Finn's Sungrow Inverters Review & Verdict
Finn Peacock has been a Chartered Electrical Engineer since 1998, and is ex-CSIRO
In my opinion, a solar power system that will be on your roof for 30+ years deserves the best inverter you can afford. But if you want to save the ~$1,000 premium that a high-end inverter brand such as Fronius will command, then my favourite budget inverter brand is Sungrow - although Goodwe are snapping at their heels.
Sungrow solar inverters are reliable and well supported in Australia with excellent warranties.
Sungrow hybrid inverters when paired with the impressive Sungrow batteries are an excellent way to get home storage for thousands of dollars less than a Tesla Powerwall and separate solar inverter.
Sungrow Inverters: Pros & Cons
- Excellent value.
- Well supported with local office and 10+ years Australian history.
- Good monitoring platform.
- Capable hybrids with AC coupling available for more solar on backup circuits.
- Well regarded amongst installers.
- Tech support can be patchy with some script readers in place of actual technicians.
- Failure rate and subsequent warranty work has made some installers gun-shy. (These issues can both be attributed somewhat to stellar growth)
- Plugged connections can be fiddly to terminate, especially when hybrids require very large supply cables which must be broken down into small cables.
- Hybrid back up circuits are limited to their rating regardless of if there is grid or no grid. The inverter doesn’t have a higher “pass through” rating when grid connected.
- This limited capacity means the backup circuit struggles with high inrush loads such as motors, i.e. household water pressure pumps. (Savvy installers will alleviate this with a changeover switch or contactor)
About Sungrow
Sungrow Customer Service: 1800 786 476
Sungrow Power Supply Co Ltd is a Chinese company that was established in 1997 and operates in several different energy-related niches, including wind power conversion, inverter production for photovoltaic systems and energy storage.
The company says more than 340 GW of Sungrow inverter capacity had been installed worldwide as as at the beginning of 2023. To give a sense of how rapidly the firm's manufacturing capacity has grown in just the last couple of years, 154GW of capacity had been deployed by the end of 2020.
Walking the clean energy talk, Sungrow has also committed to sourcing 100% renewable electricity for its operations by 2028.
Sungrow In Australia
Sungrow has been present in the Australian solar inverter market since 2012. Its Australian operations are based in North Sydney, NSW. So, should you need technical assistance or in case you have any questions about their warranty policies, you can contact Sungrow easily by calling or shooting them an email.
Australian customers can choose from a pretty solid range of solutions, including single-phase and three-phase inverters in the SG series. Sungrow's inverter range also includes hybrid models available in the SH series.
To view specifications and approximate pricing of various Sungrow power conversion products available in Australia, check out the SolarQuotes solar inverter comparison table. For hybrids models, see the hybrid inverter comparison table.
Sungrow Hybrid Inverter Cybersecurity Flaw
While Sungrow has enjoyed signficant success in Australia, it hasn't always been sunshine and puppies for the company. In early January 2020, an engineer based in Brisbane revealed he had identified a series of security flaws in Sungrow's hybrid inverter, model SH5K-20. In March 2020, Sungrow announced they had shipped a firmware update that fixed the flaws.
Sungrow Warranty Notes
Sungrow generally offers a standard product warranty period of five years from the date of installation and no more than six years from the manufacturing date of a solar inverter - so that's something worth checking.
However, in April 2020, the company announced it was offering 10 years’ warranty for some inverter models purchased from 1st April 2020 and installed in Australia. Eligible Sungrow inverter models can be identified here.
If you have problems with your Sungrow inverter, your first port of call is the original installer. Despite what some might say, if the installation company is still in business then they are the ones liable for the repair/replacement of a faulty inverter assuming it is still within its warranty period. If your original installer is no longer in business or is uncontactable, you'll need to lodge a warranty claim with Sungrow.
In order to do so, Sungrow advise you must arrange an installer to test the solar inverter to determine if it is faulty. Sungrow can help you find someone in your area if you call them on the number listed above. If a fault is confirmed, Sungrow will work with the installer to arrange a replacement inverter. Notably - you are not compensated for the out of pocket cost of the initial testing.
My Recommendation
Given the quality of the company's products and support along with generally positive feedback from installers and customers over years (you can read Sungrow customer reviews below), Sungrow is currenly listed as a SolarQuotes recommended solar inverter brand.
In the 2023 SQ Installers' Choice Awards, Sungrow took out the top spot for best value inverter for the third year, and second place in a new category, best after-sales support.
If you're an owner of one of the company's products, we invite you to share your experience with others. You can add your Sungrow solar inverter review by clicking the "leave a review" button at the top of this page.
Sungrow has 10 solar inverters in our database
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Sungrow Reviews (3059)
Show Most Relevant reviews from All time
- 5 star 2341
- 4 star 549
- 3 star 76
- 2 star 29
- 1 star 64
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16 December 2023
08 December 2023
24 November 2023
05 November 2023
I do baby it as I do with my whole system, its installed on the afternoon sun (hot) side of the house, so I’ve added a small shade and a USB fan as I noticed its internal temperature was ‘getting up there’ on a hot day.
Sungrow also has great data which I download each week and populate into a number of spreadsheets to make sure all is working correctly.
11 April 2023
14 February 2023
So far so good. It is working well. Seems to be very high quality. Handy software app. Lots of detail available about energy supply and demand.
We have a 25.6 kwh battery and it is charged in 2-3 hours maximum, often quicker. The inverter and the panels deliver very fast charging.
20 January 2023
As the kit just got installed cannot say anything else at the moment - let's check back on this a year later.
01 January 2023
27 September 2021
26 August 2021
08 July 2021
I'm with Qld's Energex and there is a limit of 5KW export to the grid for single phase, so I'm able to have the pool filter running throughout the day and still export 5KW to the grid. From this size inverter, Energex only allows 7.5 to be processed at any time.
I'm looking forward to the cheaper bills and hope to build up a credit ready for unexpected usage!
** 12 month update ** We've had no electricity bill since installing this product. Excellent service and follow up support when we had a hiccup after six months and the app wouldn't work. Uni Industries followed up with Sungrow on our behalf and undertook some electrical work for $120.
18 May 2021
23 December 2020
10 August 2020
03 November 2017
01 March 2024
The inverter makes a hum during generation. I knew this would happen. It’s probably a little louder than I had expected but I cannot hear it indoors.
17 February 2024
16 February 2024
15 February 2024
14 February 2024
14 February 2024
14 February 2024
11 February 2024
07 February 2024
Inverter and support software are great. I had an issue with the inverter blowing a fuse for the connected battery which had to be replaced with a buzz bar. Took a few days to get someone from the installer to respond to the issue.
The software is easy to use, and they don't lock the features behind a paywall line others do. I have set it up to charge the battery from the grid at certain times, if there isn't enough sun to charge the battery.
01 February 2024
31 January 2024
SH10RT-V112 with 16kw of batteries - in short look elsewhere.
The inverter is located in my garage, no direct sunlight… it overheats and shuts down during heavy use (like when you need it). I reported the matter and got a generic response; basically saying it won’t catch fire (scripted response) I now run with an external fan.
It also cannot cope with appliances turning on, it fails to track the power changes fast enough and ramps down the solar production (we are capped to 1.5 export). Again reported this and they say it’s normal, basically I’m using 6kw grid during peak production. It’s like watching a yo-yo with it flicking between solar and grid.
If Sungrow can’t supply an inverter that can cope with WA regulations on solar export, don’t sell it.
The battery works as expected and if you grid fails it runs as expected.
The install was good, product is poor.
29 January 2024
25 January 2024
16 January 2024
An incentive was offered by Go Green Energy for this review. Learn more here.
15 January 2024