What does a hybrid inverter dop? The Fronius GEN24 hybrid inverter doesn’t require a battery to store power. It’s a great option for those who want to invest in solar now and purchase the battery later.
The Fronius GEN24
The GEN24 also has the versatility of being able to connect to any grid-tie inverter currently on the market, allowing an increase in efficiency and maximizing your investment.
Fronius Gen 24 is the most efficient AC power supply available, with a pulse frequency characteristic that delivers more power from the solar array and less from the grid.
With the addition of the BYD battery it’s able to store this energy during the day and deliver it at night when there’s no sunlight.
Who is BYD?
Build Your Dreams is what BYD stands for.
Shenzhen, China
In 2019, I was over in BYD’s hometown of Shenzhen (China – just North of Hong Kong).
Shenzhen is one of the world’s fastest-growing cities. Shenzhen is a city where dreams are made. You’d be forgiven for thinking BYD owns the bustling city itself.
Electric buses and taxies rule the roads. All are BYD vehicles. Billboards and buildings advertise the hope-filled acronym.
Warren Buffett buys 24.6% of the company
Then there’s Mr Warren Buffet, the most successful investor of the 20th century. In 2008, Buffett made a big bet on BYD by taking a 24.6% stake of the battery and electric vehicle company.
BYD is now the world’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles.
There are a few reasons our engineers were excited to test out this Fronius unit. BYD’s experience with batteries, Warren Buffett backing and positive customer experience with the battery warranty are attractive pluses. The Fronius unit itself is built like a tank and the company has an excellent reputation for a reliable manufacturing process.
If you’re an Australian home battery customer, BYD and Fronius have been partners since the beginning. Their relationship is rooted in every battery we sell.
Fronius GEN24
The Fronius Gen 24 is a solar system solution for homes. It combines solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage in one integrated system. With reduced electricity costs and storage (with backup power or emergency supply) you can configure the system to meet consumers’ demands and provide a reliable and flexible solution as demand changes.
- BYD electric buses used in ‘world’s largest vehicle-to-grid’ project, in London
- Download the GEN24 Brochure (PDF opens in new window)
Fronius & the BYD Solar Battery
If you’re looking for a reliable, efficient, and energy-saving home solar/battery combo, this is it. Fronius and BYD have joined forces to create this powerful home battery.
The perfect solar technology stack?
Companies have different strengths and weaknesses – so when there is a fault, who do we blame?
Mix and matching batteries and inverters has been a problem in the solar industry since day one. It was a problem carefully considered by Fronius.
Battery / Inverter Bundles – a hit and miss affair
There is a long and sordid history of companies that ‘bundle’ batteries with their inverters. This can be a good thing. Batteries are expensive, and this way you get two products for the price of one. However, the quality of such bundles can vary quite a bit – both in regards to what good a battery does for an inverter’s runtime and how well it holds up over time.
Fronius looked long and hard to collaborate with a reputable battery manufacturer, finally choosing BYD.
Mix-n-matching solar product is hard but I’m relatively confident that I won’t be in the middle of a lengthy email war when a prospective warranty concern is raised.
BYD Battery Warranty
BYD’s Iron-Phosphate battery cells are the same used in BYD electric cars. They are designed to keep the battery safe and healthy for years. This is a top-grade lithium-iron battery, not your typical car battery.
The warranty is guaranteed by genuine parts, not fake copies that fail prematurely.
10 Years
The BYD HV batteries have a 10-year warranty or a “through-put energy” warranty, whichever comes first. The through-put warranty doesn’t allow you to do a full cycle every single day for 10 years – instead, it’s about 82 per cent of that.
After 10 years it will have about 60 per cent of its original storage capacity. That’s a fairly normal battery warranty, and the Terms & Conditions don’t seem too unrealistic.
FRONIUS Gen24 in a Blackout
The BYD solution works in a blackout. Don’t take that for granted.
In a blackout, we need to automatically disconnect your home from the grid. (You don’t want your battery to be powering all the homes in your neighbourhood. Nor do you want to fry the poor bloke who’s trying to fix the fallen power lines.)
When the power goes out, you’ll be glad you have a Fronius Gen 24. It can use your battery to keep essential loads running (assuming your electrician wired it this way), and continue re-charging the battery while the sun is out. It can even run 3 phase loads (with the Symo inverter).
Use your old solar system
If you have an old solar system on your roof (with any brand of solar hybrid inverter), it can be used to help charge the BYD battery. With the use of a Fronius smart meter, the excess power from your old solar system can charge your new BYD battery via the Gen24 hybrid inverter.
The old inverter won’t stay on in blackout mode.
Fronius Gen 24 Build and Cooling
The Fronius Gen 24 is a hybrid inverter with one of the most sophisticated cooling systems in the world.
Its 15cm fan draws in air across the massive heat sink. This ensures maximum efficiency, longevity and reliability – all while staying quiet and drawing less energy than most other inverters on the market.
The Fronius Gen 24 hybrid inverter is designed to maximise your solar uptime. Fronius focuses on reliability and they also design their inverters to make repair and replacement fast and effective. The Fronius Gen 24 heat sink chassis and printed circuit board are one component. In case of an inverter fault, there is no mucking around. The installer will turn up with a new chassis and replaces the entire internal of your inverter minus your saved production data, so there’s no waiting around for spare parts or replacing one component just to find another component fails a few months later
The Fronius Gen24 Primo is a premium inverter that delivers reliable power in a compact, sleek design. The Gen 24 Primo is built for Australian voltage limitations and its 4 large electrolytic capacitors mean less chance of failure than competitor inverters. This high quality inverter gives you the reliability you need to run your home appliances safely, efficiently and for years to come.
The Fronius Gen 24 comes with 2 simple lights. If one light is solid green and the other is solid blue, then you’re all good – apparently. You should be able to walk past your inverter and get a quick idea if it is producing as well as it should be.
The Fronius Gen 24 is a good hybrid inverter and has been mentioned in this article as being a highly efficient product and it also provides excellent performance. There are no doubts as to the quality of this solar hybrid inverter.
The Fronius GEN 24 is a new generation of battery-saving inverters, designed to meet the increasing demands on energy management. It provides more energy efficiency through smart functions, including the new Fronius Dynamic Solar Boosting and our Active Bypassing Technology.
It’s not surprising that the new Fronius Gen 24 has collected with a swag full of international industry awards, including:
- i) The 2020 Intersolar award – the most prestigious award in the solar industry;
- ii) The HTW Berlin University of Sciences awarded Fronius first place for efficiency with the Fronius GEN 24 Plus 10.0 inverter and BYD Battery-Box H11.5,
- iii) The Plus X Awards recognised the Fronius Gen24 in four categories: High Quality, Ease of Use, Functionality and Ecology;
- iv) The 2019 Red Dot Design award.
Conclusion
With a BYD battery connected, the Gen 24 will do everything you would expect (but often not get) from a hybrid inverter. But it’s the build quality of the Gen 24 that I’m focussed on. Its input current is not flexible enough for all roof layouts, but it’s great for most.
A hybrid inverter for solar will usually cop a hiding because of the additional energy throughput. The Gen 24 build quality is displayed front and centre – and right down to the finer details.
And given the Fronius Gen 24 swag of awards (German Design Awards 2021, Energy Storage Inspection 2022 etc. etc.) – I’m not the only one who thinks so.
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