Generac PWRcell: Expert Review

Introduction to the Generac PWRcell System

Hi all it's Andy here from SolarReviews again and today I wanted to make a a review I recently made a video of the top seven solar home energy storage or solar battery energy storage solutions for 2023 so I've made these videos towards the end of 22 after the RE + conference with the advantage of being able to sit down with a lot of these battery manufacturers and talk about their product one of the people I did want to sit down with was a representative from Generac and so we had a chat about where their product is up to it's funny how things happen they unfortunately Generac has had a big profit downgrade and their share price has fallen a lot and there's been media talk about some negative things that have happened around the company some of them are concerning but what I might do is I might talk to them but nonetheless I actually think they're Generac PWRcell product and them as a company and what they're trying to do is actually really good yes there have been a couple of problems here and there and I don't want to trivialize those problems but it's a big company and what they're trying to do in battery storage I think is really noteworthy.

The Generac PWRcell product is your classic modern home energy storage system in that it is a battery a battery inverter the battery management system all in one it's scalable between 9 and 18 kilowatts the market leading solution I guess is probably the Powerwall at 13.5 kilowatts that's not always the size that people need sometimes people need smaller and sometimes people need more and so that is a good feature for it.

AC and DC Coupling Advantages

One of the things I really like and and this is an innovation over many of the market leading products certainly in Innovation over what Tesla's doing right now it can be both AC and DC coupled so what that means is if you've got an existing solar system grid connect system which you know three or so million homes have then you can plug this in and it will AC connect to that system and you don't have to have to disrupt that system because it's already got a grid connect inverter there it can plug into that but if you need more panels because you've realized you didn't put enough panels on initially and I often say to people in solar if I could put all the people that I'd ever sold a solar system to that wanted more panels you know in a room it would fill up a football stadium and if I could put all the people I'd ever sold a solar system to that wish they went less panels you know I couldn't fill up a bathroom stall nobody ever wishes they went smaller with solar so there are a lot of people that wish they went bigger but for cost or other reasons didn't and so the beauty of this sort of solution where it's AC and DC coupled you can AC coupled with a current system without disrupting it but then having another group of panels if there's room on the roof DC coupled to it and so I think that's a really cool solution.

Battery Chemistry

There's probably a lot of videos on YouTube and stuff about battery chemistry about what's better Lithium Phosphate or Lithium batteries and most notably in home power energy storage is Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt batteries which are used by Tesla and also used by Generac those batteries are known for having very high power density but there's a lot of people that feel like Lithium Phosphate batteries like what Sonnen use are safer longer lasting and can actually be produced slightly cheaper so I don't see that as a massive downside although I think the industry will move towards Lithium Phosphate batteries because of that perception of them being slightly safer you know so I don't see that as really a big massive negative you know or really a positive like it is what it is really.

Generac's Corporate Background and Support

Another positive I think for the Generac PWRcell and this is really important when looking at any battery solution at this point there's there's going to be a lot of development in home energy storage solutions you know they've been put together over the last three or four years these solutions and so I don't believe there won't be issues with some of these solutions with the electronics that goes around for those of you who don't know you know there is a lawsuit going on where Generac a few years ago bought a company called Pika Energy which is an inverter manufacturer company and from that company they got some inverter electronics and some of those inverter electronics have been incorporated into the Generac PWRcell and effectively that's where the battery inverter came from and Pika you know we're a company that you know it was probably five years ago I'd guess they acquired them and they'd probably been around for about five years generally speaking they you know they were quite well respected engineering team there have been some fires that were caused by one of the rooftop products that PiKa produced and so that has caused a lot of negative publicity you know around Generac I don't feel like it'll be a substantial thing but I guess the fact that there's that lawsuit and there's another one I think it's just sort of hanging over the company a little bit at the moment you know.

Commitment to Field Support

And a real positive of this company if you exclude those little road bumps they've got a massive map see I think like 75 percent market share in propane and you know an LPG based you know gas and also diesel home backup generators so massive market share and they've literally got tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of customers of those things out there that they support so I think their commitment to field support is really strong and I think what's going to be important with these battery solutions over the next five years is that whoever you go with are they really committed to in-field support these batteries are heavy and they're installed if there's any sort of problem you're really probably going to need somebody to come out and so I actually feel like Generac just in the DNA of their company probably understand that really well and perhaps better than some other companies you know there are some other really good solutions coming out there's a panel manufacturer called Canadian Solar bringing a solution out which sounds really good like a lot of positives for it but are they going to understand the need to support customers all around America and that's you know it's a big place it's a difficult thing to do to support right down to the last mile if you like so I think Generac's background and their corporate strength as a company as I say it's a bit ironic that I'm making this you know over the last couple of days when the share price has been blown up and all this negative press has come out but I think this is still you know a really good solution I think they'll support their customers even if there is the odd technical blip in the product it is very similar these products are being made such that a lot of the upgrades can be done with software or firmware over the Internet so a lot of the Innovation that will happen will be simply software upgrades rather than needing for physical support on site so I think you know they'll be good.

Advanced Features and System Integration

And I think particularly if you're talking like a big off-grid system is the generator integration so most of the solutions on the market don't allow you to plug in a backup generator and the grid and Generac give given the nature of the fact that they're in you know propane backup generators before they even got into battery storage as a means for providing power during outages they realized straight away that the most economic way of putting together off-grid systems was to have yeah some solar and yeah some battery storage so normal days there'd be enough solar to you know run the house in the day get enough access to charge the battery such that that battery could cover the home overnight with a little bit of redundancy but rather than try and allow for days or weeks of redundancy when there might not be any sunshine or anything I think they very quickly worked out that it was much more economic to then have a backup generator even if that generator might not turn on for weeks or months at a time it's a very economic way to put an off-grid solar system together and so if you're looking at particularly a bigger solution and an or an off-grid solution then that backup generator capability I think is awesome if you're in a residential area where the power very seldomly goes out for more than an hour or two it's probably not so important.

Scalability and High Power Output

But you know all up I think the AC and DC coupling options the scalability 9 or 18 you're not stuck at one level and one thing I haven't mentioned which is also somewhat impressive is I think from memory that their peak power output in you know grid connect mode is is actually really quite high and I could be wrong here but consult the spec sheet if I am I think their maximum output that you can draw out of the battery at any one time is like 12 kilowatts if you've obviously got the 18 kilowatt battery model which is really quite high and I think it's probably about nine or nine point something in off-grid mode which is still higher than the Tesla for instance and and all the other ones that sort of group if you like the the Enphase solution the Sunrun solution all those ones again it's really good if you're looking at using it in a bigger system or an off-grid sort of environment I definitely think it's a company that we need to watch.

Final Thoughts and Resources

As I said I made a video you know of what I believe is probably the seven most viable home energy storage solutions on the market I stuck with companies that are you know large profitable well-known companies or well-funded and well-backed companies because I think that's my best guess of which companies will be around for the long term and which are prepared to continue to keep investing in this for you know many years to come and so that's probably all I have to say about the Generac PWRcell uh you know very good solution if you've enjoyed this video and you know you'd like to see more content from us please hit like and subscribe it does help us sort of get motivated to make more content and do more research and work more things out if you want to know how much battery storage solution you need and whether you know it's more likely to be the Generac PWRcell or maybe a Tesla Powerwall or one of the other Solutions is best for you if if you jump on our calculator which is in the description below SolarReviews.com/solar-calculator you can basically put in where you live and what your monthly bill is and whether or not you want to size up battery storage option and it'll basically tell you how much battery storage capacity you need based on what you tell it you want to do it's very easy to use and then if you want to go and get quotes for a Generac or another battery system at the end we have six or eight hundred solar companies around America that you know will more than happily provide those quotes for you that's all for now I hope this helps and you know it's Friday night for me so have a great weekend everybody it's probably not when you're watching this but I'm going to go and have a beer and the boys have been saying that all day if we earned a beer yet um so that's all for now goodbye if you enjoyed that be sure to subscribe and watch some of our other videos.

Generac PWRcell Technical Specifications

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is the Generac PWRcell system?

A1: The Generac PWRcell product is described as a classic modern home energy storage system that integrates a battery, a battery inverter, and a battery management system all in one. It is scalable in capacity.

Q2: What are the key features and advantages of the Generac PWRcell system?

A2: Key features include scalability between 9 and 18 kilowatts (capacity), the ability to be both AC and DC coupled (allowing integration with existing solar systems and adding new panels), and a high peak power output (approximately 12 kilowatts in grid-connect mode and 9 kilowatts in off-grid mode). A significant advantage, particularly for off-grid applications, is its seamless integration with backup generators.

Q3: How does Generac's corporate background influence its product support?

A3: Generac has a strong corporate background with a massive market share (around 75%) in propane, LPG, and diesel home backup generators, serving tens or hundreds of thousands of customers. This history has instilled a strong commitment to field support within the company's DNA, which is crucial for heavy battery solutions requiring in-person service. They are also moving towards software/firmware upgrades over the internet for product innovation.