Solar battery installation in Melbourne

How we install your battery

Every home battery installation follows the same steps, whether the battery goes in with new solar or onto the system you already have.

1. Site inspection. We look at your switchboard, your existing solar and inverter (if any), your power bills and where the battery can go.
2. Design and quote. We size the battery to your evening use, choose DC or AC coupling, and give you a fixed price with every federal rebate your home qualifies for already taken off.
3. Approvals and rebate paperwork. We get your electricity distributor’s pre-approval where it is needed and create the rebate certificates (STCs) for the battery.
4. Install day. The battery is mounted, protected where the spot needs it, wired to the inverter and switchboard, and labelled.
5. Inspection, commissioning and app setup. An independent licensed electrical inspector checks the work, the system is switched on and tested, and we set up the monitoring app with you.

If you already have solar panels

Most homes with solar can add a battery. A battery-ready hybrid inverter takes a compatible battery as it is (DC coupling). Otherwise the battery comes with its own inverter and connects at the switchboard (AC coupling), or the old inverter is replaced with a hybrid. For the federal rebate, only the inverter the battery connects to has to be able to join a virtual power plant, and your existing panels don’t need to be on the approved list.

AC vs DC coupled batteries

Where can a solar battery go under AS/NZS 5139:2019?

AS/NZS 5139:2019 (Electrical installations – Safety of battery systems for use with power conversion equipment) is the Australian standard for home battery installations, and Amendment 1 to it was published on 19 December 2025. Standards Australia sells it, so few homeowners read it; Solar Victoria’s free technical guidance sheets explain the parts that matter, and this page draws on them. For the federal rebate the Clean Energy Regulator names the standard, state electrical safety laws and Solar Accreditation Australia’s technical requirements; the Clean Energy Council’s part is its approved battery list. The battery maker’s installation manual adds its own conditions on top. A battery is not allowed:

• inside a habitable room: a bedroom, living room, kitchen, dining room, study or any room that could become one.
• in a ceiling space or wall cavity.
• on a roof, unless there is a permanent ladder or stairway to it.
• under a stairway or access walkway, or in an escape route.

Solar battery clearance requirements

The standard keeps clearance zones around exits and doorways; windows and vents that serve a living area; and other appliances, such as a hot water unit or an air conditioner. Amendment 1 changed some of them: a battery may now sit within 600 mm of an opening wider than 900 mm, such as a garage door, and an inverter now counts as an associated appliance, so it may sit within the restricted zone. Because the distances changed, we measure the spot against the current standard at the inspection rather than quote old figures.

A wall with a bedroom or living room behind it

A battery can go on a wall with a habitable room on the other side, but the wall must be non-combustible, or a non-combustible barrier must be fitted between the battery and the wall. Solar Victoria’s guidance lists brick or masonry block, concrete, compressed cement sheeting and ceramic or terracotta tiles as materials that count without a fire test, and Amendment 1 adds that they must be at least 6 mm thick. Glass windows and corrugated steel sheeting don’t count unless tested.

Sources: Solar Victoria, Technical guidance sheet 2.2: Protection against the spread of fire and restricted locations; Building Commission NSW on Amendment 1. Checked October 2026.

How big and heavy batteries are

Garage, outside wall or carport?

A home battery usually goes in one of three places. Each can work if the battery is rated for it and the spot meets the rules above.

In the garage

A garage keeps the battery out of the sun and rain: the NSW regulator’s note on the standard lists garages among the shaded spots to choose. The catch is cars: where a vehicle can reach the battery, it needs fixed impact protection (below). Amendment 1 also helps here: a battery may now sit within 600 mm of an opening wider than 900 mm, such as a garage door.

On an outside wall

The battery must be rated for outdoor use and the wall shaded. The spot must be clear of the zones around doors, windows that serve living areas and appliances such as the hot water unit or air conditioner, and a wall with a bedroom behind it needs a non-combustible barrier.

Under a carport

Shade and some rain cover, but a car parks there, so the battery needs the same impact protection as in a garage. An open side still lets weather in, so its rating must suit.

Does a solar battery need a bollard?

If a car can reach it, yes, or another fixed barrier. Solar Victoria’s guidance for installers, reviewed by Energy Safe Victoria, says that where a vehicle could enter the space, “suitable fixed vehicle mechanical protection must be installed”, whatever the owner keeps there today. It also shows what falls short:

• Movable shelving, benches or cupboards, because they could be moved later.
• Mounting the battery higher than the bonnet of your current car, because an SUV reversing in, a visitor’s van or ute, or a trailer or boat stored later can still reach it.
• One bollard in the middle, which leaves both sides exposed: the suggested fix is two bollards, one either side of the battery, or a U-shaped barrier across the front.

A battery in the front corner of a typical 6 m garage, behind a solid pillar or wall, may not need a bollard. As a guide, the pillar shields about 2.5 times its width along the wall: a 500 mm pillar covers about 1,250 mm. If a car can drive past the battery, its trailing edge may need a bollard too.

These examples date from 2023, before Amendment 1, and Solar Victoria notes that some standards may have changed since. We assess each garage and carport at the inspection, and any bollard the spot needs is part of your quote.

Source: Solar Victoria, Technical guidance sheet 2.1: Physical protection of battery systems. Checked November 2026.

Can a solar battery be installed outside?

Yes, if the maker rates it for outdoor use and the spot is out of direct sun. Solar Victoria’s guidance says equipment rated below IP33 must be protected from water getting in, for example under a waterproof overhang; an IP30 battery has no water protection at all. All 8 batteries in our battery comparison are listed for outdoor use on the Clean Energy Council’s approved list.

Direct sun and heat

The NSW electrical regulator’s note on AS/NZS 5139:2019 says it requires battery systems to be “installed in locations that protect them from direct sunlight and vermin”, because exposure “can lead to overheating, battery degradation and damage to equipment or associated wiring”. Its advice is to avoid north-facing areas or locations exposed to morning or afternoon sunlight without shading or protection, and to choose south-facing areas, under carports or inside garages, or fit awnings or screens approved by the manufacturer where needed. Each maker also sets the temperatures its battery charges and runs in.

How heat and cold affect a battery

Battery enclosures and storage boxes

A home battery comes in its own enclosure, and that enclosure carries its weather (IP) rating, so a rated battery needs no extra box. Any cover, screen or awning added for shade or rain should be one the maker approves: makers set installation conditions above the standard’s minimum. Shade cloth isn’t waterproof, so it doesn’t count as rain cover. Lockable boxes sold for small 12-volt or camping batteries are a different product.

Unused cable entries are sealed with the maker’s bungs or kits, to keep vermin out and keep the IP rating, and the NSW note advises running battery cables in at least medium duty conduit.

Sources: Solar Victoria, sheet 2.1; Building Commission NSW, Environmental requirements for battery systems. Checked November 2026.

Battery installation rules in Victoria: what your installer must certify

In Victoria a home battery is electrical installation work under the Electricity Safety Act 1998, done by a Registered Electrical Contractor and Licensed Electrical Workers to AS/NZS 5139:2019, AS/NZS 4777.1:2024 and AS/NZS 3000:2018. It is also prescribed work: an independent licensed electrical inspector must inspect it, and it cannot be turned on until then.

Home battery installation compliance in Australia

The accreditation and approved-battery rules are the same in every state, because they are conditions of the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program, which also needs the battery installed to AS/NZS 5139:2019 and state electrical safety laws, and allows one battery claim per property.

How the battery rebate works

After the install

The Clean Energy Regulator inspects a sample of rebated installs; its inspections are voluntary and can only go ahead with your written consent. It also advises a safety check every year by a licensed electrician accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia. We service and repair solar systems across Melbourne.

Solar servicing and repairs

Our accreditation and warranty

What a good battery installation looks like

Passing inspection is the floor. A good installation is also easy to understand, service and shut down in an emergency. Solar Victoria’s guidance says: “Correct battery labelling supports servicing by technicians and emergency services if responding to potential incidents.”

Signs and labels

Under AS/NZS 5139:2019, putting up the labels is the installer’s job. Solar Victoria’s labelling sheet lists what a lithium battery installation should show:

• At the meter box and switchboard: a green reflective circle marked “ES”, with the UN number of the battery chemistry underneath (such as UN3480), at least 100 mm across, “to provide vital information to any approaching emergency worker”; and a map at the main switchboard showing where the battery is, if it is hard to find.
• A shutdown procedure: a site-specific shutdown procedure, next to the inverter the battery connects to and visible from the switches it tells you to operate.
• Its safety data sheet: a physical copy of the battery’s safety data sheet, kept in the main meter box or switchboard, near the shutdown procedure, in a sealed, durable clear pouch.
• Labelled parts: the battery isolator marked “BATTERY SYSTEM D.C. ISOLATOR”, and the battery cables marked “BATTERY” at least every 2 m where you can see them.

Signs should last as long as the battery, stay readable in the sun, and not be hidden inside cupboards or behind doors, because firefighters and the next electrician rely on them.

Cables, communications and access

Battery cables run in at least medium duty conduit where they need protection, and communication cables don’t have the battery cables’ insulation, so they run in their own conduit or are kept apart: the cable to the meter that tells the battery what your home uses, and its internet connection. A good installer also leaves room to replace a module or the whole unit later without moving everything else.

Sources: Solar Victoria, Technical guidance sheet 2.4: Labelling requirements; Technical guidance sheet 2.3: Protection of wiring and wiring systems; Notice to Market 2025–26. These date from before Amendment 1. Checked November 2026.

Before the installer leaves

This is the battery part of the handover; the solar items are in our solar handover pack. Before the installer goes, check you have:

• A Certificate of Electrical Safety from the independent inspection.
• The battery online in the maker’s app, in your name. Solar Victoria’s rules for its battery loans had installers connect it to the internet at commissioning, or through a phone hotspot to register it, for software updates to resolve safety and performance issues.
• The mode and backup reserve set as you agreed, and shown to you in the app.
• A backup changeover test, where backup is fitted: the grid switched off, the backed-up circuits still running (how backup works).
• The warranty registered, with the terms of the warranties and who to contact if the system or a product fails, and the serial numbers of the battery and inverter on your paperwork for any recall check.
• The signs and the safety data sheet in place, as above.

Common problems after a battery install

• The internet drops out. All eight battery warranties we compared want the battery registered, monitored or online, and a virtual power plant needs it online too. If the app shows it offline, fix the Wi-Fi or ask about a wired connection.
• The figures look backwards. If the app shows the battery charging from the grid when the sun is out, or your home exporting at night, the meter that measures your grid power may be on the wrong cable or facing the wrong way. Ask the installer to check it.
• It doesn’t fill in winter. PVGIS models a north-facing 6.6 kW system in Melbourne at about 14.4 kWh a day in June, against 34.9 in January, so a battery that fills every summer day may not in June. That is sizing, not a fault (the season-by-season example).

Solar battery installation cost

The installation is part of the battery’s installed price: one quote covers the battery, the work and any extras, with every federal rebate your home qualifies for taken off. Extras that can add to the job are a bollard, a switchboard upgrade, a backup circuit, a longer cable run and, on existing solar, a second inverter for an AC coupled battery.

Market data, not our price: in the Solar Choice Battery Price Index, August 2026 (national averages after the rebate), adding an inverter to connect the battery to existing solar added about $500 to $1,500 to the average installed price, depending on the battery size.

Battery prices by size

Switchboard work a battery may need

A battery changes where some circuits get their power. Energy Safe Victoria’s guidance for electricians on battery energy storage systems (BESS) starts from this: “By installing a BESS, you are altering the source of supply to existing circuit(s).” So any circuit the battery supplies in a blackout must have suitable RCD (safety switch) protection, of the type the inverter maker specifies; with partial backup, only the circuits on the inverter’s backup output count as altered. An older switchboard without room for the new breakers or without safety switches may need an upgrade, which your quote lists as an extra.

Backup circuits in a blackout

Areas we install

Need a solar battery installer near you? From our Mount Waverley base we install home batteries across metropolitan Melbourne: the eastern, south-eastern, northern and western suburbs and the Mornington Peninsula.

Get a battery quote for your home

Battery installation: your questions