Sungrow Inverters and Batteries Explained

Who is Sungrow?

Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd was set up in 1997 and has been listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2011, according to its brand story. It is based in Hefei, China, and also makes inverters and batteries for businesses and solar farms.

In Australia it trades through Sungrow Australia Group Pty Ltd, with an office in North Sydney and a warehouse in Smithfield, NSW (contact details). That local company is the one that honours the warranty.

Sungrow is one of the names Australian installers reach for most. In the Solar Nerds 2025 Solar Industry Survey, it was the inverter installers would most recommend (25.3%), and the second most recommended battery (20.4%). For how it compares with other names, see our roundups of the best inverter brands and the best battery brands.

That position has shifted quickly, though. In Solaris Finance’s own data, Sungrow was the inverter on about 2 in 5 of the systems we financed in 2024, and on about 1 in 10 in the first half of 2026. Today it is priced above the market: on systems financed since the federal battery rebate began, a Sungrow system cost about 12% more than an average system of the same size (Solaris Finance data, systems financed from December 2022 to August 2026. These are only the systems financed through Solaris, not the whole market.)

What does Sungrow make for homes?

An inverter turns the direct current (DC) from your panels into the alternating current (AC) your house uses. A hybrid inverter does that and also charges and discharges a battery.

Inverter sizes are in kW (how much power at once) and battery sizes are in kWh (how much energy is stored). And a home has either single-phase or three-phase power; the inverter has to match (single-phase vs three-phase inverters). In Sungrow’s names, SH is a hybrid and SG is a solar-only inverter, the number is the size in kW, RS models are single-phase and T or RT models are three-phase.

Hybrid inverters (SH)

Every model on the datasheets switches to backup in under 10 milliseconds when the grid drops out. Whether that runs your whole house or a few circuits depends on the model and on how your installer wires it, so ask them to show you which circuits are backed up (how blackout backup works).

Solar-only inverters (SG)

For homes that want solar without a battery, Sungrow’s Australian site lists the single-phase SG5.0RS-ADA, SG8.0RS and SG10RS, and the three-phase SG5.0RT to SG10RT and SG15RT and SG20RT. They have no battery connection. Adding a battery later means swapping to a hybrid or adding a battery with its own inverter (AC-coupled vs DC-coupled batteries).

Batteries (SBR and SBH)

The easiest way to make sense of Sungrow’s battery range is to stop looking at it as one big list. For Australian homes there are two families: SBR, the main modular home battery range, and SBH, the larger step-up range.

The numbers after the three-letter prefix are the size of the battery with one decimal place. An SBR064 is a 6.4 kWh battery. When an SBR is quoted to you, you will see a code such as SBR160. All this means is that it is five 3.2 kWh modules stacked together, 16.0 kWh in total.

SBR is the family most homeowners should understand. One module is 3.2 kWh, you need at least two, and you can stack up to eight. It suits people who want a battery sized to the home rather than one fixed all-or-nothing package.

SBH is essentially the same idea, but bigger. The module is 5 kWh, and in Australia Sungrow lists stacks of three to eight (SBH150 to SBH400). Up to four SBH stacks can run side by side (160 kWh in total). This is where Sungrow overlaps with larger properties, bigger backup expectations and some small business use. That can make SBH attractive, but it is often much more than the average home needs.

Both are stackable: the modules sit on top of each other and plug together without cables between them. That is what most people picture when they hear “modular” (modular and stackable batteries).

Sungrow names you may see that aren’t on the Australian list

Some Sungrow batteries you’ll find online aren’t sold here. The slim 5.12 kWh SBS050 is listed for Europe, the Middle East and South-East Asia, and the low-voltage MGL060 for South-East Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Brazil, but neither is on Sungrow’s Australian product list or its Australian battery warranty. Older Australian models like the SBP4K8 low-voltage battery also still appear online. Its 2019 warranty was less generous than today’s: five years on the product, and 70% capacity at ten years capped at 4,000 cycles.

What makes Sungrow different?

Sungrow sells the whole set: inverter, battery, an energy meter and its own monitoring app, iSolarCloud. One Australian office handles the warranty on all of it, so when something goes wrong there is no argument between a battery maker and an inverter maker about whose fault it is.

The batteries are high voltage. Each module adds to the voltage of the stack (an eight-module SBR runs at a nominal 512 V), and the hybrid inverter can charge it from the panels’ DC power without converting it to AC first.

The honest trade-off is that the set is meant to stay together. Sungrow lists its own hybrid inverters as the ones the SBH works with, its battery warranty excludes damage from “use of an incompatible PCS” (an inverter Sungrow hasn’t approved), and the battery has to stay connected to iSolarCloud for full warranty cover. Choosing Sungrow is really choosing its inverter and battery together. If you would rather keep the option of mixing brands, ask your installer what else your inverter supports before you sign.

What warranty does Sungrow give in Australia, and who honours it?

Inverters. Sungrow’s 10-year inverter warranty covers the current home models, including the SH RS and SH T hybrids and the SG RS and SG RT inverters, for 10 years from installation (but no more than 11 years from manufacture). Add-ons such as the Wi-Fi dongle and the energy meter get one year. The inverter warranty is transferable if you keep the original proof of purchase, and Sungrow sells warranty extensions. Its extension page says to buy one within a year of installation, while the warranty document allows longer, so ask your installer about it soon after the system goes in. Older Sungrow inverters are on a separate five-year warranty, so check the model on an older home.

Batteries. The current HV battery warranty (version 9.0, for batteries installed from 21 May 2026; earlier installs are on earlier versions) covers SBR and SBH for 10 years against defects. It also promises the battery will still hold at least 70% of its starting capacity after 10 years. Daily self-consumption and backup use are treated as unlimited-cycle uses. Any other use is capped by how much energy the battery has delivered. For an SBR128 (12.8 kWh) that cap is 35.84 MWh, roughly 2,800 full charges and discharges.

Read the conditions as well as the headline:

• The performance promise only applies if the battery’s operating temperature stays within a yearly profile: fewer than 90 days between 35°C and 40°C, fewer than 30 days above 40°C, and an average below 25°C the rest of the year. This was added in version 9.0, and it applies to the capacity promise, not the 10-year defect warranty.
• The battery must be monitored in iSolarCloud. If Sungrow can’t get complete data, it will honour the warranty for at least four years.
• Modules added to a stack later don’t get a fresh warranty. The performance warranty runs from the date the stack was first installed.
• The battery warranty goes to the original end user and is “not otherwise transferable”.

Who honours it. Sungrow Australia Group Pty Ltd, in North Sydney (1800 786 476). The warranty says to contact your installer first for troubleshooting; the installer or the homeowner then lodges a claim through Sungrow’s Australian service site. Sungrow pays the installer a standard service rebate to cover the labour of a warranty replacement. Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law sit on top of all this (how solar warranties work).

Who is Sungrow a good fit for?

Sungrow tends to suit:

• Homes that want solar and a battery from one brand, with one warranty desk for both.
• Single-phase homes, where the SH RS hybrids run from 5 to 10 kW and SBR batteries from 6.4 to 25.6 kWh.
• Larger or three-phase homes with big loads, where the SH T hybrids and SBH batteries go up to 25 kW and 40 kWh per stack.
• Homes that want blackout backup, provided the model and wiring are chosen for it.

It may be worth looking elsewhere if:

• you want to mix battery and inverter brands, or keep that option open;
• the battery will sit somewhere that stays very hot for long stretches of the year, since the performance warranty has a temperature profile (ask your installer where it will go and how hot it gets);
• you have a heavily shaded or complicated roof and prefer panel-level electronics like microinverters.

Whichever brand you pick, Sungrow’s warranty sends you to your installer first when something goes wrong, so the installer deserves as much scrutiny as the hardware (choosing the right installer). For prices, see what solar and batteries cost.