Unassigned Reviews
About Unassigned
For all the reviews posted on this page, Solar Choice was unable to confirm the installer who completed the job based on the information supplied by the customer..
All Reviews
Would it be better than Sungrow?
I've got Sungrow single phase hybrid 10kWt hybrid installed, just to find out that they no longer support BYD batteries, which are at heart of many brands. Besides, I'd never imagined that the only way to control that inverter would be via some website! I am looking for an alternative, and GE seems like a good option as I need 3 MPPTs min. I am not interested in electricity exports, I need local control, not being locked into some brand as with Sungrow, and a silent operation. Is GE for me?
Solar Panel - Jinko
over 40kWh on a clear winter solstice day from 22 panels, even with brainless wiring.
Solar Inverter - Sungrow
Can't trust company that sporadically cuts support for batteries other than own brand and gives no local control of the inverter.
Proceed with caution
This is a review of the unit, not the installer. I am only filling out this field due to the requirement of 50 characters to submit the review.
Heat Pump - Aquatech
We purchased the X6, the units settings are very limited, due to the limitations of the direct user interface, and issues with the 3rd party app (aquatech customer service is aware of this, said the app is buggy, and suggests not to use it) 2 people, 1 shower with a very low flow shower head (4.9 Lpm) Even in summer (Victoria) The unit is only capable of a couple of showers before needing to reheat. The issue with this, is a very strong chance of the unit turning on in the middle of the night/very early morning before morning showers, or during morning showers (6-7am). The unit is very noisy, even though it is supposedly one of the quietest ones. It is not suitable to use the heat pump between 8pm and 8am. Even with windows shut, the unit is easily audible inside the house when running. Neighbours are in close proximity. The control restrictions due to app issues (I have not noticed any "bugs" so far, but the settings are simply incorrect, meaning you cannot change modes), mean that you cannot set timers, or scenes (the 3rd party app terminology for advanced timers). There is no point having multiple modes (eco, standard, hybrid, hybrid+, element), if you cannot even set them to run at different times of the day. You are locked into using only mode via the timer. for us to use this unit effectively, we would ideally be using eco mode during the day, and element only mode (ideally with control of manual trigger points) during the hours where we, and our neighbours are trying to get some sleep. I have contacted Aquatech and found the customer service to be bad, after a couple of emails they now appear to be ignoring us, their first reply admitted the app was not what it is meant to be/advertised to be, and basicallhy said bad luck, deal with it. They responded very, very fast the first time, now it has been a day and half with no response, and a direct question ignored. I contacted the app company (tuya) yesterday, time will tell if they respond, or fix their issue. Aquatech suggested it is unlikely, since they claim to have contacted tuya about the issue, and have not received a response themselves. This unit is marketed as having wifi and app control... but has a 3rd party app that can be used to control multiple other brands products, so would never be ideal, even if it did what it is meant to do. Very regrettable purchase at this stage. I only found this review while looking for ideas, and information, about how to make this thing feasible. The unit itself is not particularly ugly, however once plumbed, it is a definite eyesore (as per the photo). It also has an indented top, so it holds rainwater, which should evaporate at a resonable rate I guess, but seems a very odd choice.
Good price for 6
Good price for 6.6 system including removing old system,, managment so so ,instaling team could not get better , good clean workers .
I have been trying to get the inverter h...
I have been trying to get the inverter hooked to the internet have been chasing this since installation after sales service not the best
Solar Panel - Jinko
Solar Inverter - Growatt
manual can't be understood written in garbled English. verry hard to interpret I don't have any idea of what is going on from the app.
Installation OK; but company gone bust.
Review left 3 years after system installed
At the time of installation all went well. They now appear to have gone out of business. After 18 months the monitoring device failed to operate properly so no redress or support.
Solar Panel -
Pannels all seem to be working well.
Solar Inverter - Sofar
The inverter is working well. The monitoring device only works intermittently and is frequently off line.
Installation Photos
The installers Dom & Mom were easy to wo...
The installers Dom & Mom were easy to work with & performed extremely well. No obstacle was too much to overcome. They were pleasant & very knowledgeable & provided excellent help & advice. I'd highly recommend them.
Heat Pump -
The Emerald Heat Pump has a capacity of 270L & looks very well designed, smart with very clean lines.
Great company, easy to deal with, great price and was very quick to get my charger installed. Crew on the day were very friendly and knew their stuff. Could not be happier
A satisfied Customer
It was easy and Convenient. Starting from Sales to Installation
Solar Panel - Jinko
Solar Inverter -
EGUANA Battery has been nothing but trouble 2023 - 2024
Review left 3 years after system installed
The sales process was efficient. Installers were excellent. Post-installation support was spotty. The installation COMPANY is satisfactory. The battery they choose to install is not good.
Solar Inverter - Enphase
The app/support appears to be working fine now. Had previous problems with our other PV system's Enphase inverter. The app data was totally wacky a couple of years ago. Customer Support not very helpful on a recent problem experienced 10 months ago. Basically told me that customers have just seven (7) calendar days to report an issue or otherwise the "back-end data" disappears. That is not acceptable. Fortunately, this problem has not occurred for 10 months now.
Battery - Eguana
Terrible. Nothing but trouble. Plentiful trouble calls to the installer. Getting no resolution. Battery's effective capacity is nowhere near what they claim. Emails to Eguana's customer service basically says their hands are tied because the battery is manufactured by a third party. That's not acceptable to say to a customer. Even the solar installed has no answers and instructed me to contact the battery company myself. Again, not an acceptable answer. Not happy.
Someone contacted me immediately. Only one company was in your list. Came out the next day, and stated he would shoot me some PDFs so I could learn more and make a better choice. That was Fri morning. I think on Sat I sent an email asking about the PDFs. He sent me 3 recommendations. I looked thru them, but all were not particularly efficient. In reviewing the suggestions he made, I learned of the Reclaim heat pump, which has the highest efficiency. I asked him to quote the reclaim, and have never heard back.
Heat Pump - Reclaim Energy
The installer I went with, not recommended by Solar Choice, but recommended by Reclaim Energy, did a nice neat job of the installation, but ignored the installation manual minimum setback of the condenser and the max bends of the pipes, and seems to have done a switcheroo in that I thought I was ordering the Reclaim SS tank, which is designed for their system, and instead got another one, which has compromises. The Hot Out is not at the top, so the top 1/5 of the tank is wasted. I have to heat it up prior to the hot water in the stratified tank falling low enough to encounter the Hot Out where he plumbed it. Reclaim Energy is confusing on that issue. They list the tank I ended up with in a PDF on their WEB site, with some measurements which do indicate that the HotOut is at the height as plumbed, but then the same table has two other connections at a tank height where only one port exists. The Earthworks Reclaim WEB site has glossy PDFs of versions of the tank I received, each with differing HotOut selections. I am left confused, disappointed, and annoyed. Other than that, it works great! Oh, much less hot water than I used to have. Takes forever running cold to get any warm, wasting water and putting undue stress on my Enviro cycle Poo Farm, which gets sick if too much water flows into it.
Sales process is excellent
Sales process is excellent. Installers are friendly, punctual and tidy on the day. There were no requests for post installation support.
Company closed down and Sonnen are not s...
Review left 3 years after system installed
Company closed down and Sonnen are not supporting their faulty product. Sonnen claim the installer installed incorrectly.
Solar Panel - SolarEdge
Solar Inverter - Sungrow
Failed after 12 months. Has not been repaired by Sonnen after 3 years.
Battery - Sonnen
Inverter failed after 12 months. It has been down for three years and Sonnen are refusing to support the Warranty. Sonnen claim their installer installed the system incorrectly. They only made this statement after 3 years of failing to fix the system. Now the installation company has ceased trading and Sonnen have wiped their hands of the problem. They won’t even respond to emails or phone calls now. I have reported them to the ACCC, and started proceedings through Fair Trade.
Garbage Product. No customer service.
Review left 7 years after system installed
Installers were great. Product sucks. Provides ZERO backup power.
Battery - Eguana
Absolute garbage product. Has had nothing but problems since install. Provides ZERO battery back up. Customer service won't even call us back. We waitind MONTHS for parts that still don't work. Totally useless system.
Paul Carpenter
Review left 5 years after system installed
Paul was recommended by a friend. Turned out to be a very good recommendation.
Solar Inverter - Fronius
Very happy with the inverter so far - no problems in the first five years.
RE: DELTA: An extremely well built product
Review left 3 years after system installed
RE: DELTA: An extremely well built product from the Taiwan manufacturer. We install the Delta products and respect the robust metal exterior product when so many other manufactures are built with hardened plastic. Agreed, Delta lack a good marketing presence, but take away the flashing lights and jazzy web sites that other 'cheap equipment makers' do so very well. We know Delta equipment, the inverters, the batteries and now the EV Chargers work above our high expectations.
Solar Inverter - Delta
Great app with no ongoing annual fees. The 'calendar' setting on the Delta Home Series_222 is perfect for a quick 2-3sec review to know all is working great.
Battery - Delta
A low cost battery with over 12kW of usable capacity. Yet still has functions and capabilities you see in the premium end of the industry.
EV Charger - Delta
Brilliant, works better than expected.
Installation Photos
Alpha System - no customer service.
Review left 7 years after system installed
Solar Panel - Conergy
Panels work very well.
Solar Inverter - Goodwe
Battery - Alpha ESS
My Alpha system was installed in 2017. It has been working perfrctly until October 26, 2023. The issue was the circuit board component needed replacement after an incorrectly aired isolation switch caused damage. Complaint number 210526 was lodged on January 8 simply because of lack of expertise locally and difficulty identifying the issue. The customer service from Alpha has been appalling, to the extent that I am considering ACCC action. Despite numerous attempts to call tech support, my electrician could not make contact with Alpha. Even the installer line was unattended. No email responses, no information, not even and basic advice or expertise. They have FINALLY said they might send a tech out. i have just emailed asking for details. I'm not holding my breath.
Scott - sadly working elsewhere now
Review left 9 years after system installed
Scott was knowledgeable and helpful and super-competent. Unfortunately he is now out of Canberra and I think out of the solar business.
Solar Panel - Trina
Never got 5kw out of it, but (advertised was, paid for itself in 10 years) it paid for itself in less than 7 years.
Solar Inverter - SMA
Works fine and apparently is compatible with future battery (yet to install)
Good installation, solid products, terrible app
Review left 1 year after system installed
Friendly team, good product knowledge. Installation was quick but after sales support could be better. They sized my array wrong based on the drone flyover, but my roofline is a bit complex so not entirely their fault.
Solar Inverter - Fronius
The Gen24 inverter is fine after 18 months. However, the Solar.web app is very poor. When it works the data is adequate, but for months the app could not connect to the inverter via wifi and I had no output data. I fixed this by connecting an Ethernet cable from the inverter to the router. Now in Feb 2024 Fronius has “updated” the app and it now takes 20 seconds to load on my iPhone, which is irritating. The in-app instructions to modify settings as a Technician are also very unintuitive. Get something better if you can.
Battery - BYD
It’s a solid energy storage solution. There is minimal info provided by the battery itself other than a flashing light, so the Fronius app has all the settings & data presentation. It’s chunky though - the Powerwall is a more attractive product and was my preference.
Seamless - installers turned up and did ...
Review left 5 years after system installed
Seamless - installers turned up and did the work, took care of any and all broken tiles and have had zero problems with the solar system since
NEVER trust installers. Do you own research. Design your own system and if you want to run your home on battery, double what they estimate and just go off grid.
Review left 5 years after system installed
A company installed a battery system that was supposed to run 6kw on power outage. It consisted of an LG 12 kw something battery, and a sungrow inverter. When power went out (inconsistent results here) it would start the inverter to battery mode as expected, then it would register the house load as something like 400w, but then the battery feed in would skyrocket past that 400w and it would often hit 500w then give an over supply warning. The LG battery was never considered the culprit. I complained and forwarded the logs, the installer came out twice and could not replicate, ignored the logs and left. Sungrow tried to tell me my backup circuit was to blame being too big.. I pointed to the video of 400w, certainly to spec. Turns out also the inverter can only supply less than 4kw in power out. Sungrow replaced their inverter and the problem persisted. The installer tried to escape claiming out of warranty after 12 months, we threatened court action, they ended up removing the system leaving stuff behind stuck to our outside wall, and we got most of our money back on the install. MOST. How stupid do you have to be to not understand oversupply, and NOT see the battery inverter incompatibility/ non communication to get the battery supplying TOO much power to the inverter ? How can that be related to the length of cable on the backup circuit (5 br home). We clearly stated our needs, they supplied and stuffed up repeatedly. They also left roof tiles misplaced so we had roof leaks and water damage which they did not remedy. All up, the installers nor Sungrow staff understand basic electrical physics, flow, resistance, capacitance, or understand what OVER SUPPLY means even when it is filmed on the LCD pannel and shown to them. They tried over and over to say it was OUR FAULT. Many installers refuse to use LG battery systems now as this is apparantly not uncommon. Yet these two things are still sold in tandem and Sungrow are still running unchecked gaslighting and bullying their way through the solar marketplace. Disgusting. Installers must be accountable for their false promises. Just because THEY misunderstand the technology and capability, does not mean it passes onto the customer. That is misrepresentation and is automatically a breech of contract. It is also a breech of the trade practices act, fair trading and so forth. This entire industry is corrupt and full of cowboys who have zero clue what they are doing. They also tried to install the sungrow battery INSIDE out house. Imagine how much gas and explosive potential in 12kw of lithium battery power and how fast you would die if that caught fire or simply gassed ? Sheesh.
Battery - LG Chem
A company installed a battery system that was supposed to run 6kw on power outage. It consisted of an LG 12 kw something battery, and a sungrow inverter. When power went out (inconsistent results here) it would start the inverter to battery mode as expected, then it would register the house load as something like 400w, but then the battery feed in would skyrocket past that 400w and it would often hit 500w then give an over supply warning. The LG battery was never considered the culprit. I complained and forwarded the logs, the installer came out twice and could not replicate, ignored the logs and left. Sungrow tried to tell me my backup circuit was to blame being too big.. I pointed to the video of 400w, certainly to spec. Turns out also the inverter can only supply less than 4kw in power out. Sungrow replaced their inverter and the problem persisted. The installer tried to escape claiming out of warranty after 12 months, we threatened court action, they ended up removing the system leaving stuff behind stuck to our outside wall, and we got most of our money back on the install. MOST. How stupid do you have to be to not understand oversupply, and NOT see the battery inverter incompatibility/ non communication to get the battery supplying TOO much power to the inverter ? How can that be related to the length of cable on the backup circuit (5 br home). We clearly stated our needs, they supplied and stuffed up repeatedly. They also left roof tiles misplaced so we had roof leaks and water damage which they did not remedy. All up, the installers nor Sungrow staff understand basic electrical physics, flow, resistance, capacitance, or understand what OVER SUPPLY means even when it is filmed on the LCD pannel and shown to them. They tried over and over to say it was OUR FAULT. Many installers refuse to use LG battery systems now as this is apparantly not uncommon. Yet these two things are still sold in tandem and Sungrow are still running unchecked gaslighting and bullying their way through the solar marketplace. Disgusting. Installers must be accountable for their false promises. Just because THEY misunderstand the technology and capability, does not mean it passes onto the customer. That is misrepresentation and is automatically a breech of contract. It is also a breech of the trade practices act, fair trading and so forth. This entire industry is corrupt and full of cowboys who have zero clue what they are doing. They also tried to install the sungrow battery INSIDE out house. Imagine how much gas and explosive potential in 12kw of lithium battery power and how fast you would die if that caught fire or simply gassed ? Sheesh.
Great experience with Solar Choice
We had a great experience with the Solar Choice team, from the initial consultation and advice for our specific needs, to the installation and follow-up. Very price competitive and superior products, with a friendly and knowledgeable team that comes on time when they say they will.
Solar Panel - Jinko
Solar Inverter - Sungrow
EV Charger - Tesla
Review left 5 years after system installed
Very detailed and personal assessment including a site visit. Maximum size for the available space was 2.4. Too small to justify a battery. In a few years this will be reassessed if/when the panels need to be replaced or upgraded. No issues at all with the installation. A failed controller was replaced with no charge.
Solar Panel - LG
The panel’s are find. More efficient ones now exist, however the ones installed were amongst the best at the time. Still seem to be working well.
Solar Inverter - Enphase
The system is reliable . Given the size we are 30% independent of the grid and have saved 15.6 tonnes of CO2. This is since 2018 to December 2023 according to the enphase app which is very useful to see the peaks and troughs to work out the best times to use appliances etc.
Review left 4 years after system installed
Great, no problems at all.
Solar Panel - Canadian Solar
Solar Inverter - Sungrow
Review left 3 years after system installed
Got all my questions answered and help where I needed it. However, have since called back the sales manager over a couple of issues and got no return telephone call.
Solar Panel - Suntech
Solar Inverter - Sungrow
App stops working when updates sent electronically. Sometimes can't reset and have to call company and follow their instructions to get it going again. Just a pain to do that's all.
Faulty installation, had to go to Manufacturer to get the problem, no reply to emails, broken promises and it took four months to get the installation working, but they want money on the day
Solar Panel -
No panels installed battery retrofit
Solar Inverter - SolaX
The manufacturer's office here in Melbourne is great, they booked an appointment really quickly, Engineer who came out new what he was doing and fixed the problem with the installation
Very happy with the service, very friendly and great advise price point was also great for the system size
Solar Panel - Canadian Solar
Solar Inverter - Sungrow
All good with installation
Solar Inverter - Enphase
2 years ago had a 20 Enphase microinverter system installed with the Encore gateway located in my garage. 2 weeks ago the Encore gateway caught fire & destroyed not only my garage (and I nearly lost my home), but my 2 Tesla cars were also destroyed. My insurance company has advised that as the Enphase Encore gateway was at fault (electrically not up to standard).. they won't cover the costs of the fire. Enphase just tell me "NOT OUR PROBLEM" and refuse to address the damage they have caused to my home & cars!!! SAVE THE GRIEF (AND LOTS OF) & YOUR MONEY AND AVOID, AVOID, AVOID, AVOID. DON'T PUNISH YOURSELF.... SAVE THE GRIEF (AND LOTS OF) & YOUR MONEY AND AVOID, AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.
Review left 4 years after system installed
The system works fantastic but I had issues with the company until the contractor was forced into replacing the single phase inverter with the 3 phase inverter I had told him would be needed for the system to work properly.
Easy going git best quality brand
Very professional company. Everyone I dealt with communicated clearly and fairly. The installation went well, and they addressed my specific requests for the install without any hassles.
Solar Panel - Tindo
I researched their panels prior to purchase and I am confident I have received top quality panels. I particular appreciated their videos showing/explaining how they test each panel in the factory before install.
Solar Inverter - SolarEdge
As far as I can tell my Inverter is working as expected. However I am dissappointed in the SolarEdge monitoring facility. It provides cumulative energy production (kWh) for each panel but does not show current power output(kW). This is veyr frustrating as it means I have no (easy) way of knowing if any of my panels are failing to meet warranty. Seems to me they have consiously decided to hide these figures - not very ethical IMO!
Installation Photos
