u/parawolf

Asking here for hopefully some proper sparky advice before I get lost in the mire of solar/battery installers - which initially did give me very average information when I got my solar installed.

My house has a quirk; it's on 2 phase supply. Two main black fuses, one single 3P meter. I have 13.3kw of panels attached to two Fronius Gen24 5kW Inverters - one on each phase.

Since I live on the edge of Melbourne suburbs, i'm thinking about adding a battery system for blackout protection. Looking at most likely the BYD HVM or the new Fronius Reserva Pro system.

I don't need a lot of battery, but because of the 2 phase system, you cannot just place a mass of battery behind a single big inverter and just use it.

The question:

Can I get a single phase battery protection, and just protect/backup those phased circuits in a blackout, or do I need to install battery protection across all phases? Some kind of balance/isolation/etc things.

eg: my pool pump, shed and certain AC in the house is on one phase, but the master bedroom, main living room and kitchen are on another phase - which is the primary one that i'd want to backup.

Drawing in 3 phase is an eventual project I would like to do - but it's 100metre unground job, so not cheap, and then replace existing inverters/etc. It's a maybe at a later stage.

While EV technology is constantly evolving, we've seen range and performance, and to some degree, internal quality fitout and ride quality all be 'democratised" into levels not seen with ICE vehicles. If you wanted cars that did sub 4 second 0-100 while still being comfortable and featureful, you used to have to pay $200k. Now it's available for ~$80k with many EV brands.

Also range is well accepted with EV's able to do big laps of Australia without too much hassle, and low cost.

Everyone seems to have the same warranty now though. 5 years on the car, 8 years/160k km on the battery. The outlier is Volvo who seem to be coming up with their EX60 of 10 years/240k km on the battery - as well as bidrectional charging support up to 3000kWh/365days - on their website, interesting if that makes it into Australian warranty statements though.

Do we think we'll start to see others follow suit with longer battery warranties? What is the next item to get an uplift that continues to take arguments away from people buying EV's?

Just an experience I went through and probably a timely point for discussion.

That time of year to start shopping around for insurance, and had a major player actually cold-snail mail me a quote this week. It was a good price, so I figured i'd call them up and press for more details. I'll work on some made up figures to give an idea.

The quote had $1mill for home insurance (total loss), and $180k for contents. But they had the majority of the information right about our house which i assume came from mining real estate data (we moved in ~4 years ago).

When i called, get the contents adjusted upwards, the home insurance amount changed for some reason to be $975k. I asked for $1.250m and they re-quoted me. Chatted it over dinner last night and then did some online research - INCLUDING THIS COMPANIES OWN WEBSITE.

Actual cost to rebuild our house in case of total loss to a mid-spec level, $1.750m. If you want architect involvement and higher spec, $2mill. There was no switch or option i could pick on their own calculator for getting a sum-insured value to be $975k. But it was downright easy to get to double that without thinking you are over-insured.

I'm not sure how that is legal to actively under-insure your customers like that. It's almost like the insurance was just there to cover the mortgage amount, and not the actual building.

Looking at my EV options, and particularly some of those cars coming to market; but going by the designs of the rear tail lifts and opening sizes, I'm not convinced there is much of a range beyond the large SUV vehicles.

On of the things I loved about my HSV Wagon (before it was stolen) and my BA Wagon before that was being able to just toss a bike into the rear (seats down) without having to take a wheel off. MTB, road bike, track bike, could easily just lay them down, didn't have to fuss with wheels coming off, or adjusting seat heights to get the thing to fit.

Also having a flat entry, no hatch back style lip also aids loading and unloading - not just of a bike, but anything else.

Kia EV9 is probably the best bet on this single metric, but curious if anyone else has options or idea. Also bicycle on the back or on the roof isn't an option I want to take, I'll continue taking the wheel off if I have to.

Seems that image generation for me (iOS app, free tier) is just stuck. Only one image attempted to be generated in the last 24hours, it goes through its little pleasantries about generating the image and I sits on “one last tweak…” forever. Unless I exit the app, wait and come back, it tries to generate the same image on loading of that chat.

Anyone else? Ideas to solve?

Ultra Spec only (no Plus), and P6 or P10 only, no P12

P12 are on 12+month waits in Europe so probably hamstrung by motor units and battery packs for our market.

Also no Cross Country spec has been released in any market yet from what I recall.

No 22" wheel options.

All options are no-cost extras

EX60 P6 Ultra RWD; $95,777 Drive Away

EX60 P10 Ultra AWD; $112,656 Drive Away.

FYI: Volvo support the EX60 being used as V2G/V2H when the technology is approved and the use of this functionality is included in the standard battery warranty (there are limits to energy use per year).

How much should regular user care about the battery voltage architecture? 400v vs 800/900/1000v.

I get the higher battery voltages can support faster charging, which is generally a good thing. But for the general person that be maxing out at using a 7kw home charger, does it matter terribly?

The original Polestar 4, and SUV sized and shaped car is now called the Polestar 4, and from the link, a currently unnamed shape car for the Polestar 4 (Estate? Shooting brake? Hatch?)

From press releases, while the P3 is getting upgrades to 800v, and as a result faster charging of 350kW, and faster onboard processors. The P4 is getting naming of variant Coupe/Estate, but it is staying at 400v, some marketing strategies and recalibrated chassis.

While I kind of like the Polestar and would like to see it succeed; I think the P4 Estate might be at a loss against the Volvo EX60. And personally, I am hesitant to put dollars into a brand that sold about the same cars Globally (Polestar, ~60k) vs BYD sold into Australia (~52k) during the full year of 2025.

I'm a little confused with the market positioning of the Geely Group for Volvo vs Polestar now, and even a little bit with Zeekr in the 7X and 7GT.

For those with carports/garages, has anyone installed and liked an overhead cable management arm? There are a couple out on the market of different types, but i'm thinking about the wall where the EVSE would go, would need to reach across one parking bay to reach another car, and would need to be taller than me by a few cm to ensure i'm comfortable enough with walking under it, vs just running the cable over the floor.

Currently working through some options as to whether i'm nuts for doing this or not.

House is a 2phase supply, i have two main fuses at 100A and a single 3phase smart meter. In 2022 when I moved in, I had the house redone with a new main circuit board, along with subboards that were all already in the house (one in the middle of the house dual phase for power and lights circuits and a link out to the shed some 40metres away; and another subboard to the pool which is dual phase for sauna, pool heater and pump).

All upgraded at the time with new enclosures, Hager RCBOs - made for nice upgrades to then deploy pool heat pump, and some RCAC's as well as 13.3kw panels across two 5kw fronius inverters. Great for upgrading a 1970s house.

But now running into thoughts about solar home batteries, and at least one EV (and V2G).

I haven't been able to get a straight answer for DC Coupled batteries to the Fronius Gen24s if I can have a unified stack connected to two inverters or have two discrete stacks and deal with some asymmetric supply. But i haven't chased this question too far and now considering an EV i'm contemplating going straight to 3phase power.

While it is a WANT and not a NEED to get 3phase power, and I could probably do with a 10A or 15A outlet, my thoughts are if I prepare with a 32A 3phase outlet/connection/EVSE I could (when it's allowed/possible) use the car for V2G or blackout protection. 3phase could expand my possibility in a few years if I want to upgrade pool heater to 3P, and also, I could increase the size of my solar array on the roof. It would also make battery connection simpler and not worry about multiple stacks and asymmetric use of the home battery.

With the right EVSE/car, I could trickle charge as necessary, but also on the right electrical plan, make use of free electricity hours and draw at ~22kW, an also dump solar into the battery of the car as well.

I have underground power from the boundary pole, so that would need to be trenched in, and i've got rough costs of about $18k to get the job done (not including solar upgrades or EVSE deployment).

Am I silly for doing this?