Solar inverter repair in Melbourne: faults, warranty and replacement

Solar inverter not working? Safe first checks

Most inverter problems show up as a light, a code or a flat line in the app. These checks are look-only: they tell you whether to wait or to call an electrician, and none of them needs a cover opened.

1. Check the app. Compare today’s output in iSolarCloud, Solar.web and AlphaESS app with a similar day, and look for error codes. If the app has stopped updating but the inverter looks normal, it has often dropped off your Wi-Fi. On a system with Victoria’s emergency backstop, exports are automatically reduced until it reconnects.
2. Read the inverter’s display or light. Write down the code, the date and the time. On a Sungrow SH-RS, touch the light to page through the codes.
3. Rule out the grid and the weather. In a blackout, an inverter disconnects from the grid by design; a Sungrow restarts about 60 seconds after the grid returns. At night, in heavy cloud or under shade, a low-power message is normal.
4. Look at the switchboard. Find the breaker labelled for the solar or inverter. If it has tripped, don’t keep resetting it: a breaker that trips again points to a fault. Leave it off and call an electrician.
5. Look at the inverter and its DC isolators. Without touching them, look for scorch marks, melted plastic or cracked cases. Energy Safe Victoria warns that ageing isolator cases can let moisture in, a fire risk.

Smell burning or hear unusual noises? Energy Safe Victoria lists a burning smell and unusual noises as warning signs. Don’t touch the inverter. If it is safe to reach the switchboard, follow the shutdown procedure posted there, then keep clear and call a licensed electrician; if you see smoke or flames, call 000. Sungrow’s own label says not to touch live parts for 10 minutes after disconnecting, and that only qualified people may open an inverter.

DC isolator faults and recalls

Restarting an inverter: the makers’ own steps

A restart can clear a code that hasn’t cleared by itself. Use only the switches named on your shutdown procedure label, only in the maker’s order, and only when nothing looks or smells wrong. If the code comes back, leave the system off and call us.

Sources: Fronius Australia’s GEN24 and Primo and Symo help pages, and Sungrow’s SH-RS user manual, section 10.1, checked November 2026.

Monitoring app offline?

What do common Sungrow and Fronius error codes mean?

Codes fall into three groups: grid events the inverter is required to ride out, low-sun messages that clear by themselves, and faults on the DC (panel) wiring that need an electrician. The tables give each maker’s own meaning for the codes owners see most, and what you can safely do.

Sungrow hybrid inverter codes (SH-RS)

Grid codes are the inverter doing its job. Under the Australian standard AS/NZS 4777 it must disconnect when the grid’s voltage or frequency leaves set limits, and Sungrow notes that voltage often wanders out of range around midday or at the end of a long supply line. If a grid code shows most sunny days, Sungrow recommends asking your network operator to check the voltage at the local transformer.

Overvoltage that keeps coming back: voltage rise and who fixes it

Victoria’s Electricity Distribution Code of Practice sets 230 V as the standard voltage for homes, measured at the meter, and measures the networks against a band of 216 V to 253 V. Above that, your inverter steps in. Jemena, the network for Melbourne’s northern and north-western suburbs, expects inverters on the Australia A settings of AS/NZS 4777.2:2020: output is cut from full power at 253 V to 20% at 260 V, and the inverter disconnects if the 10-minute average passes 258 V or the voltage reaches 265 V. A GEN24 shows code 1112 while it is cutting output; a Sungrow that trips shows a grid overvoltage code (2, 3, 14 or 15).

• The street. Sungrow notes grid voltage often wanders out of range around midday or at the end of a long supply line. That is the distributor’s to fix.
• Your own cabling. Exported power raises the voltage along the cables from the inverter to the street. In Energy Safe Victoria’s sample exam for the licensed electrical inspectors who check solar installations, that rise, across the solar mains, any sub-mains and the consumer mains, must stay under 2%: 4.6 V on a 230 V supply. A long or undersized run is fixed with heavier cable, by an electrician.

Have an electrician measure the voltage at the meter and the rise in your cabling first. If the grid itself runs high, ask your distributor: under the code it must give you information on your quality of supply free, within 10 business days, may charge for a specific test, and refunds that fee and acts if the test shows it is out of line. Still unresolved? The Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria takes supply-quality complaints for free, once you have tried to sort it out with the company. Never ask for the trip settings to be widened: Sungrow’s manual allows its protection settings to be changed only with the local network operator’s consent.

Fronius state codes (Primo, Symo and GEN24)

A code not listed here? Note it with the inverter’s model and send both when you book: the full tables run to hundreds of codes, and the same number can mean different things on different models.

Sungrow inverters

Fronius inverters

Should you repair or replace a solar inverter?

Three things decide it: whether the fault is in the inverter at all, whether it is still under the maker’s warranty, and how old it is. Opening an inverter isn’t routine repair work: Sungrow’s label says only qualified people may open and maintain one, and its warranty excludes unauthorised repairs. So while it is under warranty, a fault inside the inverter goes to the maker, which (in Sungrow’s terms) repairs it on site or at a Sungrow office, or supplies a new or refurbished replacement. The repairs an electrician makes are to the isolators, wiring and settings around it.

Inverter warranties by maker

When an ageing inverter is worth replacing

Solar Victoria expects a good-quality inverter to last at least 10 years if it was installed properly, and suggests a warranty of at least 5 years. It lists what shortens an inverter’s life: heat and poor ventilation, high grid voltage and poor power quality, large electrical spikes, dust, pests such as mice and ants and lightning. An inverter past 10 years, out of warranty and showing a repeat fault is the point to weigh a repair against a replacement, especially if a battery is on your list.

Solar warranties explained

Upgrading the whole system

How much does a solar inverter replacement cost?

What changes the price of a replacement inverter:

• Size, to suit your panels. Without a battery, the inverter’s output must be at least 75% of the panels’ peak power under the SAA Technical Requirements (version 1.9, February 2026), and the panels must stay within the inverter maker’s limit.
• Phase and your network’s limit. Victoria’s networks pre-approve up to 10 kW of inverter on a single phase home and 30 kW on three phase, counting battery inverters too. Single or three phase?
• Hybrid or string. A hybrid runs a battery now or later; a string inverter is solar only.
• Emergency backstop. Since 1 October 2024, a replacement on a Victorian system up to 200 kVA needs a compatible (CSIP-AUS certified) inverter on the CEC approved list and a reliable internet connection. Without internet, a lower export limit applies. The exception is a like-for-like replacement on a system approved before 1 October 2024.
• Isolators and switchboard work. Old DC isolators or wiring may need replacing at the same time, and wiring repairs come with a Certificate of Electrical Safety, as Energy Safe Victoria advises.
• No STC discount on a swap. When a new inverter goes in, the Clean Energy Regulator leaves the existing panels out of any new STC claim, so replacing only the inverter brings no STCs. A full replacement system with new panels and inverter, or an extension with new panels, can qualify.
• A battery you already have. It has to suit the new inverter, so it can narrow the choice of brand.

Backstop sources: Solar Victoria’s installer guidance and industry Q&A, and the Victorian Government’s factsheet, checked November 2026.

Replacing an old inverter with a battery-ready hybrid

A failed or ageing string inverter is the natural point to fit a hybrid: one box that runs the panels now and a battery when you add one, without a second inverter. Each hybrid pairs with particular batteries, so choose the inverter with the battery in mind:

• Sungrow SH-RS: Sungrow high-voltage batteries (80 to 460 V input).
• Fronius GEN24: Fronius Reserva, BYD Battery-Box Premium HVS/HVM and LG RESU FLEX, per Fronius.
• Alpha ESS SMILE-G3: Alpha ESS SMILE-G3 9.3 kWh modules, 1 to 4 in series (up to 37.2 kWh).

A new hybrid connected to your panels must be emergency backstop enabled and, as Jemena puts it, stay connected to the internet. When the battery goes in, the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program also covers a battery added to existing solar. Among its conditions, it must be a new battery on the Clean Energy Council approved battery list, able to join a virtual power plant (VPP) if it is connected to the grid, and installed by a Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA) accredited installer with battery endorsement.

Inverter still working well? You don’t have to replace it to get a battery: an AC-coupled battery comes with its own inverter and sits beside the old one. Hybrids get recalled too, GoodWe’s EHB and GE-branded GEH models among them, so check any hybrid you already have against the recall list.

Battery and hybrid inverter recalls

AC vs DC coupled batteries

How the battery rebate works

Warranty claims when your installer has closed

The maker’s warranty doesn’t end with the installer’s business. Solar Victoria notes that under the Australian Consumer Law importers are responsible for manufacturers’ warranties, so the claim goes to the maker’s Australian office.

1. Find the paperwork. Sungrow asks for proof of purchase: your invoice, receipt or commissioning report. Its warranty passes to a new owner, but the original proof is still needed.
2. Record the fault. Photograph the inverter’s label (model and serial number) and note each code with its date.
3. Use the maker’s claim route. For Sungrow, the owner or the installer can lodge Sungrow’s online warranty claim at service.sungrowpower.com.au, and Sungrow recommends finding a local electrician when the installer can’t attend. For Fronius, check the warranty certificate in Fronius Solar.web, under Product registration. For other makers, use the makers’ Australian contacts.
4. Don’t replace it first. Sungrow can reject a claim when the inverter is replaced without its prior consent, and its warranty doesn’t cover travel or on-site installation costs, so ask what the electrician charges for the visit.

The warranty sits on top of your rights under the Australian Consumer Law: Sungrow’s own terms say its goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded. Its warranty also excludes damage from insufficient ventilation, surges from the panels or the grid and lightning.

Panel, inverter and battery warranties

Inverters we service

We service and repair Sungrow, Fronius and Alpha ESS inverters across Melbourne, and replace them with the model that suits your panels, your network and any battery plans.

• Sungrow: SH-RS hybrid inverters; SH-T three phase hybrid inverters. Monitoring: iSolarCloud.
• Fronius: Primo GEN24 and Symo GEN24 hybrid inverters; Primo string inverters. Monitoring: Solar.web.
• Alpha ESS: SMILE-G3-S5 hybrid inverters. Monitoring: the AlphaESS app.

Another brand, or a system we didn’t install? Send a photo of the inverter’s label and the code when you book, and we’ll confirm whether we can repair it or quote the replacement.

Sungrow inverters

Fronius inverters

Solar inverters we install

Inverter repairs: your questions