CASE STUDY · SOLAR AND BATTERIES · ALICE RIVER
Solar, a 48kWh battery and a backup generator at Alice River
Alvin's existing solar system was not keeping up. We added panels to his shed, installed a 48kWh battery and a standby generator, and his power bill went from $690 a month to $14.02.
Alvin on his solar and battery system at Alice River. 1 min 55 sec, filmed on site on 25 August 2026.
Read what is said in the video
Mountain Man Electrical I'm here with Alvin out at Alice River, and we're looking at a recent battery and solar installation that we've done for Alvin.
Alvin We had an existing system which wasn't meeting the needs by any stretch of the imagination. I've got a technical background, I'm a retired radio and television broadcast engineer. So I did a lot of research on the net and eventually settled for the system that we've got here. Because the batteries are compartmentalised, we have 48 kilowatt hours of battery, from a maintenance point of view it's cheaper. We were able to add on to the existing system. We kept the old panels on the roof, we added more, and our power bills went from 690 a month down to $14.02. That's a brilliant result for us. We couldn't be happier.
Mountain Man Electrical What was your experience with [our designer], from when he came out to do the design, through the construction, to the handover?
Alvin Oh, brilliant. It couldn't have been simpler. Once [our designer] knew that I had a technical background, we talked in technical terms and fully understood each other. I had a rough idea of what we needed, but he explained the restrictions from Ergon and what could and couldn't be exported. It was a breath of fresh air to deal with someone that wasn't full of bovine fertiliser.
Lightly edited for reading. Crew names are left out.
The job.
“Our power bills went from 690 a month down to $14.02. That's a brilliant result for us. We couldn't be happier.”
What Alvin came to us with
Alvin is a retired radio and television broadcast engineer. His existing solar system was not meeting his needs, and he had already researched the kind of system he wanted before we met.
What we recommended
Keep the existing panels and add more on the large shed roof, then store the power in a 48kWh Sigenergy battery. Alvin chose it partly because the battery is built in separate modules, which he found cheaper to maintain. We also explained what Ergon allows a system to export, which set the limits of the design, and added a standby generator so the home can run fully off the grid if he ever chooses to.
What we did
- 1Added panels on the shed roof to the existing system, for about 19.5kW of solar in total.
- 2Installed a 48kWh Sigenergy battery in the shed.
- 3Upgraded the cable from the shed back to the house from 4mm to 25mm, so the system works as designed.
- 4Installed an 8kVA diesel generator, cabled to the gateway beside the meter box. The system starts it once a month and runs it for 15 minutes.
- 5Fitted a trickle charger so the generator's starter battery does not go flat between runs.
The Alice River solar, battery and generator system. 1 min 47 sec.
Read what is said in the video
Ben G'day, I'm Ben, I'm out at Alice River with a customer looking at their recent battery and solar storage installation. There's a granny flat out the back here and this is a massive shed, so it made sense to add panels to the existing system here on the shed. We're able to maximise the amount of solar here, which is about 19 and a half kilowatts of panels. It feeds back into here and charges these batteries.
Alvin So this is the generator. It's an 8 kVA continuous load, and as you can see it's a stand-alone out there. It's cabled to the gateway box that's on the wall by the meter box. The system automatically starts it once a month and runs it for 15 minutes, and all we have to do is keep the diesel up to it.
Ben How big's the tank on that?
Alvin 72 litres, I believe.
Ben Which should get you through the year. And it's important to have one of these trickle chargers, because something that can happen to a generator setup like this is the battery goes flat.
Alvin Yeah, so that just trickle charges the battery. And here, that's the gateway. That's the brains of the system, it directs everything.
Ben And this sort of setup with a generator gives you the option to go fully off-grid if you choose to.
Alvin We could. We've drawn off the grid twice, about $1.50 worth, since the 21st of April, and today's the 25th of August, so we've gone right through the winter.
Ben And that's the complete system.
Lightly edited for reading. Crew names are left out.
A walk through the system
From the battery in the shed to the generator outside. Since 21 April the house has drawn from the grid twice, about $1.50 worth, right through the winter.
FROM THE JOB
Photos from the day.
AT A GLANCE
Job details.
- Property
- Acreage home with a granny flat and a large shed
- Panels
- About 19.5kW, existing and new
- Battery
- Sigenergy, 48kWh
- Generator
- 8kVA diesel, 72 litre tank
- Cable to the house
- 4mm upgraded to 25mm
- Power bill
- $690 a month down to $14.02
- Grid use, 21 April to 25 August
- Two draws, about $1.50 in total
QUESTIONS FROM THIS JOB
Adding a battery and a generator.
Answers from the Alice River job, filmed 25 August 2026.
Can I add a battery to my existing solar system?
Often, yes. On this job we kept the existing panels, added more on the shed roof for about 19.5kW in total, and stored the power in a 48kWh Sigenergy battery.
Why add a generator to a solar and battery system?
It covers the home if the battery runs low. This 8kVA diesel generator is cabled to the gateway beside the meter box, starts itself once a month for 15 minutes, and has a trickle charger so its starter battery does not go flat. It also gives the owner the option to go fully off the grid.
Why did the cable from the shed to the house need upgrading?
The battery and most of the panels are in the shed, so the house draws its power through that cable. It was 4mm, and we upgraded it to 25mm so the system works as it was designed to.
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