Battery Upgrades and Warranty

[PhilCamb]

Hi,

I have recently had a solar and battery install. (6kw solar, Fox inverter and Fox 8.2kwh battery). It all works fine so no problems there.

With the onset of winter, I can see that on overcast days, the solar panels will not always fully charge the battery during the day. To date, if my partner want to make extra use of the electric oven, I program the system to prevent battery discharge while it is on. To date, using this strategy, the battery has never dipped below 30%. (I have minimum SOC set to 15% and recharge the battery overnight during the off peak period).

I am considering adding an extra slave to the battery (Currently an ECS4300 master and slave) to provide an extra safety buffer and so I don't need to worry about any extra load on the system some days.

The extra slave will be the same make/model etc as the current battery and I have seen various article/videos explaining how to install an extra slave so I am sure it is well within my capability to do a safe and proper job.

The question I have is - will doing the work myself affect the system or battery warranty or do I have to get the original installer to perform the upgrade? I could of course ask the installer but the answer might well not be unbiased

Has anyone else had experience of upgrading a battery themselves and has any advice/things to watch for etc.

Regards
Phil

[Dave Foster]

Many people install the batteries themselves and with the ECS / EQ it’s about as easy as it gets - the answer on warranty is complicated and I’ve heard Fox say that unless the battery is installed by a qualified installer they may not warrant the pack. This seems harsh and hasn’t been tested by anyone in anger but it is what they say - equally I don’t think Fox themselves can tell who has installed it so unless some part of the install goes against their installation guides I can’t see in law how they can reject a claim.
All that said, getting the battery installed by your installer gives you the piece of mind that whatever happens it’s covered, and given the zero VAT available when they install, as long as their markup is sensible it shouldn’t cost too much extra to get them to do it, then you can do it yourself.

[PhilCamb]

Thanks Dave,

You are right in that if installation costs are reasonable, it may be worth following the route for peace of mind.

You mention Zero VAT. All the adds I have seen include VAT and when I tried to check the VAT status, I saw something implying batteries were excluded. If getting the installation done professionally means I can save VAT, that might make it a no brainer. Definitely worth a call. Thanks again.

[Dave Foster]

If you self install you cannot claim VAT back and you'll purchase the batteries plus VAT.

When an installer buys the batteries they still pay VAT, but as part of an installed package they can claim the VAT back - so a bit of extra admin for them but hopefully should help reduce the installation costs.

[PhilCamb]

Thanks again Dave. Hopefully the VAT savings will offset the install costs. I will call them to see what they say.