Why Australian Solar Installers Love Austrian Fronius Inverters

Fronius for the win! 

Not everyone in Australia is engaged with SolarQuotes and the gongs we hand out. But for Fronius to win our top spot for the third year in a row with nigh on half of all votes cast is something that can’t be ignored.

Fronius keeps getting more popular with Australian solar installers, and it’s for good reason.

The Right Tool For The Job

I might try an analogy here with a tool company that some people will know. As an auto electrician in a former life, we had a bloke come and visit us at the workshop every week. He peddled the best quality toys and even offered payment plans. Snap-On were excellent, #1 worldwide, which you’d fully expect from the yanks because they’re always appointing themselves as such.

The thing is that Snap-On only sells through vans. The tools are very expensive, and despite that, what keeps the poor mechanics happily paying for Snap-On is the service.

When you break something, the phone gets answered, that van always rolls up next week, and the tool is replaced without quibbles.

Now in reality Stahlwillie makes some beautiful spanners, Facom make a finer multigrip, and Sidchrome has sadly become cheap crud. But Snap-On is consistently excellent. And when I kept breaking my screwdriver tips they kept replacing them.

An Example Of Stellar Fronius Support

If you’d like a direct example, then just this week I had a technical query that will soon become a blog post all unto itself. It involved 3-phase solar, export limiting and compliance with the network rules and AS4777. I wrote a screed to outline the problem and shot it to several manufacturers. Fronius wrote back first, on a Saturday, with an answer.

SMA has come back on Monday too with their very good take on the problem. The others haven’t as of Wednesday. Maybe that’s because I have the right email address for Fronius, and the rest of them are being filtered through marketing people or general enquiry lines, so they’re delayed.

The thing is that I have the right address for Fronius because they have the right people. It’s a self-reinforcing principle that when you have enough market share, you have enough budget to support the product.

Fronius Inverters Look Really Neat When Installed By An Aussie

Australians have been getting in trouble with the Austrians (Fronius) for years now because of the tendency to drill holes in the mounting plate to hide all the wiring. Some blokes get it wrong, ending up with an inverter full of water and a warranty problem.

Fronius has written a whitepaper on how or when it might be acceptable without trying to encourage the practice, but more importantly, they have taken the idea on board with the design of the new GEN24.

The new GEN24 model inverter is very well thought through, with lots of room behind the cover for wiring and ancillary equipment such as internet dongles (I actually hid an entire 8 port ethernet switch inside one!) Fronius noted Australians are allowed to drill holes if they’re careful. It makes them so neat.

Please, We Beg You

I will be sad to see the SnapINverter range retired and if that’s what Fronius intend to do, then I would offer a word of advice.

DON’T.

If Toyota can keep selling the ’79 series Landcruiser to people for eighty grand plus without cup holders, then it can only be because the product is selling itself. I have many Fronius SnapINverters that have performed faultlessly for years, and I’m installing a couple more right now. They’re going to work hard for their living, I assure you.

SMA was the previous market leader and they managed to take an inverter that every installer still loves and every owner still recognises and… and bin their reputation along with it.

Are There Any Other Compelling Points?

The GEN24 is a worthy successor that does more, not least of all battery hybrid functionality. This means you can buy the solar-only inverter for about the same price as the old SnapINverter, and if you decide to add a battery later, pay about $1,000 for some firmware and then get some wiring done in the switchboard. This is cheaper, greener and better than replacing the inverter or adding a second inverter just for the battery. But be aware that your only current battery option is a BYD battery.

They maintain open communications protocols, which means your Fronius inverter will communicate with external services like PVOutput, and you can still run things like a contactor for diverting energy to a hot water service. I refer to that as a sunshine circuit; one controlled by the onboard smarts in the Fronius inverter, which is handy for running something like a pool pump when it’s sunny. Plus there is an ecosystem of other Fronius equipment such as the Ohmpilot for heating loads and the Wattpilot, which is a really good EV charger.

With the rise of high-current solar panels, Fronius is one of the few with an excellent current capacity that will allow parallel strings. They enable your installer to create a more flexible design that can deal with difficult multi-plane roofs without the need for optimisers.

The monitoring platform offers great detail to enable you and your installer to keep an eye on things and help diagnose problems if they arise. On that note, it’s worth bearing in mind that solar power systems need an “actionable alarm” for earth fault monitoring to be compliant. A winking LED doesn’t really cut it, so having a solid internet connection and an email address you will notice is actually a legal requirement.

Oh, And GEN24 Is Much Quieter.

People whine that the SnapINverter design is noisy. They wail almost as much as the fans themselves, but I think it’s an undeniable feature.

These things work hard in the Australian heat and when they have a fan running, it means they can work even harder; yielding more energy and prolonging the life of the electronics inside. The new design fan is bigger, slower, quieter and more easily serviced, so even you, the customer, can make sure there are no geckos in it.

If you want a robust, high-quality inverter with an easy upgrade path to BYD batteries, Fronius is a great choice.

Fronius achieved gold for the third year running in SQ’s Installers’ Choice Awards 2023 – Best Inverters.  Fronius was also voted by installers as offering the best after-sales support.

You can compare Fronius specifications and pricing with other brands on the SolarQuotes inverter comparison page, and read advice on choosing solar inverters here.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/fronius-australian-installers/