing and setting the base plate in position.

We all end up learning something, even if it’s just amusing tales about job site disasters. However there are priceless encounters too, like meeting technical support people for manufacturers you only ever encounter on the phone normally. It’s fascinating when they’re ex-Huawei employees with direct insight into competing Chinese brands for instance.

PowerPlus Energy Bring The Goods

Unlike most of the industry, the free merch PowerPlus Energy give away to class every month is stuff installers will fight over. Forget about the rubbish hats, keyrings and bottle openers, what trades want are fine point markers and Fasty straps for tying down ladders.

PowerPlus Energy simply don’t offer bad quality bin filler, which is why I’m confident they’ve done the due diligence on the products they sell.

These images were 8 minutes apart but you’d take a little longer if there were masonary fixings to put into the wall.

Fast Installation Works

When we unboxed the new unit I was sadly unsurprised to find it packed in plastic foam. Fronius and Sungrow deserve credit for using recyclable cardboard.

The contents looked well made and the boys soon had the base plate down and a couple of batteries stacked on it. Of course being manly men with an unhealthy disdain for instruction sheets, they missed installing the first pair of wall brackets.

Step 1, read the instructions and put the bottom bracket on.

Despite that minor setback, the whole package of 4 batteries and inverter went together in 8 minutes.

Improvements To Make

Securing the blocks together are simple slotted brackets with different sized bolts, but more thoughtfully I’d expect they’d use 8mm hex heads, so you only need one tool in hand to zap them together?

Some simple changes, like standardised fixings, can make a huge difference to install quality.

And if you can imagine a different wall behind this unit, you can easily see that some extra articulation in the brackets, as depicted in blue, would be priceless to avoid a mortar joint or weatherboard lap.

This cover needs a little extra clearance but otherwise the fit and finish is good.

At least the WiFi dongle is accessible but also well protected in its own recess.

Wiring Is Straightforward

The Whispr has three solar input channels for design flexibility, and plug connections for AC input and battery backup output.

The unit can also cope with a generator input (through a changeover switch to the grid port), making it a good fit for somewhere that might suffer a prolonged outage with poor solar – like post cyclone Queensland perhaps.

Terminals are easy to access and won’t encourage anyone to wrench the cables around just for aesthetic reasons.

Another important feature are the AC and DC isolators, easily accessed without having to remove any covers.

Having recently fielded a call about shutting down a system for a reset, it had never occurred to me that many people have so little idea experience. The jargon on shutdown labels is confusing enough, but when they can’t find switches, because they don’t even realise there’s a cover or gateway door you need to open, it’s just ridiculous.

Like any series connected hybrid inverter, I would insist your backup circuits are wired through a bypass switch. The Whispr has a backup capacity or 22 Amps/5kW or 30.5 Amps /7kW so it will manage a decent load.

You can have more than basic “lights and fridge” blackout protection, but it’s not designed to backup a whole home.

However if you install more than one unit, there is more capacity available, so divide the switchboard up and you could keep the air conditioning going with one battery, TV and WiFi on another.

Bang For Your Buck And Well Backed Up

In recent days I’ve seen 3 different people asking about what to do with their better than bargain basement Qcells hybrid battery system. While they had all the features and a great reputation for quality, nobody saw it coming when Qcells pulled the pin.

Now the parent company has ceased operations in Australia, existing systems still under warranty are poorly supported, if at all.

I think the Whispr represents a solid package and with PowerPlus Energy to stand behind them it should be a pretty good value.

Perhaps the best recommendation is the warranty document. Page 1 of 1 means there’s no hiding things in the fine print and nothing is lost in translation.

For more on PowerPlus Energy’s batteries and customer verdicts, read our review page.