Author: Brian May 18, 2015

I spent a couple of hours last week looking around the Australian Solar Council ‘Solar 2015 Exhibition and Conference‘.

So here are a few things which may be of interest if you are planning a new house.

Hot Water from Photovoltaic (PV) Panels

This is a Rotex Hot Water Service that uses Photo Voltaic Power rather than circulating water as the heating mechanism.

All very interesting as I was only wondering whether this sort of thing would be possible in the Hot Water Post back in April this year.

The company who are planning to sell this later this year are called Energy Smart Water.

You may have heard about the Tesla Powerwall for storing power from your solar panels for night time use but they aren’t the only company with battery options.

Fronius Solar Battery

On the Left is  Solar Battery from Fronius Australia .

The standard Size of the unit is 955 x 570 x 611mm

Capacities rnge from 4.5kWh (kilowatt hours) to 12.0kWh

If you want to use it with existing solar panels you will need to replace the Inverter as it requires a special Hybrid Inverter.

LG Solar Battery

LG’s Solar battery at 406 x 664 x 165mm is smaller than the Froniius Unit but only has a capacity of 6.4kWh.

It can however be supplemented by up to two expansion packs of 3.2 kWh capacity.

This increases the size to, a still relatively compact 966 x 664 x 165mm.

Again this unit requires a special hybrid inverter.

The local agent for the unit are ‘Solar Juice’.

 

 

Currently the companies that are promoting these products say they will be available later this year when full pricing will be available.

All these are interesting ideas but of course the real test will be when the prices are released.

 

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