Facebook “Crap Home Battery Installs Australia”. It seems the inverter fell off the wall, but luckily missed the gas bottles.
By Jo Nova
It’s like the “Pink Batts” debacle but this time with potentially explosive electrochemical gear
The costs have blown out in the subsidized home battery scheme– and now so have the safety standards.
Costs of the Cheaper Home Batteries Program were supposed to be $2.3 billion but when homeowners realized they got huge subsidies for installing bigger batteries than they needed, they … installed bigger batteries than they needed. Thus and verily the Cheaper Home Batteries Program blew out to $7.2 billion. And since most of the lucky homeowners won’t be sharing their battery with the voracious energy cartels, their batteries will sit at home barely used.
The government only woke up to their own inept scheme after 160,000 home units had been installed. Then they suddenly had to slap an end point on the scheme in order to stem the bleeding. So just as night follows day — that created a rush to install as many batteries as possible before the deadline, eventually reaching 250,000. Ponder that a 25kWh battery (the average size in Australia) is around 200 to 300 kg. It’s a big piece of equipment.
But a new survey of 1,250 installations shows that 1.2% were actually unsafe.
Over 60 per cent of popular Cheaper Home Batteries Program installations ‘substandard’
By Rusty Landon, The Conversation, via SBS
Hope no one turns the hose on!
Between July 2025 and April 2026, the Clean Energy Regulator carried out 1,278 compliance inspections on battery systems installed under the program.
Some 60.8 per cent of inspected system installations were found to be “substandard” and 1.2 per cent of installs were found to be “unsafe”. The problems weren’t about the batteries themselves, but the way they had been installed.
The sample size in the regulator’s report is small — 0.5 per cent of the total number of systems installed.
With such a small sample size, it is hard to extrapolate the level of installation non-compliance across all systems in Australia. But if similar trends continue in inspections over a larger sample size, there could be approximately 3,000 battery installs that are unsafe and a further 152,000 that are non-compliant.
Exposed wiring is also a common issue that needs to be addressed as a priority. If wiring is not enclosed, it can be damaged and increase the risk of a severe electric shock if touched. The independent solar energy website, SolarQuotes, highlights the exposed wiring issue well, showcasing several installations with non-compliant wiring.
For batteries, no amount of exposed cable is compliant. Cables need to be protected from mechanical damage for the full cable run, using electrical conduit or metal ducting.
Alarmingly, reports from experts in the field indicate that only 10 peer cent of installers are following these wiring practices correctly.
A quick scroll of social media groups that rate battery installation jobs visually confirms the issues. Posts of substandard installations show exposed cables, batteries placed in full sun, delicately anchored to a wall with standard masonry wall plugs or supported with loose bits of timber and pavers.
After creating all the right conditions for dangerous rushed boom the government is talking tough about “ramping up inspections” and identifying the poor performers. More money on this bonfire!
The regulator is even talking about limiting the number of installations that each installer can do in one day.
Many of the non-compliant issues relate to the sticker forest that has grown on most batteries. And while a misplaced sticker won’t set the battery on fire, if a battery is deemed non-compliant, it may void the insurance. Wouldn’t that be a nasty surprise?
There’s even a Facebook group called Crap Home Battery Installs Australia.
There are a lot of jokes about stickers, like “A few more stickers would’ve fixed that”.
The Solar Quotes article on “cheap batteries” has plenty of photos.
An advert for “Cheap Home Batteries” in Qld shows that customers only needed to pay a few hundred dollars more to drain the public purse by $4,000 extra and get a battery three times larger than they will probably ever use.
….
What a dangerous joke and I’m very happy that I didn’t fall for this lunacy and never forget that average Aussie capacity factors for solar are just 15% for every year and these toxic, unreliable disasters have to be replaced every 15 to 20 years.
And most batteries wouldn’t last that long, so just more expense for the gullible investors.
300
For farmers best to go with an Earth power system. 4kW/Hectare minimum output 7*24,……..forever.
50
Don’t forget the subsidies in the form of small scale renewable energy certificates that are claimed by the installers that come from setting up these batteries. That will be on top of the $ 7.2 billion and will be paid by low income and pensioner electricity consumers and tax-payers ongoing.
231
From a taxpayer whose residence is unsuited for solar panels and who dislikes solar energy on principle, what mechanism is in place to compensate me for the subsidy harvesting by others?
Nobody asked us if we agreed to part of our money being given to others who requested it. I expect a rebate on the grounds of equal treatment.
Geoff S
430
Thanks Jo. We are just about to have a 16kw battery installed – fortunately in the paddock away from the house. We will be checking for all the issues raised. Thanks again.
BTW we have been assured that a switch is installed that will allow us to isolate from the grid when required. These days you can’t be assured of anything.
230
Recently I was wondering about flywheel storage for home use.
The cost of a flywheel energy storage system is approximately $US6,000 about $A8350 for around 15kWh capacity, his pricing can vary based on the specific design and capacity of the system
The Mechanical Battery Explained – A Flywheel Comeback?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X2U7bDNcPM
It would avoid lithium fires. Have rapid output/input and store electricity for some time (claims that 2% loss in a year).
100
G3,
Why?
Why not just stick a ready made plug into a ready made wall socket like folk have been doing for 100 years and draw upon electricity from a bit of efficiently burned coal?
Are you overly swayed by trendy propaganda about free sunlight?
Geoff S
341
Great idea about efficiently burned coal, but in Australia coal is under enormous stress from politicians and bureaucrats who think “they are saving the world”. Their plans doesn’t seem to realistic and likely to eliminate using household supplies. There was the reduced likelihood of fires.
80
Hope that the location is away from your residence, as large spinning flywheels have been known to detach and wander off by themselves, usually at a high velocity. Also the mechanical wear of having something very heavy continuously rotating 24/7 must surely raise concerns about bearing lifetimes.
110
A spinning flywheel sufficiently large to be powering a home for a day or two or three is a dangerous thing. About five (or 8) years ago there were reports that I saw, on the internet, suggesting the technology — at that time — was not ready. Maybe the term “comeback” needs to be investigated. Just saying.
60
The Amber Kinetics system seems to use a lot of smaller horizontally-mounted flywheels. Probably less risk if one detaches, but surely a lot more mechanical issues. Would be an interesting site when doing maintenance around lots of heavy spinning disks at ankle level.
20
Re “gullible investors” from Neville – we have been concerned for some time about failures in the grid. In these uncertain times we cannot afford to risk prolonged power outages since the water for our cattle is largely supplied via a bore pump which runs on electricity. We do have a dam and a creek. The creek flow is subject to plentiful rain, as is the dam.
150
Unfortunately the system about costs more than Lithium batteries although with 30 year life vs 9 for, say, a Tesla PowerWall2 this reduces the gap to less.
AMBER KINETICS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD East Fremantle WA (since approx. 2018) might be a possible source.
10
When I looked up Amber Kinetics, their Australian address was Lonsdale SA. There is another different company, Amber Electric.
20
Even Germany’s energy minister admits that ruinables are ruining their country.
How long before B O Bowen wakes up and admits the truth about his unreliable, dangerous and expensive W & S fantasy?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/04/18/cracks-appear-in-climate-consensus-as-germanys-energy-minister-admits-renewable-energy-is-ruining-the-country/
120
Bowen will never wake up to himself being a deranged ideologue ruining Australia energy systems. He is far too stubborn, arrogant and stupid.
230
And doesn’t he flare up when questioned and the journalist refuses to back down.
140
He won’t. He is now so deeply committed to wind and solar he will never admit that he always was wrong. Not only is he stupid and misguided, he is also stubborn.
200
It might depend on the money trail.
I’m alright, Jack, aka self-interest rules.
The government is just in a position to wreak havoc on more people while they possibly line their pockets and shore up lucrative sinecures post politics.
80
Australians doing their absolute BEST for their fellow Australians, outstanding.
00
So the public servants who designed the Cheaper Home Batteries Program were probably the same ones who did Pink Batts. Along the way helped out Bill Shorten to design the NDIS scheme. Possibly even the same A-Team who did the costings for Snowy Hydro II and then assisted the CSIRO with their GENCOST report. Maybe, at times help out the Defence Departments with their procurements. You get the picture.
Any wonder Kerry Packer admitted in a Senate hearing many years ago that he minimised his tax. Basically said,” why would I give you guys more money to just waste”.
430
For those who haven’t seen part of this little gem. Always worth a revisit.
Kerry Packer at a senate hearing speaks about minimising tax. It’s only a 40 second snippett. Longer versions are available on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e97kq2XflKE
130
What a waste! A litre of petrol is about 10kwhr. So about 3 litres of petrol. At extraordinary cost. And weighing as much as 300 litres.
When will we start building coal power stations and be free of this utter nonsense by idiots who could not run a chook raffle. And hate Australia.
And coal to gas and oil would give us cheap power like Saudi. The UAE and Iran already have nuclear power stations.
330
Dutton Plan, use existing power station locations and existing transmission lines.
110
Last Sunday Liam Bartlett’s channel 7 program nailed the toxic, unreliable W & S disasters through their Spotlight program.
Here’s the link and the Chinese govt should be condemned for exploiting poor countries and the deaths of many workers and the degradation of their environments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNrsExOOn80
200
BTW at 17 minutes 50 seconds Liam takes us over some of the destroyed areas of pristine Qld wilderness that have been laid bare by B O Bowen and his lackeys.
Even Bob Brown calls out BS on this lunacy towards the end of the video.
190
Interesting comment on “how to despatch” an injured animal. The very same methods have been tried in court as “cruel”. The double standards at play are truely amazing.
140
Amazing that it is an instruction handed out
70
Many thanks for the link Neville. Am sending it to others in the hope that they will time the time to digest its contents.
60
This has been known and spoken about (but not in polite company, of course) for many years.
NOW the media is claiming to expose the atrocious conditions but where were they in the past. Making excuses and merely parroting BOBowen’s idiotic rhetoric.
90
FWIW
Looks like “From pink batts to pink batteries”?
160
Given that the flood of OPM attracted GutterGuard and NoPaint Siding entrepreneurs into the home battery market, the tsunami of substandard and unsafe installations was always as inevitable as the morning sunrise. That’s what the flood of lightly-skilled ‘well-paying Green jobs’ delivers – only the very dim or otherworldly would expect otherwise.
The really entertaining aspect is watching the Cheaper Home Batteries scheme crowd renewables out of the market. Over the past three years, the roll out of ‘cheap rooftop n’ batteries’ with Small Scale Technology certificates has dumped so much power into the NEM during daylight hours that zero or negative wholesale prices have gone from an occasional WTF moment to a matter of national concern that has ARENA writing puzzled reports.
Today, solar energy (both large-scale and rooftop solar) are significant participants in the energy sector and negative pricing is a major risk for investors in the industry. “Economic curtailment” in response to negative pricing is the largest source of variable renewable energy (VRE) curtailment, accounting for 58 per cent of the total.
Generator bidding behaviour is becoming increasingly complex. The need to avoid negative pricing, abide by contractual obligations, ensure compliant bidding, minimise curtailment and reduce FCAS costs has led to over 35 per cent of solar and wind farms utilising automated bidding software in the last 2 years. “Rebidding” from generators, where volumes of energy are shifted across fixed price bands post “Gate Closure”, has substantially increased as the frequency of negative pricing intervals increase. Generators are increasingly becoming active, rather than passive, market participants, to avoid being dispatched during negative pricing intervals.
https://arena.gov.au/knowledge-bank/genops-three-negative-pricing-and-bidding-behaviour-on-the-nem/
In human-speak, ‘Y’canna defy the Laws of Physics, Cap’n. It’s a self-inflicted train wreck’.
The humour in all this is uneasy, of course. It’s become the 21st Century equivalent of visiting Bedlam Hospital to laugh at the capering lunatics.
180
A friend and colleague installed both solar panels and a bigger battery onto his house. Although he used the excuse that “Bowen’s plan was forcing him into it”, I think he’s a believer in CO2 magik.
Nonetheless, even after the tax subsidy rebates (taken from people who earn less than he does), it cost him over $40k upfront.
And now he’s complaining that the price he gets for selling power back to the grid at midday is being constantly whittled back.
He is a good friend and colleague, so I don’t laugh at him. I’m quietly amused though, as his $40k is taking a longer and longer time to amortise. I wonder now whether this point will be reached before he has to replace all that hardware.
170
Dr Faustus,
Thank you for the ARENA quote. Why are we not also surprised?
Very much along the lines of your closing comment, I love the cryptic comment from Kathryn Porter that she made during a presentation hosted at the following link:
https://watt-logic.com/2026/03/14/scotlands-looming-energy-crisis/
“The grid does not respond to ideology or environmental targets – it responds to physics.
And physics does not negotiate.”
While the details are specific to the Scottish grid, she also presents there a detailed coverage of the causes of the blackout on the Spanish grid last year. This is a highly recommended read.
Regards,
Paul Miskelly
100
I did a battery install due to the unreliability of the grid before all this rebate shenanigans. It was all reputable equipment and supposedly a reputable installer. Unfortunately the installer was a joke making lots of basic mistakes. I pointed out a number of non compliant and dangerous faults and they just told me I didn’t know what I was talking about and I had a certificate of electrical safety so it must be correct. I called Energy Safe Victoria and gave them a long list of the issues referencing the various standards and they promptly did a site visit. The installer got written up for 25 defects. More than half were for physical installation issues such as running wires over sharp edges, not segregating the mains voltage cables from low voltage cables, Inadequate overcurrent protection for the DC cables. One was not covering exposed mains cable where it entered the ground (should be covered by metal to a depth of 500mm). It would be “dead” easy to hit with a whipper snipper and destroy it. Needless to say the electrical inspector was spoken to and an order to rectify issued to the installing company. I ended up fully disassembling the system as even after most items were rectified it was still a very substandard amateur install and had it redone by a very professional company.
200
Sorry to be racist, but were the installers of South Asian heritage?
30
No. The installers were a local Bendigo company that had been installing solar systems for some time. Fortunately for them not many if any customers have a clue what a good install should be and a basic knowledge of the Australian Standards that cover such installations. Given what they think is acceptable and compliant Energy Safe Vic should do a full audit of all their work.
If a local established company in regional Vic is doing rubbish installs the thought of the fly by night crews is doing my head in.
90
If we all chip in enough maybe we can buy enough anti-renewables pollies to reverse it all.
“I own a politician” t-shirts now available in the foyer.
Joondalup electrical services on uselesstube covers solar disasters and shoddiness, as I’ve mentioned b4.
50
Printed in China. Huge demand.
30
Before instituting these cockamamie schemes, agencies, government or otherwise, should get a dozen people with smarts to sit around a campfire, drink beer, and answer the question “What could go wrong?”
For a large fee, I’ll offer my services.
We learned this early. If playing mumblety-peg, don’t try to catch a tumbling knife.
90
What a wonderful term; ‘mumblety-peg’! I’ve never come across it before 🙂
40
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumblety-peg
And adding inoculations of healthy dirt
30
I’ll pass on trying that one!
00
” … should get a dozen people with smarts to sit around a campfire, drink beer, and answer the question “What could go wrong?””
Well, that won’t work – as the pollies’ pals get those jobs – and the beer – but aren’t necessarily ‘smart’ [except, perhaps, at the golden tongue work – or another colour].
Besides, will the sitters-and-beer-drinkers give the pollies the answer they want – which, usually is: –
* Yes – it’ll work, for less than the other lot is spending, and it WILL solve the problem, and obesity and education under-performance.
* And it will be in hand before the election.
* But [very sadly] it won’t be auditable until after the election.
And the other lot will stuff it up – for sure!
Auto
20
Question: Did AU also have a “playground” initiative that went badly wrong — about 10 years ago?
30
You’re thinking about “Building the Education Revolution” that saw massive waste in spending on school facilities supposedly needed as a way to boost the economy after the GFC.
It led to things like $125,000 shade sails over play areas that could have been, and should have been, installed for $5,000 (that’s from a bloke I knew whose business was shade sails and the like and the shade sails at his kids’ school).
Other things were school canteens with a cost per sq m higher than that of a central business district bank.
You get the idea.
Yet another example of Labor pissing OPM up against a wall.
140
Dick Smith made some good points in an interview with Sky News last year.
He states we couldn’t afford the full cost of unreliable W & S that includes damage to the environment, cost of all infrastructure, batteries and regular replacements every 15 to 20 years.
These are very simple sums yet our clueless pollies don’t understand plus the CSIRO, plus the public service and all the other taxpayer funded scientists etc.
So what are we paying them for and why don’t the voters wake up to this toxic nonsense?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpiFz_cDxgc
110
I dropped in to see a friend and they showed me their new home battery installed in the garage. Boy, was the increased room temp high…at least 5C by my reckoning. Be interesting come +40C summer in that west facing tin garage door with battery just inside.
80
Next – – a large cooling system to keep the battery happy.
Rule No. 32.4: You can’t do just one thing.
90
My inverter was installed on a north-facing wall in a small rear courtyard that is often five degrees hotter than ambient in summer. So I added a shade over the top to shield it from the midday sun.
40
The “Cheap Home Batteries” in Qld advert, copied at the foot of the article, does not appear to know the difference between Kilowatts (power) and Kilowatt Hours (energy). Could be an issue for an installer. Many media writers (and politicians too, I suspect) are similarly ignorant.
70
Pedantically, should be kilowatt, unless the first word in a sentence.
10