{"id":9069,"date":"2017-01-20T17:24:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T06:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=9069"},"modified":"2024-09-05T08:42:11","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T23:12:11","slug":"australian-premium-solar-turn-30-year-warranty-one-year-warranty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/australian-premium-solar-turn-30-year-warranty-one-year-warranty\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Premium Solar Turn A 30 Year Warranty Into A One Year Warranty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ASP

Australian Premium Solar. Not made in Australia and not Premium. (Screenshot from now-deleted APS Youtube video: Caution-tape is mine)<\/p><\/div>\n

Australian Premium Solar<\/a> is a company that sells solar panels with a warranty that is truly exceptional and sets them apart from all other panels on the market.<\/p>\n

In the past I wrote about Solarwatt<\/a>‘s extremely impressive 30 year product warranty<\/a>, but Australian Premium Solar, or APS, has managed to break new ground in a completely different direction.\u00a0\u00a0 They claim their panels have 12 year product warranties and 30 year performance warranties, but provided the panels are treated in exactly the same way as the vast majority of newly installed solar panels in Australia are, then APS can declare their warranty void after only one year.<\/p>\n

That is really quite astounding and not in a good way.<\/p>\n

Australian Premium Solar Panels Are Not Made In Australia<\/h2>\n

Before I go on to explain the details of why their warranty is so worthless, there is something I would like to make very clear.\u00a0 Despite their name, Australian Premium Solar panels are not made in Australia1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

There is only one manufacturer of solar panels in this country and that is Tindo Solar<\/a>.\u00a0 They definitely have nothing to do with APS and they’d probably be horribly upset with me if I suggested there was a connection.<\/p>\n

On their website<\/a> APS states their panels are manufactured in China and it’s a good thing they do this.\u00a0 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission<\/a> (ACCC) takes a dim view of anyone who claims their panels are manufactured in Australia when they’re not.\u00a0 In 2014 they fined<\/a> the installer Euro Solar<\/a> and its Sole Director $145,000 for posting false customer reviews and for telling customers their “Australia Solar Panel”2<\/a><\/sup> was made in Australia.<\/p>\n

But They Give The Impression They Make Panels<\/h2>\n

This Australian Premium Solar video shows their office in Acacia Ridge in Brisbane and shots of their “factory” where they used to claim to make solar panels.<\/p>\n

[Update 29th of January:\u00a0 A week after this article was published this video was made private.\u00a0 Apparently APS doesn’t want people looking at it.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NVDLPfYmLk0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Or you can watch this very similar video from the Reoo<\/a> solar laminator company that includes footage of Ian “Chainsaw” McFarlane<\/a>\u00a03<\/a><\/sup>, the former Australian Minister for Industry and Science4<\/a><\/sup>, visiting the factory:<\/p>\n

[Update 29 of January:\u00a0 And a week after the article was published this Reeoo video has been removed from Youtube.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KhjjupdAqeg<\/p>\n

In both videos you can see someone who is apparently soldering a busbar onto a solar cell by hand.\u00a0 This is not how solar cells are made in countries that have a minimum wage of over $17 an hour.\u00a0 It’s not how they’re made in China either.\u00a0 In both the developed and developing worlds they have machines that do that now.\u00a0 But apparently Australian Premium Solar doesn’t fit in either category5<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n

You can also see them using a Reoo solar laminating machine.\u00a0 It can laminate a total of 2 panels at one time.\u00a0 It can’t even manage 5 like this bad boy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Between their hand soldering and their double laminator, they look like they have the capacity to produce several solar panels a day.\u00a0 Those shots of a warehouse full of boxes?\u00a0 If there were solar panels inside them, I’ll eat my hat<\/a> if they were\u00a0made in that factory.<\/p>\n

The entire attempt by Australian Premium Solar to give the impression they were producing solar panels in Australia was, quite frankly, absurd.\u00a0 This video of the Tindo Solar factory<\/a> shows what a genuine, small scale, solar panel production line looks like.\u00a0 And below is how Jinko Solar, currently the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels, was making them in China at about at the same time Ian McFarlane visited Australian Premium Solar:<\/p>\n