{"id":36481,"date":"2020-02-03T10:38:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T00:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=36481"},"modified":"2020-02-03T10:38:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T00:08:45","slug":"battery-test-7th-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/","title":{"rendered":"The Canberra Battery Test Centre&#8217;s 7th Report:  83% Faulty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_36986\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36986\" class=\"wp-image-36986 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7.jpg\" alt=\"Solar battery test winners\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-36986\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Of 18 batteries tested, 7 didn&#8217;t need repair or replacement and only 3 batteries passed the testing without issue: Sony Fortelion, Samsung AIO, and Pylontech. Sony was the best performer by my reckoning.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Good news!\u00a0 The Canberra Battery Test Centre have released their 7th report.\u00a0 I admit I&#8217;m a little behind in reporting this because it wasn&#8217;t released this month, or last month, or even the month before that.\u00a0 It came out all the way back in September.\u00a0 But it&#8217;s their fault I&#8217;m so late writing about it.\u00a0 <!--more-->They normally take eight months to put out a report, but this time it only took them four months.\u00a0 I was shocked, shocked I tell you!\u00a0 And you may be shocked too when I reveal that of the 18 battery systems tested so far only 7 didn&#8217;t need to be repaired, replaced, or buried at midnight under a crossroad.<\/p>\n<p>Just how shocked you are by this probably depends on whether or not you&#8217;ve kept up with their previous reports.\u00a0 If you&#8217;re familiar with them then it&#8217;s no surprise that all is not well in home battery land:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-centre-results\/\">Worrisome Results From Canberra\u2019s Battery Test Centre<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-testing-update\/\">Canberra Battery Test Centre Update \u2014 BYD Battery Comes Out On Top<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/6th-canberra-battery-test\/\">6th Canberra Battery Test Centre Report \u2014 61% Of Tested Batteries Faulty<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As two article titles above indicate, the reliability of tested batteries has been dismal.\u00a0 Also, the good news about the BYD battery was premature.\u00a0 While it has done better than most simply by not breaking down, its rate of degradation has increased and is unlikely to remain above the minimum capacity promised by its warranty.<\/p>\n<p>In this article I will:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Cover the horrible failure rate of tested battery systems.<\/li>\n<li>Present the latest information on battery degradation. \u00a0After all, it is important to provide you the most up-to-date, four month old information.<\/li>\n<li>Point out batteries may occasionally fail to provide anywhere close to the kilowatt-hours they should be capable of.<\/li>\n<li>Rank the tested batteries in my own personal &#8220;Black Knight&#8221; system.<\/li>\n<li>Show the estimated DC to DC round trip efficiencies for batteries as well as an impressive 90%+ estimate of AC to AC round trip efficiency for the Powerwall 2.<\/li>\n<li>Show how home batteries have failed to get cheaper.<\/li>\n<li>Tell you which batteries will be in the upcoming 3rd round of testing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>44% Of Original Batteries Dead Or Replaced<\/h2>\n<p>So far, out of 18 original batteries tested, only 8 have either made it to the end or are still undergoing testing, without needing to be replaced.\u00a0 This survival rate of only 44% is atrocious and may get worse if any remaining ones die.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 8 survivors, 7 have either reached the end of testing or are still operating now without breaking down, while one needed a faulty battery cell replaced soon after commissioning.<\/p>\n<p>This chart from the report, which I compressed to make more readable, shows the dismal reliability of the tested batteries.\u00a0 The main thing you need to know about this chart is everything in red is bad:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36588 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/canbatsumshort.png\" alt=\"Solar battery failures\" width=\"1287\" height=\"843\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/canbatsumshort.png 1287w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/canbatsumshort-300x197.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/canbatsumshort-1024x671.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/canbatsumshort-768x503.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1287px) 100vw, 1287px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>While this chart makes it clear home battery reliability was atrocious, things are worse than they appear because it only shows faults and breakdowns and not excessive battery degradation.<\/p>\n<h2>Only 17% Didn&#8217;t Break Down Or Greatly Degrade<\/h2>\n<p>Of the 7 batteries that didn&#8217;t break down, one &#8212; the GNB PbA &#8212; was lead-acid and so its performance is not directly comparable to the others.\u00a0 The test centre did have problems with this battery that prevented them from correctly estimating its state of charge. But the fact that it worked when 44% of the more exotic competition needed replacing might explain why many off-grid installers still recommend lead-acid.<\/p>\n<p>Of the remaining 6, which were all lithium batteries, only three suffered battery deterioration I call acceptable.\u00a0 I define acceptable degradation as being on track to remain within the minimum promised by their warranties.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 18 batteries tested, the Centre was only able to get good capacity degradation &#8212; or capacity fade &#8212; results for 7.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve put the graphs of their deterioration from the report below and underlined the names of those that didn&#8217;t break down in red.\u00a0 Here are the 3 from their first round of testing:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36855 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_deterioration1.png\" alt=\"Capacity fade Phase 1 of solar battery packs\" width=\"1027\" height=\"674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_deterioration1.png 1027w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_deterioration1-300x197.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_deterioration1-1024x672.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_deterioration1-768x504.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1027px) 100vw, 1027px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Tesla Powerwall 1 had the worst performance of the three that made it onto the graph.\u00a0 But, on account of how it operates, its testing conditions were harsher than for the other batteries.\u00a0 While I suspect its deterioration wouldn&#8217;t have been as bad if conditions had been identical to the other lithium batteries, I doubt it would have come close to the other two, of which the Sony Fortelion is the clear winner.\u00a0 (I&#8217;d say &#8216;<em>the Sony Fortelion and won<\/em>&#8216;, but only because I enjoy inflicting excruciating pun pain on people.)<\/p>\n<p>Below is a graph of the deterioration of 4 batteries from their 2nd phase of testing.\u00a0 Again, I underlined in red the names of the batteries that managed to not break down:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36857 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_deterioration2.png\" alt=\"Capacity fased of Phase 2 battery packs\" width=\"881\" height=\"668\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_deterioration2.png 881w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_deterioration2-300x227.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_deterioration2-768x582.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 881px) 100vw, 881px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Only the Pylontech battery did very well.\u00a0 The LG Chem RESU HV battery is doing the next best, but it has only been cycled a little over 600 times.\u00a0 This is because the original LG Chem RESU HV died and needed to be replaced and so testing had to start from the beginning.\u00a0 Provided it doesn&#8217;t increase its rate of deterioration as the BYD battery did, it should remain within the minimum of 60% of its original capacity provided by its warranty.<\/p>\n<h2>Your Battery May Lack Charge When You Need It<\/h2>\n<p>The Battery Test Centre charges lithium batteries over 3 hours, discharges them over 3 hours, and then gives them a couple of hours rest before doing it again.\u00a0 This way they can simulate 3 years use in a single year.\u00a0 The batteries should be able to fully charge and discharge in the time given, but a strange thing about all the tested battery systems is they will often discharge much less than expected.\u00a0 For example, here is a graph showing watt-hours (to get kilowatt-hours divide by 1,000) discharged by the Samsung AIO battery system:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36965 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/poorperformance1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"880\" height=\"558\" data-pin-id=\"Energy discharged per cycle - Samsung battery system\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/poorperformance1.png 880w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/poorperformance1-300x190.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/poorperformance1-768x487.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Most of the time the amount of energy discharged is close to what I&#8217;d expect, but often it&#8217;s far less. And for one discharge the battery provided no energy at all.\u00a0 On the other hand, one time it appeared to supply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ABhohhjQRTA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">more energy<\/a> than it should be able to hold according to its nominal capacity.\u00a0 (I added the bits in blue that point these events out.)<\/p>\n<p>This graph for the Tesla Powerwall 2 also shows the problem, although in this case it&#8217;s always able to discharge at least 2 kilowatt-hours:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36966 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/poorperformancetesla.jpg\" alt=\"Energy discharged per cycle - Tesla Powerwall 2\" width=\"956\" height=\"559\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/poorperformancetesla.jpg 956w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/poorperformancetesla-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/poorperformancetesla-768x449.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 956px) 100vw, 956px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This inadequate output behavior isn&#8217;t limited to lithium batteries as the zinc-bromide Redflow ZCELL does it too:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36967 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/zcellpoorperformance.png\" alt=\"Energy discharged per cycle - Redflow\" width=\"915\" height=\"567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/zcellpoorperformance.png 915w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/zcellpoorperformance-300x186.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/zcellpoorperformance-768x476.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 915px) 100vw, 915px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Not only does this battery have a completely different chemistry, its testing conditions are also different as it&#8217;s only cycled twice a day instead of three times as lithium batteries are.<\/p>\n<p>I thought the ambient temperature might be responsible, as it is altered to simulate real life conditions, but I can&#8217;t see how poor output lines up with temperature changes.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is so far Finn hasn&#8217;t noticed his Powerwall 2 doing this and no one has complained to me yet about their battery occasionally falling on its arse and only being able to discharge a fraction of the energy expected.\u00a0 It is possible the problem is due the rapid cycling done in testing and may be reduced or even disappear in actual use.\u00a0 Measurement error could also be involved.\u00a0 Because of the uncertainty I haven&#8217;t taken occasional poor output into account when ranking the home batteries in my personal rating system.<\/p>\n<h2>My Black Knight Battery Rating System<\/h2>\n<p>To impose some order on the battery test results I have used my not at all patented &#8220;Black Knight&#8221; rating system, which is based upon this Black Knight here:<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Monty Python - The Black Knight - Tis But A Scratch\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZmInkxbvlCs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>This brilliant ranking system I&#8217;ve devised has 4 levels into which I will place all 18 tested batteries.\u00a0 Note a considerable number are no longer available as they have either been superseded by newer models or their manufacturers have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7FPELc1wEvk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">retreated<\/a> from the home battery market.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Thou Shalt Pass<\/h2>\n<p>Batteries in this first category worked as they were supposed to.\u00a0 That&#8217;s all.\u00a0 They passed the bare minimum standard of not breaking down and not degrading so rapidly they&#8217;re unlikely to stay in warranty.\u00a0 In other words, they worked like they were supposed to.\u00a0 The 3 passable home battery systems &#8212; only 17% of the total &#8212; are:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sony Fortelion:<\/strong>\u00a0 With no breakdowns and its capacity estimated to be 83% of its original amount after 2,100 full cycles<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#en-36481-1' id='enref-36481-1' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(36481)'>1<\/a><\/sup> this is the best performing home battery of all tested.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Samsung AIO:<\/strong>\u00a0 This is an all-in-one system, which means there is more that can break down, but it didn&#8217;t suffer any faults and its capacity was estimated at 79% after 2,160 full cycles.\u00a0 (Note the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/hansol-technics-aio-battery-system-dont-call-samsung\/\">Hansol AIO<\/a> is this unit with a name change.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pylontech:<\/strong>\u00a0 Its testing isn&#8217;t complete, so it could still fail, but its estimated capacity is 86% after 1,470 full cycles.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36977\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/noneshallpass.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"877\" height=\"801\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/noneshallpass.jpg 877w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/noneshallpass-300x274.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/noneshallpass-768x701.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 877px) 100vw, 877px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>2. Tis But A Scratch<\/h2>\n<p>These batteries have either broken down or it appears they will degrade beyond what their warranties allow.\u00a0 But in the case of breakdowns the problem was quickly rectified by the battery provider and for degradation it appears possible the battery could remain in warranty if used under real world conditions.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/new-lg-chem-resu-batteries-smaller-powerful-cheaper-powerwall\/\">LG Chem RESU HV<\/a>:<\/strong>\u00a0 This battery needed to be replaced and testing restarted.\u00a0 Its capacity is estimated to be 90% after 620 full cycles.\u00a0 If this rate of decay is maintained it will just, barely, stay within warranty.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/powerwall-2-warranty\/\">Tesla Powerwall 2<\/a>:<\/strong>\u00a0 This battery arrived with a fault and later developed another that resulted in its replacement.\u00a0 Its capacity is estimated at 96% after 640 full cycles.\u00a0 If this decline is maintained it will stay well within the minimum capacity provided by its warranty.\u00a0 <strong>\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/new-powerwall-warranty\/\">Tesla Powerwall 1<\/a>:<\/strong>\u00a0 With no breakdowns and harsher testing than other home batteries, the Powerwall 1 has done well with a capacity of 64% after 2,190 full cycles.\u00a0 Unfortunately, at this rate of decay it would be at 50% capacity by the end of its warranty rather than the minimum of 60%.\u00a0 But it is likely its deterioration would not have been as great if tested under identical conditions to the other lithium batteries.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36975\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/scratch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"724\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/scratch.jpg 724w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/scratch-300x165.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>3. Disarmed<\/h2>\n<p>These home batteries had terrible problems but, like the Black Knight, struggled on in spite of adversity\/stupidity, or they did not continue testing and so I don&#8217;t know if they would perform well enough to go into the category above.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/byd-brings-b-box-battery-battleground\/\">BYD<\/a>:<\/strong>\u00a0 While not breaking down, battery deterioration worsened after a good start and its capacity is estimated at 64% after 1,740 full cycles.\u00a0 Unless this comes to a miraculous halt it will not come close to staying within the 60% minimum promised by its warranty.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/alpha-ess-battery-review\/\">Alpha ESS<\/a>:<\/strong> When exposed to temperatures that simulated summer conditions this battery had difficulty charging and discharging.\u00a0 Testing was stopped early and did not continue.\u00a0 Due to a lack of information it gets it gets the &#8220;disarmed&#8221; rating.\u00a0 This model of battery is no longer used by the Alpha ESS.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Calb CA 100:<\/strong>\u00a0 One faulty cell needed to be replaced after installation.\u00a0 There were problems with its battery management system but it continued to operate until the end of testing.\u00a0 Its estimated capacity was 76% after full 1,500 cycles.\u00a0 At this rate it would be 60% after 2,500 cycles.\u00a0 It did not have a long term warranty, but if it had a warranty equal to that of the LG Chem batteries and its decline did not accelerate, then its capacity would remain within it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ecoult Ultraflex:<\/strong>\u00a0 This suffered a fault and was replaced.\u00a0 Then it suffered and another fault and broke down.\u00a0 It was to be replaced but that didn&#8217;t occur and testing ended leaving us short on information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GNB lead-acid:<\/strong>\u00a0 This battery proved difficult to charge and discharged due to voltage fluctuations.\u00a0 They were not able to accurately measure the remaining capacity of this battery, but it continued to operate until the end of its testing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GNB Lithium:<\/strong>\u00a0 While not breaking down, its capacity fell to an estimated 65% after only 1,190 full cycles.\u00a0 This is terrible.\u00a0 Some odd test results suggests a fault may be preventing the full capacity from being used.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kokam Storaxe:<\/strong>\u00a0 The Kokam Storaxe died relatively early in testing and was not replaced.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LG Chem LV:<\/strong>\u00a0 This often shut down at warmer temperatures that simulated summer conditions.\u00a0 It suffered from a cell imbalance that required it to be replaced, at which point its capacity was estimated at 78% after 1,183 full cycles.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/redflows-zinc-bromide-zcell-battery-may-have-the-edge-over-lithium-ion\/\">Redflow ZCELL<\/a>:<\/strong>\u00a0 This battery has had a disastrous run and has been replaced 4 times so far.\u00a0 But Redflow refuses give up and the 5th unit is now being tested.\u00a0 Because of this, I grant them the special Black Knight perseverance award.\u00a0 Due to its zinc-bromide chemistry its capacity does not decline.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/simpliphi-battery-review-highly-reliable-storage-usa\/\">SimplifiPhi<\/a>:<\/strong>\u00a0 These batteries, used by the US military, developed problems and rather than replace them, SimpliPhi refunded the Battery Test&#8217;s Centre&#8217;s money, leaving us short on information about their performance.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36974\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/disarmed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"878\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/disarmed.jpg 878w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/disarmed-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/disarmed-768x424.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>4. Haven&#8217;t Got A Leg To Stand On<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Ampetus: \u00a0<\/strong>At first this battery was difficult to install, then the company that supplied it went out of business, and then the battery died.\u00a0 Ampetus, thou did not pass.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aquion:<\/strong>\u00a0 They could not get this battery to work and Aquion has gone bust.\u00a0 For never providing a single watt-hour of stored power, Aquion gets the special Black Knight, &#8220;All right, we&#8217;ll call it a draw then,&#8221; award.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-36989 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/d627d31c-4924-11e9-8e02-95b31fc3f54a_image_hires_103310.jpg\" alt=\"black knight draw\" width=\"747\" height=\"498\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/d627d31c-4924-11e9-8e02-95b31fc3f54a_image_hires_103310.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/d627d31c-4924-11e9-8e02-95b31fc3f54a_image_hires_103310-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/d627d31c-4924-11e9-8e02-95b31fc3f54a_image_hires_103310-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/d627d31c-4924-11e9-8e02-95b31fc3f54a_image_hires_103310-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 747px) 100vw, 747px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>A Large Manufacturer Does Not Guarantee Reliability<\/h2>\n<p>Only 3 battery systems fell into the first category of Black Knight ranking, which simply means they worked as they should have.\u00a0 Two of the manufacturers,\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Samsung\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Samsung<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sony\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sony<\/a>, are large well known companies while the third, Pylontech, isn&#8217;t famous enough to have a Wikipedia page but is regarded as a quality manufacturer.<\/p>\n<p>Other big name companies were unable to provide problem-free home battery systems.\u00a0 Both of LG Chem&#8217;s batteries needed to be replaced and BYD&#8217;s battery is suffering from excessive deterioration.\u00a0 Redflow, producer of the zinc-bromide ZCELL, is not a very large company but has a great deal of experience making batteries for telecommunications and other purposes and I never expected them to have the multiple setbacks their home battery has experienced.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, purchasing from a large and\/or experienced battery manufacturer is no guarantee of problem-free operation.\u00a0 But a large, financially sound organization is unlikely to go under if they have a bad run of batteries and can generally be prodded into following Australian Consumer Law so they&#8217;ll replace or repair faulty home batteries.<\/p>\n<h2>Round Trip Efficiencies<\/h2>\n<p>Here is a table showing the round trip efficiencies for 9 of the batteries.\u00a0 This is what percentage of energy put into a battery can be taken out again.\u00a0 For 8 it only shows the DC to DC efficiency.\u00a0 Batteries charge and discharge using DC power but our homes use AC, so in actual use the round trip efficiencies will be significantly worse.\u00a0 The one exception is the Tesla Powerwall 2 which has an AC to AC round trip efficiency of just over 90%.\u00a0 This is an excellent result given that Tesla&#8217;s official figure is 88% and when my boss, Finn, tested his Powerwall 2 he only got a figure of around 85%.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36945 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/roundtrip.png\" alt=\"Lifetime round-trip efficiency of solar batteries\" width=\"884\" height=\"508\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/roundtrip.png 884w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/roundtrip-300x172.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/roundtrip-768x441.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 884px) 100vw, 884px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Samsung AIO has an excellent result for DC to DC efficiency, while the BYD B-Box does very well.\u00a0 Because the Redflow ZCELL is zinc-bromide and not lithium it does much worse than all the others, but has the advantage that its capacity won&#8217;t deteriorate over time.<\/p>\n<h2>Home Batteries Aren&#8217;t Getting Cheaper<\/h2>\n<p>The report has a table showing wholesale battery prices have hardly budged for around 3 years now:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36947 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_price_history.png\" alt=\"Wholesale prices for lithium-ion solar battery products\" width=\"1087\" height=\"795\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_price_history.png 1087w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_price_history-300x219.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_price_history-1024x749.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/battery_price_history-768x562.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1087px) 100vw, 1087px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>They don&#8217;t actually give the names of the batteries, so detective work is required if you want to determine which is which.<\/p>\n<p>The report mentions capacity constraints for battery manufacturers as a reason for the flat lining of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/comparison-table\/\">solar battery prices<\/a>, but there are two other factors that are probably of greater importance to Australians:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The Australian dollar is 11% weaker than 2 years ago and all lithium battery packs, as well as Redflow&#8217;s ZCELL zinc-bromide battery, are made overseas.<\/li>\n<li>By increasing demand, South Australia&#8217;s large battery subsidy may have contributed to manufacturers deciding to delay competing on price.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Another reason, likely to be the most important of all, is the Battery Test Centre has shown it&#8217;s obviously very bloody difficult to make reliable home batteries.\u00a0 Even giant companies like LG Chem, BYD, and Tesla haven&#8217;t been able to provide the test centre with systems that are failure free and overall the tested battery systems have proven to be about as reliable as a Swiss cheese condom.<\/p>\n<p>While these big companies have all benefited from dramatic declines in costs &#8212; large electric car manufacturers now paying around $150 per kilowatt-hour for lithium battery cells &#8212; I assume they&#8217;ve all been stung by how difficult it is to actually get them to work reliably in a home battery system and have kept prices high to help cover the costs of massive failure rates.<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#en-36481-2' id='enref-36481-2' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(36481)'>2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<h2>3rd Round Of Testing Coming Soon<\/h2>\n<p>The Canberra Battery Test Centre has announced they will test another 8 batteries and this will be under way by the time their next report is available, which &#8212; according to my calculations &#8212; should be in 2 months plus or minus 4 months.<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#en-36481-3' id='enref-36481-3' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(36481)'>3<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 The batteries will be:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36951 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/newbats.jpg\" alt=\"Upcoming solar battery testing\" width=\"489\" height=\"282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/newbats.jpg 489w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/newbats-300x173.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 489px) 100vw, 489px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The one at the top of the list is a sodium nickel battery, which is interesting as it operates at an internal temperature of 280 degrees.\u00a0 I guess this means it will work just fine in a heatwave.\u00a0 All the other batteries are lithium, but the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/zenaji-aeon-battery\/\">Zenaji Aeon<\/a> is a lithium-titanate (LTO) battery; which is a type they haven&#8217;t tried out before.<\/p>\n<h2>Things Should Be Better Now<\/h2>\n<p>The performance of the 18 tested batteries has been nearly as miserable as the history of Ireland<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#en-36481-4' id='enref-36481-4' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(36481)'>4<\/a><\/sup>. With only 3 out of 18 batteries actually working as they are supposed to, it definitely gives the impression you&#8217;d have to be nuttier than Mr Peanut&#8217;s family jewels to buy one.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately &#8212; while I still recommend extreme caution when buying a battery &#8212; there are a couple of reasons not to be completely pessimistic about the chances of a home battery system actually working:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\u00a0Battery testing started way back in September 2016 and battery manufacturers have put a lot of effort into improving their products since then.\u00a0 They obviously were very bad at this, as the reliability of batteries in the second round of testing that started a little over 2 years ago was still crap, but while progress on reliability may be stupidly slow, it is occurring.<\/li>\n<li>Battery manufacturers who are in it for the long haul have shown a commitment to replacing faulty battery systems.\u00a0 Or at least they have when they&#8217;re installed in a professional battery test centre.\u00a0 Hopefully you&#8217;ll get a similar level of service in your own home.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Another good reason for optimism is, at some point, home battery prices will come down.\u00a0 It&#8217;s inevitable given the low and falling cost of battery cells.\u00a0 Some other good news is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/vpp-comparison\/\">Virtual Power Plants<\/a> that aren&#8217;t complete rip offs may soon arrive, or may even be available now, and these could allow batteries to start to begin to make economic sense for homes and businesses.\u00a0 Fingers crossed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/comparison-table\/\">solar batteries<\/a> will actually be able to pay for themselves in a typical Australian home soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Good news!\u00a0 The Canberra Battery Test Centre have released their 7th report.\u00a0 I admit I&#8217;m a little behind in reporting this because it wasn&#8217;t released this month, or last month, or even the month before that.\u00a0 It came out all the way back in September.\u00a0 But it&#8217;s their fault I&#8217;m so late writing about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":36986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battery-storage","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Canberra Battery Test Centre&#039;s 7th Report: 83% Faulty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Of the 18 solar battery systems tested so far only 7 didn&#039;t need to be repaired, replaced, or buried at midnight under a crossroad.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Canberra Battery Test Centre&#039;s 7th Report: 83% Faulty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Of the 18 solar battery systems tested so far only 7 didn&#039;t need to be repaired, replaced, or buried at midnight under a crossroad.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-03T00:08:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ronald Brakels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BrakelsRonald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ronald Brakels\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d0ce1779b3f5cb67cb4f146732af2fc7\"},\"headline\":\"The Canberra Battery Test Centre&#8217;s 7th Report: 83% Faulty\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-03T00:08:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/\"},\"wordCount\":3374,\"commentCount\":44,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Battery Storage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/\",\"name\":\"The Canberra Battery Test Centre's 7th Report: 83% Faulty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-03T00:08:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"Of the 18 solar battery systems tested so far only 7 didn't need to be repaired, replaced, or buried at midnight under a crossroad.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/batt-test-7.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":628,\"caption\":\"Only 3 batteries passes the testing without issue: Sony Fortelion, Samsung AIO, and Pylontech. 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