{"id":7931,"date":"2016-11-02T13:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T03:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=7931"},"modified":"2018-01-18T13:41:08","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T03:11:08","slug":"sonnen-battery-beat-tesla-bends-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sonnen-battery-beat-tesla-bends-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sonnen Battery: Expensive & Warranty Unclear"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"a

The lovely looking Sonnen Battery. Don’t ever put one in your living room. That would be silly.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sonnen<\/a> is a German company who have been making home batteries longer than Tesla.\u00a0 They were originally known as sonnenBatterie but shortened their name and called their battery system that.\u00a0 Its full name in Australia is the sonnenBatterie eco.<\/p>\n

Their system is 100% made in Germany using 100% made in Japan batteries and their inverters appear to be 100% made in either Spain<\/a> or Bulgaria<\/a>.\u00a0 All other components are 100% made in whatever countries they were made in.<\/p>\n

It is a modular, lithium iron1<\/a><\/sup> phosphate system that uses 2 kilowatt-hour<\/a> battery packs that slot in to provide from 2 to 16 kilowatt-hours of energy storage.\u00a0 Its continuous power output varies with the number of modules and ranges from 1.5 to 3 kilowatts<\/a> for single phase<\/a> systems or 1.5 to 3.3 kilowatts for three phase<\/a>.\u00a0 Systems with 4 or more kilowatt-hours of storage are roughly the size of a refrigerator, but not as deep.<\/p>\n

The sonnenBatterie requires indoor installation and is not suited for off-grid use.\u00a0 Sonnen says they will make a back up module available from the middle of next year that will give it the ability to provide power during a blackout.\u00a0 How much this feature will cost has not been announced.<\/p>\n

Its warranty is one of the best available for a lithium-ion battery system.\u00a0 It lasts for the first of 10 years or 10,000 cycles.\u00a0 For the warranty to end within 10 years it would have to be cycled more than 2.7 times a day.<\/p>\n

The sonnenBattery eco is not cheap.\u00a0 The retail cost of a 2 kilowatt-hour unit may be around $6,000 and the cost of each additional 2 kilowatt-hours of battery storage are likely to be around $2,900.\u00a0 A 6 kilowatt-hour system could cost a household around $11,800.\u00a0 That includes GST but not installation.\u00a0 The good news is it is an all in one system and can be installed without the need to purchase additional equipment, so its expense compared to other systems may not be as great as it seems.<\/p>\n

SonnenBattery Vital Statistics<\/h2>\n

I grabbed an image showing some details of their battery system off Sonnen’s Australian website:<\/p>\n

\"Information

Information on the sonnenBatterie from their Australian site. (Image credit: Sonnen)<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to grabbing stuff off the internet, I also talked to a representative of Sonnen at the All Energy Conference in Melbourne earlier this month to get some juicy details on the system.\u00a0 I’ve forgotten his name, so I’m just going to call him Bob.<\/p>\n

Company History<\/h2>\n

Bob told me Sonnen had been making battery systems for around 8 years.<\/p>\n

But oddly enough, the internet tells me<\/a> they were founded in 2010, which means they could only have been making battery systems for around 6 years.\u00a0 But that’s okay.\u00a0 We all slip up and make little mistakes like this every now and then.<\/p>\n

Bob also told me Sonnen was the first company in the world to develop domestic storage products.<\/p>\n

Because the word domestic more or less means house and because off-grid houses have been around since before 2010, I don’t think that’s actually correct.\u00a0 But I knew he meant on-grid storage.\u00a0 Given the context it was a perfectly cromulent<\/a> thing to say.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/cromulent.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

And they did beat Tesla to home battery storage.<\/p>\n

Sonnen Has Sold A Lot Of Systems<\/h2>\n

Then Bob told me Sonnen has sold over 20,000 systems and 13,000 of them were in Germany alone.<\/p>\n

But that’s probably not correct.<\/p>\n

On the Sonnen website it says they only manged to ship 10,000<\/a> by the middle of February this year.\u00a0 They also say they shipped 2,600 units in the second quarter of this year and less than half that in the first.\u00a0 So unless sales were absolutely gangbusters over the third quarter it seems unlikely they could have sold over 6,100 systems to hit the 20,000 figure by early this month.<\/p>\n

You know, I’m starting to think there’s a pattern emerging with regard to Bob’s communication.<\/p>\n

Stick It Inside<\/h2>\n

The sonnenBatterie is made for indoor installation.\u00a0 An outdoor enclosure will be available in the future, but Bob told me an indoor location is preferable, as it will protect the system from extremes of heat and cold and extend the life of the batteries.<\/p>\n

Temperature Range<\/h2>\n

On the datasheet I have it says its ambient temperature range is 5 to 40 degrees Celsius.\u00a0 This refers to the local air temperature.<\/p>\n

I checked the maximum temperature with Bob and he confirmed it was 40 degrees.\u00a0 Interestingly, the sonnenBatterie systems sold in the United states have operating temperature from 5 to 35 degrees Celsius.\u00a0 I presume Sonnen bumped up the operating temperature to cope with Australian conditions.<\/p>\n

Weight<\/h2>\n

The SonnenBatterie is heavy compared to other lithium-ion systems.\u00a0 They start at 53kg for a 2 kilowatt-hour system and 4 kilowatt-hours weighs 93kg.\u00a0 Every additional two kilowatt-hours after that adds 27kg.\u00a0 This means, per usable kilowatt-hour, a 6 kilowatt-hour sonnenBatterie is considerably heavier than the original Tesla Powerwall and more than twice as heavy as an LG Chem RESU6.5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Size<\/h2>\n

All units have the same width of 64cm and depth of 22cm, but their heights range from 70cm to 184cm depending on their capacity.\u00a0 So the smallest 2 kilowatt-hour system is 11cm less high than the average door is wide and is as wide as the average door is wide if it was 17cm less wide.\u00a0 And it is not quite as deep as Ren and Stimpy<\/a>.\u00a0 It is possible to hang it on a wall.\u00a0 You probably don’t want to hang the larger units on a wall as they can quite literally weigh a quarter of a tonne.<\/p>\n

Double Or Triple Up For More Storage<\/h2>\n

If 16 kilowatt-hours is not enough it is possible to connect up to three units to provide 48 kilowatt-hours of storage.<\/p>\n

Update (8 Nov):\u00a0 Sonnen has informed me there is no limit to the number of units that can be installed, so more than three is fine.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Back Up Capability Is Coming<\/h2>\n

Sonnen is planning to make a back up module available from the middle of next year that will enable the sonnenBatterie to provide power during a blackout.\u00a0 While no price has been given, I assume it will be a significant extra expense.\u00a0 Bob said it won’t function as an uninterruptible power source and will need about 2 seconds to activate during a grid failure.<\/p>\n

Update (8 Nov):\u00a0 Sonnen has told me they are no longer planning to have a separate backup module.\u00a0 Instead they will offer a hybrid version of the sonnenBatterie eco.\u00a0 I have been told, “The hybrid will offer UPS, back-up and off-grid capability. The hybrid versus the standard AC coupled unit will not be a huge a price jump, I don\u2019t have any figure yet but it will be less than the backup module was.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Battery Chemistry Is Lithium Iron Phosphate<\/h2>\n

The batteries in the SonnenBattery are lithium iron phosphate<\/a> and made by Sony in Japan.\u00a0 This gives them a considerably higher cycle life than other lithium-ion chemistries and they are very resistant to thermal runaway.\u00a0 This is a technical term battery manufacturers use instead of, “Crikey!\u00a0 It’s on fire!”\u00a0 But note that if you expose it to sufficient fire, it will catch on fire, so don’t do that.<\/p>\n

Warranty: 10 Years Or 10,000 Cycles<\/h2>\n

The durability of lithium iron2<\/a><\/sup> phosphate batteries, as well as careful management, gives it an impressive warranty of 10 years or 10,000 cycles, whichever comes first.\u00a0 This is obviously a useful warranty if you have an application that requires cycling it multiple times a day.<\/p>\n

But a warranty is only useful if it clearly states how much degradation in battery capacity it allows for.\u00a0 I asked Bob about this and he said:<\/p>\n

“After 10 years, zero degradation.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I interrupted him at this point by making a surprised noise similar to the sound a giant chicken makes when choking to death on a slightly smaller chicken.\u00a0 He went on to say:<\/p>\n

“There is no degradation for the first 10,000 cycles. You get degradation when you start pushing 20 years, down to about 80%.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After hearing this, my guess was they hadn’t actually discovered a method of holding entropy in abeyance for a decade.\u00a0 Instead, I assumed that since Sony makes 1.2 kilowatt-hour lithium iron phosphate batteries, every 2 kilowatt-hours of usable storage in a sonnenBatterie was actually a total of 2.4 kilowatt-hours of batteries and they would degrade, but by less than the 17% that would be required to get them below 2 kilowatt-hours of usable storage by the time the warranty was over.\u00a0 And while not quite as impressive as defeating entropy, it is still an impressive result considering those batteries may have been cycled 10,000 times by that point.<\/p>\n

Sonnen’s Warranties Don’t Support This Claim<\/h2>\n

For some reason, no doubt due to my innate lack of faith in humanity, I felt the need to check the sonnenBatterie warranty online.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Sonnen’s Australian site has no link to a warranty.\u00a0 That is a bit of an oversight.\u00a0 Only idiots would buy a battery system without being able to read the warranty first and appealing to the idiot market probably isn’t something you want to do3<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0 You’ll get people keeping beer inside the battery case because it looks like a fridge and sooner or later there is going to be a horrible accident.<\/p>\n

But Sonnen did have warranties on their German and American sites and both case the warranty definitely allows for degradation.\u00a0 In Germany the warranty applies if the battery declines below 80% of capacity and in the US it applies if it falls below 70%.<\/p>\n

I suppose it is possible that Sonnen is sending us the good stuff, keeping mediocre systems in Germany, and sending crap ones to the US, but that seems unlikely to me.<\/p>\n

Because conditions here are more extreme than in Germany I would expect the warranty to only apply if the capacity falls below 70%, as in the US.<\/p>\n

Update (Nov 8):\u00a0 Sonnen has made the warranty for the sonnenBatterie available on its Australian site and it can be downloaded here<\/a>.\u00a0 It confirms that its warranty is for 10 years or 10,000 full cycles, which ever comes first.\u00a0 It does not give a set figure for the amount of battery capacity loss, but states it does not cover, “normal wear and tear”.<\/em><\/p>\n

Your Internet Connection May Affect Your Warranty<\/h2>\n

The sonnenBattery is designed to be connected to the internet and will communicate with a server in Germany that ensures it performs all its functions efficiently.\u00a0 If your internet goes down it may affect your warranty.\u00a0 This is obviously a concern in Australia as our government has made it clear we don’t deserve good internet.\u00a0 Whether or not this will be a condition in the Australian warranty, I do not know, as Sonnen apparently doesn’t want me to read it.\u00a0 But the US warranty states:<\/p>\n

“As a condition to this limited Factory Warranty, sonnenBatterie requires continuous online access to the Covered Product via internet connection. This Factory Warranty requires that the Covered Product will be properly connected to the internet through your internet provider and expressly excludes any defects resulting from your acts or omissions that prevent sonnenBatterie from accessing the Covered Product online as may be required for software upload or performance data download.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update (Nov 8):\u00a0 Sonnen has made the warranty available on its Australian site and it states it does not cover any sonnenBatterie that is not connected to the internet.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Sonnen’s Battery Is Pretty Smart<\/h2>\n

Bob showed me the fancy little app on his phone that let him control the sonnenBattery he had installed at home.\u00a0 I was quite simply amazed.\u00a0 Did you know that phones can have moving pictures on them these days?<\/p>\n

The Sonnen battery acts intelligently to minimize grid electricity use, taking into account weather, what it has learned about your electricity consumption habits, and electricity prices if you are on a time-of-use tariff.<\/p>\n

You Will Probably Cycle It Less Than 1.8 Times A Day<\/h2>\n

In the process of showing me his app, Bob mentioned he cycled his battery an average of 1.8 times a day.\u00a0 That is a lot.\u00a0 Anyone who cycles their battery that much probably hasn’t installed a large enough solar power system.\u00a0 I asked Bob about this and it turned out he only had a 3 kilowatt rooftop system.\u00a0 That is crazy small for someone with enough money to buy batteries.<\/p>\n

In far too many places in Australia, restrictions on rooftop solar make it difficult to install more than 5 kilowatts.\u00a0 But if you are going to buy batteries you really need to go as large as you reasonably can.\u00a0 This is because the solar power system is the cost effective part of the setup, while the batteries are the expensive part that costs you money instead of saving it.\u00a0 The larger your rooftop solar system, the less likely you are to dip into your battery storage during the day.\u00a0 This reduces the amount you cycle them and makes your expensive batteries last longer.<\/p>\n

You’ll also be exporting more clean electricity which, unlike batteries<\/a> at this point, will help the environment.<\/p>\n

Do Not Be Misled By A Package Deal<\/h2>\n

Some sonnenBatteries are being sold as part of package deals that include rooftop solar installation.\u00a0 And that is all fine and dandy.\u00a0 But it is important not to be misled by salespeople who use the cost effectiveness of rooftop solar to disguise the fact that battery storage<\/a> at the moment will only cost you money.<\/p>\n

The Price<\/h2>\n

Bob gave me a wholesale price that, after being adjusted for retailer margin and GST, may come to roughly $6,000 for a two kilowatt-hour unit and around $2,900 for each additional 2 kilowatt-hours of storage.\u00a0 This means a 6 kilowatt-hour system would cost around $11,800.\u00a0 Fortunately, it is ready to be installed without any additional equipment and so the installation cost should be low.<\/p>\n

Batteries Don’t Pay For Themselves Yet<\/h2>\n

I have written about many different battery systems and not yet have I had the pleasure of being able to say, “Yes!\u00a0 These batteries will pay for themselves!\u00a0 Go get some!”4<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 And this isn’t that time either.\u00a0 I won’t go into the reasons why they don’t pay for themselves yet, but you are interested in the details you can read another article<\/a> I wrote.\u00a0 The explanation I give towards the end is still valid.<\/p>\n

Sonnen Hasn’t Provided Good Information<\/h2>\n

The sonnenBatterie’s 10 year or 10,000 cycle warranty makes it appear to be a reliable system, but without access to its warranty document I can’t accurately compare it to other systems.\u00a0 I have sent an email to Sonnen asking them to clear up some details and if they get back to me I will update the information in this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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