I need a new hot water system and following a bit of reading am leaning towards solar panels and a new tank that can draw on these to heat the water. I came across the Solahart PowerStore. Has anyone had any experience with this and if so are they happy with it?
Hi @cawilson
I don’t know much about the PowerStore specifically, but the concept has been around for a while and is a very good one. It just makes sense to store your excess energy from solar as hot water if you can.
The reviews on Product Review are a bit concerning https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/solahart - these aren’t for the product itself, but for the company.
Hopefully there are other people on here with experience with different products, and installers that integrate hot water and solar PV.
Cheers
Marty
If you are connected to the grid, this makes sense. If you are off-grid, it is problematic. Then you are only heating water when you have excess solar energy, but cannot depend upon solar for hot water heating. And you should replace the standard hot water heating elements with those of smaller wattage because the standard 4500 watt elements are probably too big for your system.
This is something I discussed in my small book of experience with a homemade off-grid system:
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/charles-petrie/ten-years-off-grid/paperback/product-1dgpvmym.html
Moreover, it you want to do this automatically when you have excess energy in an off-grid system, this is difficult as to some extent, it involves weather prediction. Will there later be clouds? Will my a/c load increase? What is the SOC of my batteries now? And so on. It’s just not that simple.
Just had a solar system installed by Solahart, comprised of 7.6 kW panels, PowerStore tank and importantly the Combined Energy Gateway, a wifi connected computer in my meter box. I think Solahart always quote the Gateway in their PowerStore systems.
It works! Well, it is summer so there are no difficult supply/demand calculations needed with the water needing just 2-3 hours of partly cloudy sun to recover.
Solar self-consumption is 80% so far which will keep payback time as low as possible.
I haven’t seen many reviews for a setup of this type so just wanted to give it the thumbs up!
Pretty cool to see the Gateway do real-time switching when I put on the kettle, and otherwise charge the water tank at 3.6kW when the house consumption is low.
1 Like
Just wondering if anyone has had any further experience with the Solarhart Powerstore?
I’m thinking of purchasing one but cannot find many review of the product / system itself.
I got a quote for the system and the Solarhart salesperson said they were selling like hotcakes!
Thanks in advance.
I had a 6.4kw system installed last year and recently decided to buy a Solahart Powerstore because the energy companies were paying me bugger all for export and most days we are not home so quite a bit of power is lost to the grid. I would have loved to add a Tesla Powerwall but it was a bit cost prohibitive for me. In the end it was a no brainer for me, it got me away from gas, it works like a battery and as an added bonus I have joined an Ausnet trial (VPP) with Powerstore owners and I get a $50 voucher every month for the next 6 months. Happy customer
Hi Carl, we are just looking at this system but can’t find any real reviews. How is your system going.
Hi Dusty, we are just looking at this system but can’t find any real reviews. How is your system going
Hi there,
On the monitoring it shows 89% of hot water energy in the last year from solar (see attached). It has been amazing. Couldn’t be happier.
The Solahart PowerStore is a battery storage system designed to work with a solar panel system. It is available in a range of sizes, from 5.5 kWh to 17.6 kWh. It is designed to help households store excess solar energy during the day for use during peak energy periods or at night. The PowerStore features a modular design, which allows it to be scaled up or down depending on the household’s energy storage requirements. It also includes advanced features, such as backup power supply capability and remote monitoring.
1 Like