Ballarat’s winter is pushing off-grid systems to their limits. Selectronic inverters are the most commonly used in these installations, paired with lead-acid batteries that were installed around seven years ago and are now reaching the end of their lifespan. Fortunately, these systems operate on 48V, making it easy to upgrade to new lithium batteries. The upgrade process is straightforward: first, purchase a new communication card from Selectronic to enable the inverter to communicate with the new batteries. Pylontech US5000 batteries are commonly used for this purpose, with most Selectronic systems requiring four batteries, though sometimes six are needed. The installation process is very quick, typically taking no more than an hour, including the software upgrade.

However, some systems are a bit older and built with 24V Selectronic inverters, which can pose a problem. While it is still possible to find 24V batteries, my advice would be to upgrade the entire system. These older systems typically start falling apart due to age, so a comprehensive upgrade is often the most practical and reliable solution.