EEVblog 1719 - 75kWh Home Storage Battery Expansion

[EEVblog]

Expanding the AERL home storage battery from 25kWh to 75kWh!
Also replacing the 5kW Deye hybrid inverter with an 8kW Solis hybrid inverter.
And installing a changeover switch to power most of the house from the Backup port in the new inverter.
https://www.aerl.com.au/products/life2-battery
https://www.thomsonenergy.com.au/
Solis s6-eh1p8k-l-plus-au
https://www.solisinverters.au/uploads/files/202506/Solis_Manual_S6-EH1P(3-8)K-L-PLUS_AU_V1,1(20250530).pdf

[EEVblog]

Something is wrong with the new Solis setup. I set a timer to charge the battery at 180A during my free 3 hour energy window, and the battery is discharging.
(EV is charging at 7kW)

[antoniopetito]

Hi Dave,

What are the steps on getting purchasing battery storage, getting it installed and getting the rebate? I presume you buy the batteries and inverter yourself and just call a sparky who specialises in the solar/battery storage field?

I’m in Melbourne, and found this mob who is a retailer for AERL, so my guess is to have a chat with them.  https://www.dpa.energy/

Curious what you did so I don’t end up getting dodgy.

Thanks.

Kind regards,
Antonio

[EEVblog]

Fixed

[EEVblog]

Hi Dave,
What are the steps on getting purchasing battery storage, getting it installed and getting the rebate? I presume you buy the batteries and inverter yourself and just call a sparky who specialises in the solar/battery storage field?
I’m in Melbourne, and found this mob who is a retailer for AERL, so my guess is to have a chat with them.  https://www.dpa.energy/
Curious what you did so I don’t end up getting dodgy.

It needs to be an authorised dealer and installer to get the rebate. There is a lot of paperwork involved on their end.
If you want AERL contact Peter at AERL direct and he will quote you for the system and install, minus the rebate, that's what I did. He will arrange an approved installer like Thomson Energy that did mine.

[EEVblog]

[dietert1]

Great contribution, thanks.
Very interesting also the Deye inverter teardown.
As we had serious supply breaks recently and our gasoline generator is a mess, we are right now investigating the solution you show. We already have a photovoltaic generator of 4 kWp, so we will need batteries and the hybrid inverter. The turnover switch has been there for years in order to supply the house from the gasoline generator.
Our Millmax 3000 supplies up to 2800 W and once it runs, the existing photovoltaic converters kick in and we can use most of our stuff. Of course not everything at the same time. Our supply from ENEL is 240 VAC up to 64 A = 15.36 kW and we don't pay any consumption due to the fotovoltaic generator and the strong brasilian sun, even when using air conditioning.
The gasoline generator was R$ 1600 (about US$ 320), while the inverter solution will be about R$ 15 000 (about US$ 3000) starting with just one 4.8 kW battery pack. There is huge price difference and governments need to act in order to ease this situation.

Regards, Dieter

[EEVblog]

An interesting update: every house in my small street now has a storage battery.

[fastbike]

Interesting that you get the battery for free.
Although a shame you do not like HV batteries as the cable runs then limit where you can position them.
As a comparison across the ditch I have 68kWh of storage at 400V DC (nominal), positioned 17m away from the 10kW inverter and connected with 10mm^2 cable. This is more than adequate for the max current of 30A.
And a great deal cheaper than a few meters of 70mm^2 cable.

[dietert1]

We also got an offer for a 10 kWh 400 V battery, WEG SBW CB100 W00. A 100 kg beast and pretty expensive.
Don't have the numbers, but they claim a better inverter efficiency as they avoid the transformer (up converter for driving grid, down converter for battery charger). It does include filter inductors though.

Regards, Dieter

[EEVblog]

Interesting that you get the battery for free.

Technically that's not how it works, but that's the way it was just done on the invoice. The rebate is $XXX/1kWh of installed battery capacity.
It's not like you can just claim the batteries themselves for free.

Although a shame you do not like HV batteries as the cable runs then limit where you can position them.
As a comparison across the ditch I have 68kWh of storage at 400V DC (nominal), positioned 17m away from the 10kW inverter and connected with 10mm^2 cable. This is more than adequate for the max current of 30A.
And a great deal cheaper than a few meters of 70mm^2 cable.

In my case I had no option where to put the batteries but where they are.

[fastbike]

Technically that's not how it works, but that's the way it was just done on the invoice. The rebate is $XXX/1kWh of installed battery capacity.
It's not like you can just claim the batteries themselves for free.

Still sounds like a sweet deal - enjoy

With the AC coupled Enphase shown on the Solis App, is that actually connected to the inverter (through a generator port or similar) ? Or is it coupled via a meter input ?

I have a separate 5kW Enphase installation on my garage roof which is 30m away from the house - currently it just gets exported but I'm looking at how I can get the Solis (S6-EH3P10K-H) to figure out what is happening on the Enphase output and use it for battery charging etc. My installer did not know if it was possible.

[Brumby]

If you want AERL contact Peter at AERL direct and he will quote you for the system and install, minus the rebate, that's what I did. He will arrange an approved installer like Thomson Energy that did mine.

@EEVblog

I'm looking to get solar and battery on my place ... so I made contact today.  Peter is apparently on holiday at the moment, but I have shared details and will wait to see what ensues.

My home is on 3 phase, so I'm interested to see how that goes...

My target is to get the installation completed before the end of April, because that is when the rebate gets seriously restructured.  After then, heading up to the 50kWh mark becomes far less appealing.

Rebate (estimate) for 50kWh battery:

Up to 30th April, 2026:	$15,120
From 1st May, 2026:	$6,264

What a difference a day makes!

[EEVblog]

I'm looking to get solar and battery on my place ... so I made contact today.  Peter is apparently on holiday at the moment, but I have shared details and will wait to see what ensues.
My home is on 3 phase, so I'm interested to see how that goes...
My target is to get the installation completed before the end of April, because that is when the rebate gets seriously restructured.  After then, heading up to the 50kWh mark becomes far less appealing.
Rebate (estimate) for 50kWh battery:

Up to 30th April, 2026:	$15,120
From 1st May, 2026:	$6,264

What a difference a day makes!

Yup, there has been massive uptake. Hurry indeed!
3 phase shouldn't be a problem, just use a 3 phase inverter.

[Brumby]

The clock is ticking and there are a lot of people moving on maximising the rebate especially for big batteries.

The long and the short of it is that the number of installers that are able to take bookings for jobs to be completed before 1st May has plummeted.  Two of the installers I approached advised they would close off their books last Friday and others indicated similar pressures.

In speaking with AERL, I picked the wrong time of year.  Several factors combined to bring a difficulty in getting a design and quote together before other alternatives became unavailable.  The only indication I was able to get was a very rough ball park on cost - a shooting from the hip "feel" as it were - and that was getting into uncomfortable territory.

I needed to make a call or risk missing out on over $8k of rebates.

So I did:  My solar journey

[Brumby]

I did get a quote which included the AERL battery and a DEYE inverter solution, but it was over my budget by an amount that was not attainable.

I was a little disappointed, but the financial imperative left no room for me to move.

[EEVblog]

I did get a quote which included the AERL battery and a DEYE inverter solution, but it was over my budget by an amount that was not attainable.
I was a little disappointed, but the financial imperative left no room for me to move.

Bummer.
Since the battery install my bill has only been the daily connection cost.
The support for energy trading on Amber isn't released yet.

[Kjelt]

The batteries are outside? That would be great but does it ever freeze in your place? Here we then need additional heating installed, completely waterproof casing for moist etc. Adding up to the cost, to a point a battery cost even selfinstalled will financially not break even within ten years, the lifetime of the system.

[EEVblog]

The batteries are outside? That would be great but does it ever freeze in your place?

Freeze? What does that word mean? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Sydney#Climate_data

[voltsandjolts]

Those minimum temperatures look nice
Anything above 22C and I'm like...

[Kjelt]

Freeze? What does that word mean? 

Ok then, you probably have more problems with not overheating them 

[Black Phoenix]

Those minimum temperatures look nice
Anything above 22C and I'm like...

Thank god I'm not the only one. But of course I had to choose a region (Southern China) where not only is hot but also humid/rainy as hell in the summer, together with regular typhoons...

Perfect contrast of a Mediterranean weather I lived for 35 years.

[Brumby]

The batteries are outside? That would be great but does it ever freeze in your place?

Freeze? What does that word mean? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Sydney#Climate_data

It's really rare to get down to 0ºC in these parts.  So much so that if there is a report of temperatures around 1ºC, we might go outside to see if water in a bucket has frozen - and if it has, then that's a BIG event!

It's been years since I've had any ice (more like a heavy frost) on the windscreen of my car - and even when there has been, it's gone with a little windscreen washer action and two swipes of the wiper blades.

[Brumby]

We have to think about all the black ice videos, jokes and memes that people share.  I't just not a thing here.

[EEVblog]

Power went out on the weekend (extremely rare in Sydney).
Only noticed because I happened to be looking at the pool and noticed the pool heater was off when it should have been on with the timer.
The internet had failed 20min earlier and got a message that the there was a network power failure somewhere so just assumed it was the power to a nearby HFC amp or whatever. Didn't even occur to me to check if our house power had failed as well.
The battery just kept on ticking.